I just happen to stumble upon a unique, revolutionary, even quirky new online business venture.
Why is that?
Me2Everyone.com is a online business startup, or shall I say, online community, is community-driven – in literal fashion.
The concept behind Me2Everyone.com
At first, I’m not sure what to expect when I was invited by a member to join the so-called “village”. But since I love new business ideas, I decided to pay the site a visit.
From the site I learn that the business is about building a company using the power of online community – with a twist: Each signing member is awarded 1000 company shares, which mean you are a shareholder (and technically the owner) of the company.
The idea is building the community (a “world”), member by member (and member refer other members to join) so that the company can reach a sky-high milestone: By December 2012, the company target at least 100,000,000 registered members.
So far, the company behind Me2Everyone.com has invested GBP 350,000 with the latest investment is from the site’s feature designer partner for the sum of GBP 160,000. I also learn from the site that 1 GBP equals 1000 shares in the company.
I can’t see what’s great inside, yet, but the company has just been launched on January 09, 2009, and in the near future they will add features, such as member chat, in-world business, and possibly off line business venture(s). So, all in all, it’s a social networking site with business flavour.
I have to say the concept resembles that of MyFootballClub.co.uk (and other similar concepts) that claimed to be the first web-community owned football club. In MyFootballClub.co.uk case, joining is free, but later on each member is required to pay for membership that cost GBP 35 annually.
Me2Everyone.com is not telling us about any membership cost whatsoever – yet, but learning from their football counterpart, Me2Everyone.com could be successful – and lucrative for both the founder and members.
What can make this business venture succeed?
Just like any other online business venture startups, survivability is rather low. However, I learn from the past success of MyFootballClub.co.uk, that later invested the membership money to acquire an actual UK’s football club, Ebbsfleet United, which online popularity matches those of bigger clubs, such as Manchester United and Chelsea.
The key to success for such business venture is the premise and the promise.
The premise – the proposition must be strong and enticing: company ownership is one of the strong proposition.
The promise – to have the shares increased in value and translated into real dollars (or GBPs in this case.)
The startups can indicate one thing: Creating community-driven business can be very, very lucrative. These days, successful, creative business is community driven, such as Second Life and Kiva.org – two distinct business that share the same concept of community-driven ventures.
Perhaps starting out a community-driven Microsoft-like business is possible in the future? Could be.
Nevertheless, do consider visiting Me2Everyone.com to see what a new, global, business venture can offer.
Ivan Widjaya
Business ideas are always fascinating
Update as of January 13, 2009 from the website:
- me2everyone Ltd. has an authorised share capital of GBP 18,000,000 (18 billion shares at GBP 0.001 each.
- By 2012 me2everyone aim to float the company on London stock market.
- By that time, me2everyone forecasts that each share will be valued at GBP 0.58.