YOMO (You Only Meet Once)In this day and age, striving for an optimal work/life balance is becoming increasingly difficult, due, in part, to more and more frequent business travel.YOMO adds a social element to your working week, by facilitating spontaneous meet ups with like-minded people.(Giving you a friend to go and see that exhibition with, or just chat over a coffee whilst waiting for a train.)We are not specifically a dating site, rather a social time filler for when your friends are unavailable and room service is too tame.Being increasingly comfortable with meeting strangers thanks to established dating sites, YOMO takes this idea one step further by linking registered users based on their physical proximity.Also incorporating social sharing functionality, users can feel secure in their experience through our digital profiling and review system.
Users begin by creating a profile and a bespoke list of interestsThey are then able to activate their ‘available’ status and can begin to find like-minded people in their vicinity to enjoy a spontaneous experience with, whether that be a paid event or a walk in the park. Following their meetup, users can rate their partner to provide a scoring system for subsequent users.
So, let's now crack on with some facts....According to Gartner, the estimated annual revenue of the application economy is 25 billion dollars. The time people spend using apps is growing, too. From December 2011 to December 2012, time spent by app users in the U.S. grew from 1,3 hours to 2,7 hours.This is double the time they spend eating per day and over 1/3 of the time they sleep! Now, in regards to our local market in the UK, figures from the Office for National Statistics show that almost half the British population – some 25 million people – are believed to use social networking sites.Also Metaflake (an online dating company), states that more than 9 million Britons log on to find love, friendship and sex online.
After conducting a thorough PESTLE analysis, the magnitude of the opportunity has become apparent. Some key highlights include the fact that similar sites such as Tindr and MeetUp have eliminated the fear and stigma surrounding online meetings, whilst the number of foreign-born residents in the UK has increased to 7.5 million, a huge demographic for #YOMO users. Our target market also has a high disposable income, giving them the freedom to make purchases through the app, and in terms of environmental impact, we could partner with and incorporate charity activities. Whilst we may encounter some issues regarding data protection, future improvements in smartphone technology should allow us to collect and store data securely.
With regards to our main competitors, MeetUp would be considered one of YOMO’s closest rivals. Like YOMO, MeetUp looks to connect people who have common interests in and around their local area.Despite this, at YOMO we feel we can provide a better service with regards to connecting people. Currently Meetup has the advantage of a recognisable brand across multiple countries and a large customer base. However, research has found these customers are unhappy with the service provided, with multiple review sites rating the service as just 2.5 out of 5.Current complaints include cost, app usability and interface, poor customer service and an overload of email marketing. YOMO intends to satisfy that need for great customer service as well as providing a mobile app which is simple and intuitive. After creating a competitor array chart, we have identified these factors as being critical to our success in the industry. To secure YOMO against future competitors we hope to create high barriers to entry with a large customer base and brand loyalty. Other potential competitors include Yplan, Inter Nations and Highlight, however none of these sites mirror our offering exactly. In future we will undertake regular competitor analyses to ensure we remain vigilant against new entries to the market.
We have also briefly highlighted some of our indirect competitors, the most obvious being dating apps. Tinder allows people to either ‘Like’ or say ‘Nope’ to someone based upon their appearance and a small bio. They then have the chance to contact members at their leisure, however the order in which these appear is determined by geographical proximity. In this sense it is quite similar to #YOMO but has an entirely different purpose. Its revenue model is also very different; Tinder is owned by IAC (who also own paid sites such as match.com) and is funded directly from these revenue streams, currently operating at a loss. #YOMO’s business model is far more sustainable. Plenty of Fish is also a dating app which allows users to meet and connect but it is much more focussed on the ‘profile’ element of the site and matches people based upon both location and interests. It generates revenue from advertising and premium accounts with additional features.Gum Tree is a classified ads website aimed at the younger backpacker and travelling audience although it’s reach has now stretched far beyond this. It also offers meeting opportunities but these are instigated by the users as opposed to being a key feature of the site. Gum Tree generates income from advertising and also promoted listings which allow users premium search rankings.Whilst #YOMO occupies a similar space to these competitors, it has an entirely different USP and therefore should perform well once established.
So, who are we going to target?According to the latest figures released by the Office for National Statistics, almost half of the adult population in the UK - around 24 million people - use social networks such as twitter and Facebook, on a regular basis. YOMO will target those regular social network users aged between 25-44, giving us an overall target market of 12 million people. By removing the lower age bracket, remaining users are more likely to have a higher income and therefore more money to spend on paid activities, a key source of revenue for YOMO.Our audience are MOBILE: Many of them spend a lot of time travelling or are always on the go.They are SOCIAL People who enjoy company, and who have a wide community of friends socially and digitally,They are DIGITAL for whom technology is a key enabler in their daily livesAnd finally, our audience are busy, professional people with only occasional down time between commitments away from home.
Our marketing plan covers three stages; the Beta Launch, the main Launch and the Growth phase.Pre-launch, we’ll develop the user base in three key cities; London, Manchester and Glasgow. We’ll promote the App via blogger outreach and seeding to raise awareness and incentivise app downloads with free event tickets.On launch the App will be registered on App stores and we’ll use use free app promotion through sites such as ‘mobilestartupz’. A recruitment email will also be sent to our event partner – Eventbrite’s - database .To drive awareness and create a buzz we’ll run a series of experiential campaigns in our key cities, We’ll use footage from these to create a YouTube in-stream ad. On desktop we’ll drive traffic to the website for information and on mobile we’ll drive traffic directly to the App store. We’ll use targeted Facebook app install ads to drive downloads and use Facebook sponsored stories and promoted tweets to drive awareness. The focus will be on mobile to simplify the path to download of the app.We’ll use mobile display during launch through to the growth phase, plus banner ads across the Google Display Network, Inmobi and Admob to drive app downloads,. All activity will be monitored closely and spend will be optimised to the best performing channels.
So now for the numbersIn year 1 we will begin with affiliate activity through EventBrite; an online tool which brings people together for an event and sells tickets. Through aggressive app install advertising, we estimate a total of 6,000 unique users per month, at an average £3 value per user. Referral fees will bring in £18k revenue per month in Q1 and Q2 for the first year.Once we have built up a large enough database of users, we can invite brands to promote their events directly on our app. As we expand, we will offer push notifications based on geo-location, where we will receive a percentage of each sale. In addition, there will be a possibility of partnering with the likes of Tastecard and Top Table on a CPA deal.
Slide: with tables and numbers (5 Year Trajectory)We will go hard on advertising spend during Q1 and Q2 of year 1 to gain brand awareness and to increase user base. We estimate 60,000 clicks per month through Facebook, Twitter and Ad Exchange activity. At an average click to install rate of 10%, we estimate a monthly install of 6,000 at a £3 average value per user. With each quarter, the average value per user increases 5%. Total revenue in Year 1 is estimated at £285k.As Brand awareness would have been established in year 1, and through word of mouth and promotions we will reduce ad spend in Year 2 by 20%. Through the increased marketing activity in year one and word of mouth, we should also see users increase by 10% by year 2. In Year 2 we estimate average value per user to increase to £5 as we’ll be able to offer a wider range of events and activities through brands and continuing our affiliate programme with EventBrite. Following that, average value per user will continue to increase 5% YoY due to more brands signing on to YOMO and Push notifications based on geolocation, as well as partnerships with discount sites such as Toptable/Tastecard.The majority of dev spend from year 2 to 3 will be on app maintenance and hosting user database, as our app usage increases we will spend more on dev in year 4 and 5.
Slide: YoY Projected RevenueWe will initially make a loss YoY from year 1 to year 4. By year 5, we should start to see a positive ROI with a profit of £180k.
Why YOMO is gonna be great48% of Brits between 25-44 years old regularly use social networks, so we have a huge potential audience of 12 million social people.With the stigma of meeting strangers in the past, YOMO is uniquely placed in offering spontaneous meet ups with like-minded people based on their physical proximity.With an easy to use mobile portal, a supporting website and secure digital profiling, YOMO enables people to make the most of every moment,wherever they are.With International travel increasing year on year, people will want to YOMO around the world.We intend to launch in London, Manchester and Glasgow. But the future is connected …internationally. Boston, New York, Amsterdam, Madrid …but not Turkey, not yet.With a wealthy and growing audience, targeted by location age and interest YOMO will drive revenue from affiliate activity through Eventbrite and geo-locational push notifications through Tabletable/Tastecard. In time we can invite brands to promote their events directly on YOMOThe £3 average value per user in Y1 will rise to £5 per user in Year2 giving a conservative but positive ROI by year 4Meeting people makes people happy.So come on make someone happy today.YOMO!
