Bright Things Share Discussion Threads

[carl79] 07/4/2010 15:25

Yes, V2 could be what sparks of a surge in sign ups but I would like to see evidence of this in tandem to any market release...some reasoning as to why they have implemented what they have and what they expect the impact to be...we need more "things" to hang our hats on! Right now we simply have premium sign up numbers and we get those what, twice a year? In-between we get very little else and the share price drifts downwards as you have noticed...We need a goal, we need to hit that earlier than expected and then we need a new goal, and then we over achieve and so on and so forth...

Its not great when investors like TA and I who take a keen interest in the company struggle to quantify how well they are doing - we dont even have an idea how many premium networks it would take to break even so to be honest, i have no idea what good looks like...I'm not saying I need to know specifics, but it would be nice if the company said by Sept 2010 we aim to have 2500 premium and then told us when they achieved this and then gave us another mile stone...

I guess what i am saying is that we don't know how the company are doing against their own metrics and as a result we make our own up which may be miles out...

[norbus] 07/4/2010 15:03

Thank you Carl

I think premium site metrics are historic rather than today's concerns. If V2 is nearly there or thereabouts and USA market is being worked, then that alone is the future.

Surely an update now would be welcome if BGT are not divulging matter in wraps

[carl79] 07/4/2010 14:43

Hi Norbus,

SG most definitely have a chance - and a good one at that. Once they demonstrate (what I am keen to see evidence of as per recent posts) that they are adding increasing numbers of premium networks in a growing trend (more this month than last and so on) then we will see a perception change from both the investment community and the market - it would become a question of when will BGT become profitable as opposed will they...

They have a solid platform, great developers and sound connections...they just need to leverage this effectively and i am hoping that the next update demonstrates this is what they are doing

I dont want to see another mediocre update, id see that as a bit of failing given that the clear focus is premium - so in my mind, they need to be growing premium networks quicker than competition who are not as focused on this segment...if they dont steal market share now, my fear is that the competition DO decide to focus on the segment, throw 10x more cash than BGT can at making that a success and as a result effectively killing our chances...

This is precisely why (correct me i am wrong TA) TA has said that they may be playing their cards close to their chest becasue if they said for arguments sake they had 3,000 premium customers and were adding at 100 a week, a savy competitor with £20M to spare might just take more notice than we'd like, develop at a rate of nots start making life very difficult for us, a company which at the end of the day does not have a high market cap, is not cash rich and does not have a die hard, loyal consumer base...

I clearly want my investment to do well, and i want some indication from the company that things are going to plan (plan being that they are making good money from premium networks and are growing as they need in order to become profitable)...I may be a touch impatient because ive been in and out of BGT for many a year and they are yet to return true shareholder value - if i never traded the shares id be nursing massive losses!

As for the GROU.PS stuff, they are new to me...hopefully TA has some insight

[the analyst] 07/4/2010 12:54

"GROU.PS definitely has a chance to steal away some of Ning's shine if they play their cards right."

[the analyst] 07/4/2010 12:32

Imagine what SocialGO would be worth if BGT were to grow into profitability?

[carl79] 07/4/2010 07:03

yes, that would be interesting...I wonder if they are having those conversations...i presume they would need to be more established with perhaps 5000+ premium customers to help substantiate a nice market cap...but then Ning has done very well with not much backing their valuation bar a relentless addition of many sites week on week...the fact they dont bring in any money does not seem to deter investors

[the analyst] 07/4/2010 02:15

Quick reminder for anyone interested in developments at SocialGO, there is a Q&A workshop on Thursday which should be worth attending



I'm particularly interested in the API in relation to any potential exit the Directors envisage.

Presumably, one of the potential exits would be to sell the company and my guess would be that the companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and possibly google would be interested (with the most-likely being likely Yahoo)

So, I'm wondering if the new API will be designed to fit in with the technology any of these three companies have in place? Could give a hint on where we could be looking for an exit in a couple of years time...

[the analyst] 06/4/2010 18:40

Hadn't actually looked at the videos, that is interesting. The more you look at them, the more you see in terms of shared widgets, technology, etc.,

We could come up with all sorts of conspiracy theories! :)

[carl79] 06/4/2010 18:14

Their vids also start with the same theme as WL vids...

Probably just using the same template but for "Developers", using someone else's theme (and not changing it, well barely) seems a bit lazy, uncharacteristic, etc etc...no biggie either way - just thought that maybe the WL relationship lives on under other guises...

By the way, both sites seem to claim copyright but that could be just for content - in both cases, i see no credit being given to a 3rd party for the use of the template

[the analyst] 06/4/2010 17:34

Does look similar, doesn't it? Maybe just using the same 3rd party template?

They have a SG network, which says they are in Edinburgh:

[uncle_bob] 05/4/2010 09:09

"We've been ecstatic over the popularity of our recently released Twitter Connect widget"

Presumably they charge for this.

[the analyst] 03/4/2010 15:48

Come to think about it, a few weeks ago a couple of my friends were very interested in setting up SocialGO sites after I told them all about it. They would have had no problem spending $25pm and buying some widgets

Unfortunately, they just didn't get on well with it, mostly due to the problems I mentioned above. Slow and buggy were the main issues

The thing is, they are not serious users in any way, but chose wordpress over socialGO just because they found it easier, faster and less buggy (they basically just wanted a blog, but liked the thought of the web 2.0 functionality that SG would offer on top of that, like chat, users being able to post their own thoughts, videos etc)

I know it's only two lost premium sites for SG, but how many more like that have there been over the past year? I'm banking on V2 being able to convince these types of potential customers to use the product over other options

[carl79] 03/4/2010 10:51

Ok TA. For the sake of having a common starting point, I'll use 0 at March 2nd too. We'll never know how many of the 250 did go on to pay...they did "attract" the attention of these 250 which is why I counted them. (and their ability to attract is what i'm interested in...but take on board the product needs work...)

Uncle Bob, yes. This is exactly what i expect. SocialGo is now much better known than it was 6 months ago imo so i would fully expect them to be adding more than 30pw. Take on board TA's point about the product not being ready just yet for some of the more serious network owners but there are plenty of janet and john types who would be happy with the product as it is if they knew about it - imo...

600pm is a sound aspiration - it would certainly indicate to all that the business has legs and is quite viable (unlike the Ning Freemium model that is yet to prove profitable even given their massive network numbers). I hope we get there without too much dilution and before the competition start to eat too much of our lunch...wordpress it seems are already coming to market with an offering and im sure between now and 2012 there will be others

[the analyst] 03/4/2010 10:25

If you had asked me a year ago, I would have been hoping they would have well over 3000 networks by now, but I would had also expected them to have a product that worked much better by now too

The system has been plagued by bugs, slow speed, difficulty uploading files, downtime (the list goes on) and this will have prevented serious people using the product to make money

As they have improved and sorted most those things out, I expect a higher rate of uptake and then hopefully a real step-change when they move into V2. I want to see a net increase rate of 600 premiums per month by Jan 2011

There is pent-up demand out there, imo, just waiting to get their hands on a top-quality website builder with web 2.0 functionality. I'm one of them and I'll be handing my money over on a monthly basis as soon as they have developed one!

[the analyst] 03/4/2010 10:20

The difference in your numbers, carl is that you are counting the 250 "applications" for premium as actual paying networks, whereas I see them as people that signed-up for a premium free trial - I was one of those 250 and I didn't go on to pay any money

For me, the only network that counts is the one that is actually paying a monthly fee and the first networks to pay any money was seen in March 2009

So in my calculations are based on them starting on zero on March 2nd, when the first real paying network signed-up rather than starting from 250 (the premium free trials they had by that stage)

[uncle_bob] 03/4/2010 08:54

It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect the conversion rate to increase as the Socialgo brand became better known.