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Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

tsu.co

21–30 of 73 posts

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#21
post #8

will see how this one will play out. if you have a spare minute, make me rich maybe :) http://www.tsu.co/gondo

Looks like content is only visible to users. I can understand gating the sign up to require an invite, but hiding the content as well will just kill ad revenue.

Yes, this is the biggest issue the are facing right now. However, since they launched 24 hours ago, there is no ad revenue to kill yet.

I guess the current invitation system is temporary and will be updated to let public content available to anyone.

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#22
post #17

not going to work, checkout Marc Andreessen's take on his own version of the same concept: Ning. Edit: typo Xing Ning

Why won't it work?

One issue could be that the $ argument won't work with 99% of users b/c they don't generate enough traffic (i.e. who really cares about, say, $5/month of revenue).

One way to solve it could be to pool the revenue and to position Tsu like this: "90% of revenue goes to a good cause of your choice (climate, humanitarian, etc.), not to 1 huge corporation"

Edit: Every profile would then get a "I Donated $x today" badge (visible publicly) as a feel-good engine. You could then convert the amount to real things like "I paid 2 meals in a 3rd World country today" or "planted 3 trees", depending on your choice of the cause.

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#23
post #2

From all its (future) advertising revenues, Tsū will keep 10% and give back to its users the remaining 90%: * 50% goes back to you directly * 50% goes back to the people who have invited you, such as the person who invited him gets 33%, the person who invited him/her gets 33% of 33% (~ 11%), the one after that 33% of 33% of 33%, etc... The website is invite-only. You can register here: http://www.tsu.co/xavier .

> The website is invite-only. You can register here: http://www.tsu.co/xavier.

My issue is I don't really know what it is that you are sharing with me. For me this only work if it is an actual friend referring.

All I get in return is tuppence, which isn't really worth leaving my well established network of family and friends.

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#24
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why won't it work?

One issue could be that the $ argument won't work with 99% of users b/c they don't generate enough traffic (i.e. who really cares about, say, $5/month of revenue). One way to solve it could be to pool the revenue and to position Tsu like this: "90% of revenue goes to a good cause of your choice (climate, humanitarian, etc.), not to 1 huge corporation" Edit: Every profile would then get a "I Donated $x today" badge (v…

> One issue could be that the $ argument won't work with 99% of users b/c they don't generate enough traffic (i.e. who really cares about, say, $5/month of revenue).

Thats $60 a year? A nice discount on most gadgets. Am I wrong?

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#25
post #3

Good concept but with the whole referral code and profit sharing paradigm it starts looking a little bit like a pyramid scheme.

Turn it around (like this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8457792) and this "problem" becomes a potential USP.

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#26
A lot of for-profit companies have referral programs (which is what this amounts to), and many of them have a similar multilevel marketing component. So this isn't really anything new or novel.

What I would love to see is an social-media site that is willing to take the concept of sharing profits with its members to the next level and organize itself as a cooperative.

Co-ops, unlike for-profit companies, are entirely owned by their members, and thus any profits they make eventually go back to their members, either in the form of greater investment in the site (which benefits the members) or in the form of rebates (where the profits get divided up and distributed to the member-owners, similar to dividends in the for-profit world).

Of course, the problem with organizing as a co-op is that it's harder to come up with capital, because you can't accept outside investment. But with Kickstarter and Indiegogo and the era of fundraiser-driven product development, I don't think that's as much an issue nowadays.

An added bonus of a social network organized as a co-op is that each member-owner gets a vote -- a genuine say in how things are done -- which is often absent in for-profit companies.

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may be wrong but a 'real' pyramid scheme works a little different. A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public. (wiki) So by getting more users they are getting more value (ad revenue). A real pyramid scheme wo…

This is what a pyramid scheme is: * User 1 pays $20 to join the program with the promise of getting money back for their 'investment' * User 0 gets paid $20 * User 1 refers user 2 to the program * User 2 pays $20 to join the program with the promise of getting money back for their 'investment' * User 1 gets paid $15 and user 0 gets $5 * User 2 refers user 3 to the program * User 3 pays $20 to join the program with th…

Am I correct in saying that the only difference from this and a referral program is that there is another product, such as hosting.

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One issue could be that the $ argument won't work with 99% of users b/c they don't generate enough traffic (i.e. who really cares about, say, $5/month of revenue). One way to solve it could be to pool the revenue and to position Tsu like this: "90% of revenue goes to a good cause of your choice (climate, humanitarian, etc.), not to 1 huge corporation" Edit: Every profile would then get a "I Donated $x today" badge (v…

> One issue could be that the $ argument won't work with 99% of users b/c they don't generate enough traffic (i.e. who really cares about, say, $5/month of revenue). Thats $60 a year? A nice discount on most gadgets. Am I wrong?

> A nice discount on most gadgets

Or 1 month of a life in a 3rd World country.

What's more important to us?

Re: Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users

#30
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why won't it work?

One issue could be that the $ argument won't work with 99% of users b/c they don't generate enough traffic (i.e. who really cares about, say, $5/month of revenue). One way to solve it could be to pool the revenue and to position Tsu like this: "90% of revenue goes to a good cause of your choice (climate, humanitarian, etc.), not to 1 huge corporation" Edit: Every profile would then get a "I Donated $x today" badge (v…

I think many would care about $5/month, it certainly is better than nothing, but there is no way that the average user will get even one tenth of that per month.
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