How Social Media Businesses
Can Make ££/€€/$$
Presented by Julie Meyer
9 March 2009

Business is Network-Oriented
More than Social Networking Fad
 In this Web 2.0 Phase, the winners are those firms who
can align the economics of the ecosystem in which they
operate for all the players in the ecosystem
 So the opportunities might be to Disrupt the
established order of the Industry or to Enable it

Case Study Nr 1
• Slicethepie, is a unique online financing platform for music that enables artists to work
together with their fans to take control of their artistic and financial destiny.
• Slicethepie enables users to:
• Discover music
• Invest in music and artists
• Profit from the success of new and established artists
• Launched June 2007 by David Courtier-Dutton
• Today, 80,000 users, 11,000 artists, 2 million reviews, 22 artists financed
• 11 employees
• Outsourced development to Graphico (£1m to date)
• £3.5m raised from private investors to date

Go To Market Strategy
Global Partnership Strategy
• Social networks (Bebo )
• Record labels/Artist managers
• Market insight
Revenue Model
10% commission on all money raised for artists
•
25% cut of album and single sales
•
SoundOut reports cost between $20 – $50 per track
•
No advertising.
•
We pay scouts 3p – 10p per review (the better they are, the more they get paid)
•
SoundOut revenues more than cover the cost of paying reviewers.
•

Case Study Nr 2
“Loans from people not banks”
• Zopa is a marketplace where people lend and borrow money to and from each other,
sidestepping the banks.
• Zopa was the world's first lending and borrowing marketplace and by demonstrating
that Social Lending works on a large scale, Zopa has changed the financial sector for
good.
• Lenders make lending offers – 'I'd like to lend this much to A-rated borrowers for this
long and at this rate.' Borrowers size up the rates offered to them, and snap up the ones
they like the look of. If they don't like the rates today, they can come back tomorrow to
see if things have changed.
• To reduce risk, Zopa lenders only lend small chunks to individual borrowers. A lender
lending £500 or more would have their money spread across at least 50 borrowers.

Zopa Wins in an Era of Bank Mistrust and Meltdown
Benefits – mirrors the way people live
Social lending marketplace

Sidesteps banks by connecting lenders and borrowers

More efficient than traditional lending so better rates for both parties

More transparent – borrowers can see where their money is going and lenders

where their money has come from
Managed process mitigates risk for lenders

24/7 – no waiting for the bank to open

Zopa won 'Most Threatening Non-bank Competitor' at the Retail Banker

International Global Awards
Concept and model has been emulated by Prosper (US), Smava (Germany) and

Boober (the Netherlands)

Case Study Nr 3
The BView Mission
Become the standard platform for
intermediating between
local businesses and local consumers
11

“intermediation between local businesses and local consumers”
• BView is a groundbreaking platform for intermediating between local businesses and
local consumers built around United Kingdom’s fastest growing local search application.
• BView aims to displace local directories and create a powerful platform for multiple
revenue streams.
• BView is the second business venture of founder Brad Liebmann who also founded
Xbridge, Europe’s largest online broker for commercial finance and insurance.

Ecosystem

Integrating into each step of the buying process
BView feature
Consumers Businesses
» Best in class local search
Search for Find
local potential
» Comprehensive, wiki-style database
businesses customers
& company profiles
» Hyper-local, advertising platform
» Comparative ratings & reviews
Evaluate Engage with
» Personalised, local offers “pushed” to
alternatives customers
individuals
» Micro-forum for each business
» Cash back loyalty scheme
Buy Sell
» Customer management interface
» Auction technology for ads and
promotions
14
Green = Currently in development; Blue = 2009 development

Monitise Plc Case Study Nr 4
Making Money Mobile
Monitise provides a mass market mobile banking and payment service built on the

trusted ATM switch infrastructure.
Creates a seamless link between mobile handsets and customer bank accounts and uses

banking-grade 2 factor authentication (2FA) technology, protecting against fraud.
Acquiring 10,000 new customers each week!

Monitise milestones include:

 2003 Vocalink JV – 37% UK banking market,
 2007 US Metavante JV – access to 8,600 financial services,
 Visa Europe Partnerships – access to 348m cards in Europe,
 MoniTrust – platform for near field communication, payment and ticketing,
 MoniHome – international remittances,
 circa 150,000 users in UK,
 MoniGive – money transfer to user's own favourite charity.

UK Ecosystem
handset
OEMs
retail
banks
mobile
operators
transport
national
services
cards & retail and
payments ticketing
…laying the rails for future services
19

Independent IP – Case Study Nr 5
A Linked-In Application for Music
The next generation in digital music distribution technology

Software platform, FUGA™, is the solution for the creation, management and delivery of

digital media catalogues
Collaborative environment where contracts and licensing terms can be negotiated

Digital content owners can manage the entire supply chain and never lose

control over digital assets
Ideal for large and small content owners and labels to manage everything from

promotion, to networking, to finances and sales tracking
FUGA connects and empowers the music industry, creating a network of trade partners

via a secure B2B platform

Lickerish – Case Study Nr 6
“Celebrity image archive syndication”
A high quality image and video agency that syndicates images for some of the

world’s best photographers as well as publishing companies.
Lickerish is able to change the way content is created and distributed, putting the

talent and photographers back in control.
Exclusive content is increasingly more difficult and costly to procure, driving the

adoption of syndicated services such as Lickerish.
Talent and photographers are already flocking to this model as for the

first time, it gives them control and a profit incentive from the joint
venture on the content creation.
Lickerish finances their photo shoots and gives the photographer and talent a

percentage of sales. Lickerish obtains the licensing rights and provides the talent
management with the control over image selection.

10Duke – Case Study Nr 7
Affinity Groups Moving Online
 White label social network solution which specialises in building vertical
social networks for existing offline communities
 Can create fully operational online social networks in a matter of weeks
 Full spectrum of functionality offered as suite of 'widgetised' components -
can use individually or in any combination
 Technological advantage is in seamless integration of components when
deployed together
 Arsenal Football Club is due to launch using 10Duke technology
 Maserati, Ben & Jerry's and Unpluggit have used pieces of 10Duke's
technology

What are the characteristics of
those making money online now?
• Schizophrenically empathetic – “You can’t build an ecosystem
without humility”
• Willingness to accept change
• Inspired Dullness
• Surf the tsunamis
• Strong attention to User Interface and Design

“In each of us, there is a
private hope and dream
which fulfilled can be
translated into benefit for
everyone” – JF Kennedy