Bright Things Share Discussion Threads

[the analyst] 13/1/2010 12:23

"who is approachable to talk as a new shareholder at BGT please?"

Hi Norbus,

I found them all approachable. I would probably opt to speak to Dominic Wheatley first, as he has always been open to answering any questions I have had in the past

Perhaps Carl could chime in on this question? I know he speaks to them on a reasonably regular basis...

[norbus] 13/1/2010 11:22

Stunningly informative. Never realised how infectious the use of this media!

TA
who is approachable to talk as a new shareholder at BGT please?

[the analyst] 12/1/2010 20:10

A few social media facts and figures:

[the analyst] 12/1/2010 20:04

From the techcrunch article:

" A few other high profile employees have moved on from Ning in recent months as well. But from what we hear they are being replaced by others, and total headcount is still growing.

Ning's product continues to evolve, and it isn't always smooth sailing. In November the company stripped out a cross-Ning Network activity feed for users because the product wasn't being used. That project took up most of the dev team's time for a nine month period, a former employee tells us. So it was a costly misstep."

[the analyst] 12/1/2010 19:45

"What if anything would move the shares now?"

Hi Norbus, tricky question to answer at this stage, but here's a few thoughts...

- Evidence that they are growing the number of premium networks quickly enough to make break-even before the 2011/12 financial year begins. Of course, the ideal news would suggest to investors that break-even would be reached before they need to raise more funds, but to be honest, I'd be amazed if they didn't have one more placing before the end of the year. I'd be happy if it started to look they only needed £500k more or so.

- The Directors buying shares. Unfortunately, these Directors are not known for buying shares, but that would surely help. I'd love to see Veddis Ventures buying a few on the open market

- A transforming deal. For example, a deal to provide networks for a third party like Yahoo would be the sort of news that would transform the company overnight

- A takeover approach. Google, Yahoo or Microsoft may well want to join the 'build your own social network' market and the easiest way would be to buy the technology at an advanced stage. Yahoo have had several attempts at the social media game and failed each time. They closed geocities in October and are said to be looking for acquisitions

[carl79] 12/1/2010 18:17

Hi TA, think I agree on the NBC Piece although once captured and "blogged", it can reach a very targeted audience! Best advertising will come from existing users - hard to gauge advocacy / referrals but most all "things" web 2.0 related that I have become involved in have come from my friends introducing me to them...slightly different with a commercial product but we still need that buzz - a buzz that Ning obviously captured back in the day before their growth exploded...

Regards adult networks - probably just more hassle than they were worth. With large numbers you'd put up with the grief but with small numbers, my guess is it would not stack up. There could have been an element of tainting their reputation as well which could have been the final straw...not sure really but cant say im upset - they did not seem to retain the 1,000s of sites that we were told they'd acquired so i saw the adult part as a liability as opposed to an asset.

Regards average RPU, yes, definitely - i did not see it any where near as high as $50...any figure would be a guess without seeing more details on their current mix but it will not be $50.

I hear the PR team are doing a good job so hopefully this translates into some forward and upward movement as opposed to more sideways drifting into the next "par" dilution...I'd like to see the growth either tail off but be more concentrated on the premium users, or I want an explosion of standard just as Ning experienced. If they can grow as they are but simply increase premium sign ups, great, but my thinking is that in order to increase this user base, the "message" may need to change and this may effect the rate at which people take free sites...Whilst I think Ning's model has a limited lifespan becasue ultimately, they dont make enough to wash their face, the cold, hard facts are they return value to shareholders and a return is ultimately what I am looking for

[lobo] 12/1/2010 14:52

Interesting choice of words :)

[norbus] 12/1/2010 14:49

Adult decidedly stains the sheet.
What if anything would move the shares now?

[the analyst] 12/1/2010 13:51

Hi Carl,

I wonder how much of that $50 average was due to zocku networks and what the average would have been with no networks on zocku?

Hard to say, I guess, as we don't know how many zocku networks there were (or how many there are still out there)

Now that zocku has been side-lined, will we see that monthly average figure go down, or will the impact of new widgets, chat, bandwidth etc result in it rising from $50?

Any thoughts on the reasoning behind the zocku decision? PErhaps it was necessary to get the new investors and non-exec on board? Or maybe they are looking into other deals that will require them to have a 'clean' record?

[the analyst] 12/1/2010 13:45

It was a good presentation, Norbus.

Just been looking at the latest registration numbers and it doesn't seem to have had any major impact on business in terms of recent sign-ups

I suspect that NBC is not focussed enough on the right demographics to make any real impact. The main value I can see is in brand building and perceived authority/security of the business. It won't have done any harm in attracting the attention of more potential investors like Veddis, either

The best marketing I've seen so far was last October, when they had articles in The Miami Herald and another paper, which seemed to result in 4-5000 sign-ups in a single week. If they could get to a position where they get that type of exposure somewhere at least twice a month that would allow them to get where they need to be by the end of 2010, imo

[carl79] 12/1/2010 11:07

I was hoping it was free but am sceptical...

[lobo] 12/1/2010 10:24

Looking at their web-site, it looks as though they invite new technology companies to forward themselves to be selected for screening. Alex Halliday does say on the blog "SocialGO was lucky and enough to be featured as NBC website of the week!", so I'm guessing it was a freebie.

See last line of this page...

[lobo] 12/1/2010 09:52

Did anyone here attend yesterday's meeting? ....any developments?

[carl79] 12/1/2010 09:40

Does anyone in the industry (or just generally) know what that advertising might have cost?

[norbus] 12/1/2010 08:46

Neat NBC presentation and very convincing. That will bring a rush of business.
However they talk $25/mth for premium?? whereas Analyst takes $50/mth..??
Either way, I am happy to be in.

[encarter] 11/1/2010 23:47

Exact same price too so probably not coincidence.

[norbus] 11/1/2010 17:20

Iterested to see if the share price will now respond to the incoming management and cash

[lobo] 11/1/2010 17:19

Ahh yes ....I see now, my "Recent News" is screwed up!