Tag Archive for Tsu

Social network Tsu attracts explosive growth but also critics. Here’s why….

Posted on January 26, 2015 by

tsu1

Tsu, a social network that pays its users for Content they create & share, is attracting the kind of growth that should make the social media giants sit up & take notice.

Just 74 days after its launch in Oct 2014, Tsu announced that it had crossed 2 million users. It’s not surprising that people would prefer to be paid for something they do for free on other social networks.

But Tsu, as they said during launch, is not trying to build its user base by taking people away from other social networks. On the contrary…..they have offered to help share, promote & monetize Content which people are posting on other social networks.

For example, if you post a video on Youtube, you can then head over to Tsu & try to share it as wide as you can & get paid for this engagement from Tsu. You also benefit by referring more people to Tsu.

This kind of a business model was bound to be a hit, but the surprising thing is not just that it’s attracting large numbers of users but the kind of users signing up.

This model seems to have stuck a chord among artists who are now flocking to Tsu, hoping to get paid for Content which doesn’t earn them anything on other social networks. Artists & music industry bigwigs on Tsu include 50 Cent, Russel Simmons & Timbaland, among others.

The main draw also is that Tsu pays cash to its users instead of virtual currency or points or something like that. The cash is paid from ad revenues, & Tsu keeps only 10%.

Hitting a million users in a couple of months & doubling it to more than 2 million in 2.5 months attracts all kinds of attention – from both advertisers & critics.

Tsu’s advertising platform now offers app install ads on smartphones which has attracted large brands like Taco Bell & Pandora, & also Twitter.

This attracted a detailed look from TechCrunch about how Tsu is getting past Apple’s ban on “incentivized” app installs.

Paying or rewarding people to download apps causes the app to start climbing on the App Store’s Top Charts. That in turn attracts a flood of new downloads & buzz that makes the app in question an overnight success. Apple has banned this ability to buy your way into overnight app stardom, so to speak.

But developers can list app install ads on Tsu. Users are technically being paid for creating content & attracting users to it, & not for the app install ads shown next to the content.

It’s a bit of a murky area, but the TechCrunch article notes that people on Tsu are more likely to click on ads because they know they’re helping generate ad revenues which will eventually reach them as payment for the content & activity they generate.

But the kicker is the massive adoption of Tsu’s own app, which shows more than half a million downloads on Google Play. Their iOS app is listed at No. 185 by App Annie in the social networking category.

New York, NY-based Tsu was founded in July 2013 by Drew Ginsburg, Sebastian Sobczak, Thibault Boullenger & Jonathan Lewin. The company has raised $7 million in venture funding.

Image Credit: Tsu

Advertising Message

Comments Off on Social network Tsu attracts explosive growth but also critics. Here’s why…. Posted in Internet Startups, New Internet Startups, Social Media News

Tsu launches as a social network monetization & payment platform

Posted on October 24, 2014 by

tsu

Ok, so here’s a question – when all the Content you post on the various social networks is yours, why should their owners make money out of it? The answer is what this new social media Site tsu (pronounced as ‘Sue’ with a silent T), claims to provide. This is a social media “payment” platform that allows social network users to monetize their own Content.

You can create your “network” & build your own community of users/followers on tsu. You get to invite people to join using your own unique short code, same as an affiliate program link. The monetization part also works in a similar manner, where you get to keep the ad & sponsorship revenue generated by your Content, with tsu taking a 10% cut. The referral system also gives you a 3rd of the revenue (after tsu’s cut) from the revenues racked up by people who signed up through your link.

The concept of social network monetization and & revenue sharing isn’t new. Social communities like Hubpages, where users get paid for the revenue their Content generate, have been around for a long time. Neither is the affiliate system new.

But the key here is that tsu is not trying to wean users away from Facebook or any other social network & build its own user base from scratch. For example, you can share your YouTube videos on Tsu, & YouTube will continue to be able to monetize in all the ways it does, & tsu will add its own monetization on top of that.

So as a publisher already posting videos on YouTube, you stand to gain an additional revenue stream for the same Content. All you have to do is build up the number of people who follow you on tsu & sign up under you.

If you look at it this way, it’s a brilliant way to attract a whole boatload of publishers who work very hard to attract & grow their own following. The tsu founders can then sit back & watch their network grow bigger & get its own user base as a genuine social network.

The only social feature the platform has at the moment is the ability to message other users.

Their FAQ page explains the whole thing in detail – how to sign up, how to publish & share your content on the platform, privacy settings, promotion, monetization, etc.

Another feature worth a mention is the payment system. tsu is billing itself as a social media payment system, & it does indeed allow users to redeem their earnings ($100 minimum), & also to send money to each other & to merchants.This ability to send & receive peer-to-peer payments through a social network is another feature that other networks are only now trying to implement.

The New York, NY-based Tsu was founded in 2013 by Drew Ginsburg along with co-founders Sebastian Sobczak, Thibault Boullenger & Jonathan Lewin. The company has raised US $7 million in venture funding.

Image Credit: tsu

Advertising Message

Comments Off on Tsu launches as a social network monetization & payment platform Posted in Internet Startups, New Internet Startups, Social Media News