MeetTheFamous – upload and share your own personal celebrity photos and videos

Posted on June 1, 2009
Filed Under Great fun, Startups | Businesshackers

MeetTheFamous, “MTF” is a privately held digital media company focused on celebrity content.  Through the Company’s proprietary website, MeetTheFamous, users can upload and share their own personal celebrity photos and videos, keep up to date on celebrity news, compete in celebrity-themed trivia games, post/review information regarding planned celebrity events and create their own social profiles.  The primary appeal of the MeetTheFamous community is the enablement of users to generate the content posted to the site.  Unlike other celebrity related sites, MeetTheFamous allows users to participate in and potentially benefit from the content they post.  Furthermore, MeetTheFamous gives users an unparalleled sense of closeness to celebrities that no other sites offer.

Cell phone users in the United States have increased from 34 million a decade ago to more than 240 million today1.  Worldwide, there are an estimated two billion cell phones in use, and this number continues to grow at an impressive pace.  The majority of the devices used are equipped with cameras and video/audio recording tools that enable users to capture content on-demand.  Once captured, this content can easily be uploaded to computers or e-mailed for posting to a website for unlimited distribution.

MeetTheFamous’s target audience is particularly internet savvy.  These individuals have grown-up in the ”internet age” and are proven fast adopters of cutting edge internet technology and websites.  Through MeetTheFamous, users actually become the “paparazzi” by publishing the celebrity content (both good and bad) that they capture every day.  This might be a picture of Mel Gibson volunteering at a local soup kitchen, Britney Spears walking into a tattoo parlor, or Roger Clemens yelling at Andy Petitte in a restaurant.  Regardless, celebrities are everyday people who live among all of us.  Each day worldwide, hundreds of thousands of celebrity photos, videos and audio files are recorded in real-time.

Despite the enormous interest in this content, currently, there are limited options for individuals to publish their celebrity content to massive audiences interested in viewing it.  The two leading social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook, allow users the ability to post their content to their community of friends, but such viewership is typically limited to his or her member base (generally 50-500 people).  Other individuals who capture celebrity content simply download it to their computer or share it via e-mail with a limited number of friends or family.  MeetTheFamous provides an intuitive user interface that enables even novice web users to upload and share their celebrity content to an audience of unlimited size.

In addition to providing a targeted audience and easy to access tools for sharing their celebrity photo and videos, MeetTheFamous allows users to share their experience with other fans comparing and contrasting their one-to-one experiences while onlookers get an inside look as to what celebrities are like in real life.

MEETTHEFAMOUS.COM also serves as an efficient marketplace for everyday people to receive compensation for the sale of their potentially valuable content. On the seller side, if the average person captured a photo of a celebrity doing something notable, he or she probably would not know how much the photo could be worth or who to call to find out or where to begin.  On the buyer side, major media companies don’t have the time to deal with a flood of one off inquiries from amateur sellers nor do they have a “one-stop shop” where they can view the entire celebrity photo landscape as it is unfolding in real-time. The process is highly inefficient because the market is so heavily fragmented, and there has yet to be a company to offer a uniformed end-to-end content delivery & monetization solution despite such an enormous inventory of accessible and valuable content.

MeetTheFamous represents an evolution in the way celebrity photos are procured by the media. The centralization offers an opportunity for control that does not exist in the current wild west of the celebrity photo industry. The current environment of (celebrity/publicist) versus paparazzi results in a never-ending battle with celebs and publicists always playing catch-up. The company’s intention is to offer celebrities and publicists a layer of protection that will represent a new standard for the industry by allowing them the first right of refusal to exclusively purchase any photos MeetTheFamous receives about them before it ever goes to a 3rd party for publication.

MeetTheFamous will provide the celebrity (and/or their representation) any questionable photos for review before it is distributed for sale to 3rd party publications and media outlets. MeetTheFamous will maintain an active database of buyers and knowledge of their respective interests so it can provide targeted celebrity content securing the highest price possible for the company and its users.

The MeetTheFamous website features a uniquely differentiated approach to the celebrity and entertainment genre. By allowing users to be the exclusive photographers, videographers, bloggers, editors and content providers of this online destination the result is a one-of-a-kind user experience, where the entertainment value and size and scope of the website is limited only by the number of celebrity photos the world captures in a single day.

MeetTheFamous features include:

* User Profiles for users to receive updates on their favorite celebs, write blogs, add friends to their “Entourage”, view their site stats, play games and more.
* Communication exchanges that allow users, celebrities and their representation (agents, managers, PR, etc.) to participate in an ongoing, never-ending discussion about their real world encounters by providing new updates or weighing-in to set a story straight.
* Celebrity events calendar for celebrities and their representatives, club owners and businesses to announce events featuring celebrities (i.e. – celebrity autograph signing, charity event, party host, etc.). Eventually, a partnership with Ticketmaster’s/StubHub’s API would be pursued to populate content and generate additional revenue.
* Celebrity Trivia – a portable multiplayer trivia game where users create the trivia questions and prizes are awarded to the top 3 winners each work

The celebrity content market is among the largest and fastest growing segments within all of media.  TV programs such as Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra and TMZ are among the highest rated television shows in the United States.  Websites such as TMZ, PerezHilton, People.com and OMG have generated huge user followings with anywhere from a million to over fifteen million unique visitors per month2.  Furthermore, merchants who sell consumer goods have shared in this success by marketing celebrity clothing lines and memorabilia.  MeetTheFamous estimates that the worldwide market for celebrity content exceeds several billion dollars.  MeetTheFamous believes that as a unique, focused celebrity community the Company is well positioned to capitalize on the favorable growth trends within the explosive online media segment of this attractive industry.

As an entertainment destination, MeetTheFamous holds a distinct advantage over all other entertainment offerings due to the speed and volume that user-generated content provides in addition to the exclusive nature of the content. Existing celebrity web properties all operate behind the same bottleneck pulling and republishing the same content from a fixed group of inefficient photo agencies. The current process of receiving and publishing celebrity content online, print or TV is still highly inefficient for them. It can take anywhere from five to ten people to capture a photo, market the photo, sell the photo, enhance and edit the photo, transfer the file, write copy, proof, edit and work with the webmaster to push everything live.

MeetTheFamous’s approach eliminates the bottleneck by allowing celebrity content to be released as it happens, in real-time, 24/7. It takes MeetTheFamous under one minute to obtain and release a new piece of content vs. 6-8 hours for existing publishers and websites. And, with each new contributor to MeetTheFamous, our “photographer staff” continues to expand. The most successful entertainment publications and media outlets and agencies employ at most 200-400 photographers. MeetTheFamous currently “employs” 4,000 content contributors. The result is an entertainment destination capable of offering exclusive content at a quantity and rate of speed that is several orders of magnitude greater than any competitor.

MeetTheFamous believes it is reasonably well insulated from direct competitive threats.  Existing sites have already made their bets on their lead features.  Each fulfills a specific user interest but none satisfies all interests.  MeetTheFamous believes its unique site will enable it to quickly join the top ten celebrity sites within the first two years, filling a major unfilled gap in online celebrity communities.  MeetTheFamous views its relationship with other celebrity sites as collaborative.  Together with TMZ, Perez Hilton, People and OMG, MeetTheFamous helps each company secure a position in the marketplace.  MeetTheFamous recognizes that, while unlikely, there exists the possibility of direct competition.  To limit this potential, MeetTheFamous is actively working to secure strategic partnerships while continually innovating to offer new and engaging site functionality.  In addition, MeetTheFamous plans to build significant brand awareness to stake its position in the marketplace as the one stop user-generated online celebrity community.

In estimate, there are tens of millions of unique monthly users who regularly participate in online celebrity communities.  While the sites mentioned above all have strong followings, none of them offer the interactive social networking experience and user-generated model provided by MeetTheFamous.  This differentiated aspect of MeetTheFamous will enable the Company to quickly stand out and attract user interest, loyalty, and create a viral following.  MeetTheFamous expects its users to continue to participate in other celebrity related communities but once a user is aware of and submits a photo to MeetTheFamous, they will always use MeetTheFamous as the place to publish their celebrity photos.  The Company believes its users will behave similarly to users of sports, teen and professional sites where such users tend to visit and participate in multiple communities within the same market vertical (i.e., users who visit espn.com also visit cbssportsline.com, etc.).  MeetTheFamous believes the established celebrity sites have paved a path for the Company to quickly achieve a significant user audience.

The Company expects to achieve yearly revenue well in excess of $15 million by YE 2012, using a combination of photo sales, advertising, and an e-commerce sales model.  Initially, MeetTheFamous plans to pursue an established photo agency (i.e. – WENN) to license the photos on their behalf with a shared commission plan and a traditional advertising revenue model.  Early on, the Company will run lower priced CPM Ads through Ad Networks (i.e. Google Ads) to help build a base following of site visitors.  Currently, MeetTheFamous is in the final stages of negotiating with Guerilla Nation, a leading online sponsorship and advertising sales company. Based on existing pricing models of other celebrity sites, MeetTheFamous’s data suggests that prices under such a strategy can reach between $2 and $5 CPM.

Additionally, MeetTheFamous generates brokerage commissions by licensing user photos & videos to celebrities and buyers from major media outlets. MeetTheFamous believes this represents a potentially significant revenue opportunity.  Today, people who capture valuable celebrity content don’t have access to retail outlets that enable them to sell their content to offline buyers interested in it.  Each user has to identify potential buyers and work the phone to find the right individual decision maker responsible for purchasing content.  Then, content owners need to determine what the fair market value of their content could be.  Without market data, it is difficult for them to accomplish this.  Not surprising, purchase offers vary significantly from buyer to buyer.  MeetTheFamous will offer professional expertise to content owners to ensure the value of their content is maximized.  In exchange, MeetTheFamous will charge a brokerage fee that can be as high as 50%.  It has been shown that high-value content is readily available since MeetTheFamous users are everywhere, all the time.

MeetTheFamous was founded in 2008 by Jordan Osher.  The Company completed its market research and beta site launch, secured key hires and is currently initiating business partnership discussions.

The Company has been funded by both angel investors and its founders. Seed investment of $1.56M was secured in early 2008.  Proceeds from the round enabled the Company to complete site development and launch, hire key personnel, drive site traffic and begin generating revenue. The Company anticipates that a Series A Financing of several million dollars will be considered to further bolster its revenue growth and profit margins through expanded revenue channels.