At best people consider myYearbook an afterthought in the social networking world – they weren’t even included in our 2009 Social Network valuation model because of a lack of available traffic data.
And yet…the company has managed to achieve profitability, a goal some of its huge competitors are still struggling to reach. CEO Geoff Cook told me today that the company is generating over $1 million/month in revenue, and became profitable in Q1 2009 (they’ve been ebitda profitable since last year).
1/3 of that revenue comes from virtual gifts, a product that only first launched in late 2008. The remainder, about 2/3 of revenue, is from advertising.
The site, which is aimed at teenagers, was first launched in 2005 by Geoff Cook and his siblings, Catherine and David. It now attracts nearly 6 million monthly unique visitors (Comscore worldwide, July 2009) and just over 1 billion monthly page views. 20 million users have registered.
As you might expect, myYearbook users overlap a lot with Facebook (60%) and MySpace (90%), so they have to be creative in offering something different to those users. As Cook explains in the video below, they are focusing on offering users a variety of games and activities to keep them engaged on the site, as well as facilitating the discovery of new people.
Cook also says that his team is focused more on monetization than growth at this point, and it’s important for them to build a sustainable business. They have no plans to raise more capital, he says. To date, they’ve raised just over $17 million.
Our video interview with Cook is below:
nice post but how do i get rid of this meebo chat bar.
ha. That thing is everything. Is it really by Meebo?
I got rid of it by clicking the arrow on the right of it
The only web bar i’ve found useful is maybe facebook’s, only because that’s the only way to get to events.
Other places are really annoying with little value. A negative impression for me on the site.
http://www.traderbots.com
Not sure the bar makes sense here, but I like the social dock setup they have here (click/drag any image).
huh
You cannot really get rid of this Meebo bar, because Meebo has some kind of under the table deal with techcrunch- they have been hyping them for the last 2 years, and now they proceeded with the ultimate form of promo.
click “hide“
Is myYearbook’s traffic (UUs) declining or increasing? I bet as its users get older, their interest will tail off. Like when you’re over 21, MySpace gets less interesting.
I wonder if myYearBook is able to replenish with new younger users . . . only time will tell
http://www.traderbots.com
I think there is always a market for the “Minors” under 18 crowd, primarily because parents might not want their kids on myspace or facebook. I imagine that they are very strong in the under 16 market.
pwrye sawrwb
Good to see they are worried about monetization where as the other big social company’s have no clue!
Mike, what’s this meebo bar/social dock thing? Pretty cool. Any more info on it?
I would NOT want my 16yr old son or 14yr old daughter visiting this site. Facilitating the social behavior that is present on this site does not prepare our youth to be productive contributors to our society nor does it position them individually to achieve positive and rewarding experiences.
It perpetuates a lack of respect for oneself and others and the creator of the site content and features knows exactly how the site will be and is being used.
I am all for profit and free market capitalism, but I wouldn’t want to be linked in anyway to making money off a site like this.
Don’t let the “parent safety” and “child safety” links fool you . . . I agree with the fact that all parents should know precisely how their children are spending time on the internet . . . but that doesn’t excuse this company’s exploitation of immature and disrespectful social behavior.
myyearbook has very low standards and unfortunately that can make those willing to cross the line a lot of money in our society these days.
I think the main point that people have to remember about social networking is that for every graph there is a reason why the nodes connect. Facebook is for maintenance of real world connections. It’s does that really well, but usage of other features is 50% or lower (pulling that out of my ass) It’s not too late to get in the social networking space if you give people another reason to connect that is broad based and sustainable. A social network for plumbers is not broadbased. A B2B social network for small business owners is. Just an example off the top of my head.
well u basically said it all!!!
Social networking is sure to be used in web2.0.
Your stats say he raised $17.1M but in the video he says he raised over $20M. Also in crunchbase it lists Geoff as CEO and not founder, but in the article above you say Geoff (and siblings) launched it together.
Don’t believe everything people tell you.
Wow 1 million a month is not bad at all.
When they were first getting publicity, they said the two teenagers were running the company. Well they better start banking fast and pare down that employee count. There traffic went flat and they are now on the decline. They can spin it any way they want as far as monetizing vs. gaining traffic. They’ve got a limited time to milk it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a third less traffic this time next year.
Promising underdog.
I wish there was more info here. Why are they profitable? Is it because people are paying for games? Are there games better than others? Is there a model here for others to follow?