Screenshot of tsu website taken 08/02/16)–
You'd be forgiven if you'd hadn't heard of tsu or don't understand how the network works. Often described as the social network that pays you to post, tsu shot into the limelight due to a spat with
"We have become the thought leader in terms of digital content ownership, social media monetization and what it really means to own your own likeness, work, image and face." says Tsu CEO, Sebastian Sobczak. "People come to us now and say, “when was the last time a $300 billion company apologized to a brand new startup rival who breaks their business model?” This kind of dynamic is what we are seeing – complete validation of our model, of our popularity and now we have this amazing asset that Facebook will always be working. When you disrupt an industry, there is a lot of skepticism and philosophical competition – we don’t have that anymore with Facebook’s golden seal of approval." Sobczak continued.
tsu is only about 12 months old and yet has amassed some impressive numbers; 28 million visitors in its first year, over 1 billion pages views and more than five million registered accounts around the world (bar mainland China). One-third of tsu's traffic comes from North America, one-third is European/Australian/Russian/Japanese, and the last third is from the Middle East and the rest of Asia. tsu is also working with some heavy-hitters when it comes to ad partners; Lyft,
HOW BRANDS CAN WORK WITH THEM (AKA HOW THEY MAKE MONEY)
tsu sells ads that go around the pieces content creators post and money is then deposited into an account of the content creators choosing (or they can donate it to charity). tsu has a three-tier strategy when it comes to advertising. 1) tsu sells direct to brands wanting to advertise 2) tsu allows users to boost posts and 3) tsu works with ad networks and exchanges to ensure they can scale and address each geography efficiently. Large brands who advertise with us are as follows (in no particular order): Barney’s, Nieman Marcus, Nordstrom, JCrew, Adidas, Citibike, Nike, Saks, Urban Outfitters, Chase Bank, and more than a hundred more.
While no-one yet is buying new homes from single tsu posts, single posts like this, this and this do garner between $50 to $600 per post on the day of the post (note: final amounts will be higher as tsu gives users money beyond the first day). Andrew Fromm is a good example, known on tsu as @Afromm, Fromm is a songwriter and made more in one year than Pharrell made from music streaming service Pandora.
FOUR WAYS YOUR BRAND SHOULD BE USING TSU BEYOND AMPLIFICATION:
1) Influencer identification - smart companies should be looking and learning from people who can make money (with and without) using their followings
2) CSR - Move your blog onto Tsu and donate the proceeds to a different charity every month - perhaps put your annual report up and donate the proceeds to your charity or cause
3) Video monetisation - create a series of videos and publish them on YouTube for "double bubble" payments
4) Content curation - there's a plethora of quality content on tsu waiting to be utilised (perhaps you'll find your next copywriter or future employee)
Clearly there are a lot of eyes on tsu. A lot of people want them to fail and there are a lot of naysayers but there are also people who are interested in new ways. The party line from tsu HQ is that "tsu is really about owning what you do online, and not necessarily about the money". Nice sentiment but the people on the site want to get paid and with Zuckerberg and pals sitting pretty on top of an addictive money-making machine with plenty of areas to explore and levers to pull, tsu has many battles ahead of it. A quick Google search reveals tsu is not without detractors but whether or not tsu succeeds is somewhat irrelevant, the ethos behind what it is doing is an interesting one and ultimately what most content creators have been seeking to do for a long time.
60-secoonds on tsu by tsu CEO, Sebastian Sobczak:
What is Tsu; what is 'the mission'?
"Very simply, tsu gives ownership to any content creator who has content on social media, and with that ownership comes monetization of one’s content and social network. Your content doesn’t belong to tsu it belongs to the creator."
What do people not get about tsu or what you're doing?
"What’s being missed is that the general social media user perhaps does not understand the value of what they give up to social networks out there – their content, data and their network. Tsu is doing to social media what Priceline did to the hotel booking business, namely we allow users in the end to achieve exactly the same thing they’re used to in our respective industries, but the way we do things is 180 degrees different, which gives amazing benefit to the user. So, Therefore, a concept like tsu is a little alien to them."
What is the future of tsu?
"In year two, we will be focusing on the consumption of content vs. the creation of said content. We have some of the best and most unique content creators and now we will be focusing on creating features so that their content can be more easily discoverable on and off our platform while also making the experience perfect for the content consumer who perhaps doesn’t create any or much content."
