Bebo is the UK’s biggest social networking site, of a similar vein to the well known MySpace, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Currently with 8.8 million users in the UK and Ireland, Bebo has signed a deal with Apple iTunes enabling their users to download iTunes music files right from the Bands profile pages within the social networking site. Bebo, which is actually based in San Francisco has over 500,000 registered musicians on their site, and they plan to shake up the paradigm by offering promotional ‘Free Single Saturday’ to promote the new service.
Bebo is backed by Benchmark Capital Europe, who also heavily backed the virtual world “Second Life” through the USA division of Beachmark Capital. (Bill Gurley is my favorite ‘Benchmarker’) Bebo are exploring dynamic revenue expansion techniques by diversifying from traditional Web and Broadcasting models, such as the ‘CPM model’, says Joanna Shields, who was recently made President International of Bebo, after leaving her role of Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships for Google Europe. Bebo is experimenting with new ways of incorporating TV series right into its social networking site, in a new style that complements these modern landscapes where the users hang out for endless hours effectively living a digital lifestyle.
Lonely girl 15 caused huge controversies on YouTube when it was first released. A new Zealander Jessica Rose, playing a lonely girl named Bree caused huge speculations as to the whether her video posts were “real” or part of some sort of video marketing ploy. Eventually after much hype and delima it was tracked down to a professional filmed set of Webisodes produced by the famous Hollywood powerhouse talent agency, Creative Artists Agency (CAA). The original “Lonelygirl15″ has garnered well more than 50 million hits.
Bebo have now approached the makers of Lonely Girl 15 to produce a new Social Networking “television” series especially for the digital lifestyle site – called Kate Modern. The show will be totally specific to the UK and the UK audience. Bebo users will be able to make friends with the stars, view the photos that the characters upload, and get to meet them in real locations, which will all be published via the social networking site; and of course download the constantly updated videos to keep on top of what Kate Modern is up to in the UK.
Joanna Shields says: “There is a true revolution of personal expression underway. Social networks provide a unique platform for people to connect with others anywhere in the world in new and innovative ways. Bebo is at the forefront of this phenomenon and has tremendous potential to connect its massive user base with media companies, brands and artists worldwide.
Alot of the advertising, marketing, subscription and revenue concepts that Bebo are developing are untested – and really push the bounds in a convergence of Traditional Internet and Traditional Broadcasting ways of thinking, to deliver new digital content and develop new revenue models around that content. The question remains as to how successful these untested models will be – and also to when will Australia and New Zealand develop their own localized versions of this new Social Lifestyle Infrastructure. If you know of anything that comes close, please post a comment.
