Mobuzz, one of the more popular online shows to come out of Europe, has run out of money. But instead of bowing out, the site is turning to its users and asking for a €5 donation (or the equivalent in your local currency). The goal? 120,000 Euros by next week, which Mobuzz says should be enough to sustain the site until it can get more funding. If it doesn’t make the cut, the site will be shut down and any donations will be returned.
It’s always nice to see a community come together to support something it enjoys, but Mobuzz and its fans should keep in mind that the site ran out of money for a reason - it’s not like someone came in and snatched it away. So while the guys in the video below can plead about saving the free daily shows that the site has been producing for years, if Mobuzz does survive it will likely see radical changes. Any new investors will want to see the site turn a profit, be it through paid content, increased advertising, or fewer shows.
Also, what’s the deal with the one week notice? It looks like Mobuzz either had a financial deal in the works that fell though at the last minute, or they’re setting a short time limit to give their drive a false sense of urgency (I’m guessing the latter).
Update: Some people who are close to the Mobuzz team say this isn’t an arbitrary time limit and that they’re actually within a week of closing shop. That may be true, but why not start the fund raising effort a few weeks earlier?
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“…or they’re setting a short time limit to give their drive a false sense of urgency (I’m guessing the latter)”
How about: they want to return the money promptly if it doesn’t work out? Don’t get me wrong, I love cynicism, but only if it is smart.
on the video on their web site, they explain they need about $50k/month for next 3 months and they say that this is the time it will take them to find additional financing. I guess that the 1 week timeline is more of a marketing startegy to get people to act now rather than say “ok, I’ll do it next week”.
my comments at http://www.commentino.com/orim
why dont they convert their business model into something that actually makes profit then?
Swat that fly already. There is no way they’ll raise that kind of cash pan handling.
Steps to saving your business:
Short-Term
1. Sack 80% of your staff - its either shut down or continue on a shoe string. You dont really have a choice.
2. Out source everything you can and only keep essential people
3. Give away more equity - if people believe in your business, they will stay.
Long Term
1. Devote 20% of your time into finding funds, and 80% into creating a viable business.
2. Establish vertical and horizontal channel partners to distribute your show and get more exposure.
3. Try and secure a really good sponsor - dont appear to your audience for money, appeal for contacts to major sponsors.
My 2 cents
Your 2 cents are worth $100 compared to a donation
I personally know the founder Anil, as well as Gabe and Cedric who manage Mobuzz with him. They are great and Mobuzz is the only european web tv that works and with a great community. There is no way they would put this one week as a fake way to raise funds. If they do it it must be real and that they tried everything else possible.
I think it is very bad news when serious and trustworthy entrepreneurs building great content go bankrupt. Very sad that content online has so much troubles to find a business model. Too bad for the quality.
I really hope they can find some kind of paying model or any other source of financing.
If I was a TV group such as the French TF1, I would jump on it.
So these guys don’t have any money on their company bank account?
Die already.
I understand you think there could be some hidden marketing here, but I talked to Anil and people close to the project and they are really in trouble.
If after 4 years you’re not turning a profit, maybe you’ve gotta think that now is time to hang up your hat.
Also as I side point how much resource has been used making the thermometer and payment integration for the gimmick?
Um let’s see… the themometer is a photoshop file that we update manually, and payment integration is exel export from paypal that is then copy pasted. It took 2 whole IT companies to make it for us. We spent well over 10,ooo just doing that. Come on. Make a real comment. Making that was childsplay. Try making 5 shows a day in 3 languages in HD. That is a challenge…
HD ha! I hope all clips are filmed with surround sound, and also with conventional film which is then archived in a warehouse each day.
I appreciate that it takes effort and guts to jump into running a startup…. but I come back to the point that if you’re not profitable after 4 years maybe it’s time to hang up your hat and look for a business model that will actual drive some profit rather than spunking community / VC money on HD cameras. Come on who actually cares about watching clips in HD?
ok 3 languages but what is the point if you make no money?
Now thats a pretty funny comment. Excuse my cynism. But well, lets summarize it. 10.000 to create the vid, thermometer 200×200 flash that should be autogenned on server depending on predef $collected_cash rather than updated manually, contract to two external companies. The exel export, hmm maybe You shall switch to open office instead.
But frankly, I have visited mobuzz like once or twice in the past but that didnt catch my eye so much to return. I do not recognize the mobuzz logo. You spend 2/3 of daily turnover on content understood in 3/25 of euro countries + mexico in outside world instead of focusing on english content which is recognized in like 23/25 euro countries including uk, us and rest of civilized world. Does it answer the question why I strongly disagree with a need of spending 50 eurocents on this project?
sk00n@nl -> “You spend 2/3 of daily turnover on content understood in 3/25 of euro countries + mexico”
One figure for you: If we leave apart, for its specific and confined geolocation, the languages in China and India, the language with the highest number of native speakers in the world would be, guess what?, Spanish.
Another interesting figure regarding situation in the US, Spanish is the second spoken language there by such margin that, even if we create another language called “Other” made of “all the other languages” spoken in the country, that “Other” group of speakers would be smaller.
So, ok, only in Spain + Mexico… bless you…
For verification purposes (and ignorance remediation), please try Wikipedia.
Before shooting at me with ignorance rgument which lacks the grounding imho, please think about the spanish speaking community of us as the main target for mobuzz. Funny isnt it? Then If we go in the same direction if they’re the main target of the site (which I doubt to say the least), I’d suggest asking them to collect 120k eur. That does sound firly unlikely isnt it? Try to look for some way to suggest something to the mobuzz guys instead of arguing with someone who tries to look in objective way at the results of running mobuzz and some ways to save it.
regards mister,
So Anil still drives his Porsche and lives on the most exclusiv street in Madrid?
Bill Gates live from delhi… http://www.dreamsparkindia.com....._live.aspx
Video content doesn’t works in the Internet. It doesn’t works for Mobuzz.tv as it doesn’t works for Youtube.
It’s funny and let you wate some time online but there’s no bussiness model behind the video content. Simply and plain.
one more bailout here?
While Mobuzz was a project, a startup than earned money did not distribute anything with his own community. Now, ask for money is (nothing less that 120.000 €) is not appropiate. We have to remember that Mobuzz isn’t a fundation or non-profit association
Sounds like a last resort asking the community for money, thats why its probably so late coming.
…or they could reduce spending, let go some people, reduce feature set (that many people watch them in HD ??)
…or they could find 10 advertisers, at 4 thousand euros per month, that would make it as well (and convince their future investors MUCH better).
…or they could offer *stock* in exchange of 5 EUR (ok, it’s very complicated legally, but the idea of micro-funding is appealing ; see http://www.makeorfund.com )
But anyway, why not also show sympathy, for the price of a (good) beer. I just wired my 5 euros.
Have never even seen the show but felt compelled to support entrepreneurs who’re taking a chance in an nontraditional medium. It’s $6.50 USD- no harm in seeing if/where they’ll go with it.
More proof that if you don’t make money, it’s not a business. “More financing” is not making money.
I guess they probably could have started a few weeks earlier unless they believed the had a source of funding that fell through last minute.
I’m a volunteer firefighter (unpaid) in my small (pop. 15k) town’s department. With great effort we get some 3.000€ a year for gas so we can run the vehicles. We don’t have SCBA (air packs), which would allow us to go into a burning home and save lives, as it seems 12.000€ is too much to pay by the local council, also strapped for cash due to the crisis. Instead, in some cases we have to wait 20-30 minutes for nearby departments to respond.
You will think this is off-topic, but Mobuzz are asking for 10 times more than we would require to save someone’s life, and some people are thrilled and happy that they do it. They seem to have raised about 20.000€ already. I think it’s fine that they chose to do whatever they can think of to save their business, but when I see the situations I face on occasions, I have to ask myself if we are not putting some things in front of much more important ones. I for one will donate to charities, as I don’t believe a startup with its plush offices and an open pool (look around for videos of them) should suddenly try to become one. If they do make it, congratulations, but those giving their money to them should think if there aren’t more important causes in life than a video startup.
Erm, most “for profit” companies make $12k in the time it took me to write this post.
All of those guys could buy you your life saving equipment. Heck, every time somebody buys a Gucci purse, they might as well have murdered a bunch of people, since that would cover costs too.
Your city takes you for granted because you run so light. Volunteer? Why not demand $80k/year + hazard pay.
All you need is for one fire to get out of hand, and the citizens will revolt, demanding the city council invest more in fire safety.
I agree that we could get that kind of money from a company, unfortunately, we don’t have big businesses in our town, only small shops. We have done fundraising before, and it has bought us some of the equipment we have, other has been purchased by us (I recently bought a $1200 explosive gas detector with my own money). I was putting the air pack situation as an example of important causes (a school in India or a healthcare program in Africa would come before us for sure too!), in perspective of a startup that maybe - and I remark - maybe would be in a different situation had they done things differently.
Regarding a ‘trigger event’ like you describe, it’s unfortunate but that’s how many things work. Over here a traffic light on a dangerous crossing costs 2 or 3 dead people. A decent fire department would cost a large fire with victims most likely.
Thanks for your comments, I appreciate them.
With you Mike.
Far more worthy causes. I have seen the background on these guys and they are NOT poor. Leave a donation to Medicos sin fronteras or Oxfam. Worthy causes.
who watch that show anyway
stories are boring and come late
DIGGNATION!!!
OK, how much funding did they got? how come with a 50k a month burn rate (maybe more in the past) they are using vimeo instead of a propietary system?
They do have a propietary video player, right? c’mon!
What happened to the girl. Mobuzz was finished with her last show.
I think this will also serve as an excellent “market study” for them and many other similar free Web TV shops. What is the price elasticity of a loyal viewership base? If they do get enough $$$ to continue, this should tell the potential investors that they have a solid “customer” base and that the content they produce has a lot of value.
You stated “It looks like Mobuzz either had a financial deal in the works that fell though at the last minute, or they’re setting a short time limit to give their drive a false sense of urgency (I’m guessing the latter).” - well, it seems you were more than right… in this video:
http://www.agoranews.es/agoral.....o-para-mi/
(Too bad is in Spanish), one of the anchors says that they need the 120 k “only for three months” because “they already have an undisclosed sponsor that would save the site, three months from now”
So, why won’t you cut your spending and wait until then?
This smells fishy from every perspective.
No wonder they need all that money:
Check their offices http://www.sucede.es/post/58214005/mobuzz-tv
The thought of mobuzz shutting up shop makes my heart bleed
aahhh, loic forgot to mention that he also is in very trouble with his seesmic tv buzz. he dismissed 1/3 of his employees.soon more may follow. also fon.com operated by martin varsavsky in silicon valley analogon madrid is struggling. they also set free 1/3 of their team and uprised prices 67 % !!!
i will attend the funerals!
I am actually getting sick now. Driving around in Porsches, swimming pools. exclusiv streets in Madrid and they ask for cash? With NOTHING in return. I have a plan guys. Do what a previous poster suggested and offer equity in the company. Sound and smart.
But, what was that? You want the whole company for yourselves and not the viewers??? hmmm…
Very sad indeed. Just go outta business guys, geez. At least have some pride. There are peeps in Africa who are dying of diseases and can’t get anything to eat, or fresh water to drink. They deserve donations. You guys? Psst.. just get outta business.
And note to Loic: “I think it is very bad news when serious and trustworthy entrepreneurs building great content go bankrupt.” Psst.. gimme a break, man. Sure they may be good guys personally, but the fact they are crying for donations doest not mean this is bad news for all entrepreneurs.. it means they SUCK at business. PERIOD.