Entrepreneurship Concepts of Upworthy - Research Paper Example

Executive Summary (Upworthy) The changing trends in technology have facilitated a paradigm shift in the way organizations reach their clients. Social media platforms have been on the forefront in reaching out to people more than any other platform in the world today. We often hear of a video, an advert or any other document or program that has gone viral, this is a very important marketing tool. Upworthy is one of the startup companies that are capitalizing on the social media in order to reach out a large audience. They have developed a strategy that allows the website visitors to share the information therein hence reaching out to more people. This summary features Upworthy as one of the companies that have come up strongly. Overview Upworthy is an attractive social media that was founded on March 2012. This social media based company helps in connecting organizations with people that would like to read their pages. Their website provides a platform for sharing of information about what is trending. Upworthy saw an opportunity in making worthy information get viral at the expense of funny stuff that has lees value. The business falls under a social networking where it allows people to share important information until it reaches to as many people as possible. The shared information is usually termed as verifiable and ‘upworthy’. The company has grown and currently has twenty-two employees. Their slogan is quite descriptive of their mandate, “things that matter.” Their offices are located in New York in the United States. The company was founded by Eli Pariser, Peter Koechley and Jennifer Lee. The company has received funding that totals to $12 Million; $4 million from venture round in October 2012 and $ 8 million from Series A in September 2013. Just after one year of existence, the company registered over 11 million unique visits surpassing the leaders like Huffington post (Mckenzie, 2013). Industry The use of social media has emerged as a powerful tool in disseminating information. Upworthy spotted a perfect gap that would ensure that a solution is sought in reaching out to huge public through delivery of beneficial information. The choice to rise to the occasion and capitalize on the available opportunity and pain has made the company emerge successful. Bloggers and the mainstream social sites like Facebook and twitter have dominated the social networking industry. However, Upworthy strategized and its story is a successful one today. Their website has attracted a huge traffic courtesy of the news they air. Quantcast placed it among the top one hundred websites having reached up to 30 million unique visitors fourteen months after its formation. The company did not have the motive to advertise but they are considering incorporating it due to the heavy traffic that is experienced in their website. Characterized by innovation and uniqueness, Upworthy presents a platform for people to have news at their disposal in a presentable way. The mode of presenting the news to them matters. While the actual figures about the company’s profitability are not explicit, they have been able to develop a public image as well as contributed to charity. For example, one of its biggest hits that went viral was the video of Zach Sobiech that had died of cancer. The video developed featured his biography; the viewers reached 15 million while the song by Sobiech became the best in the iTunes store. In addition, $ 300,000 was contributed that would go to charity (Bercovici, 2013). The company has a focus in helping non-profit making organizations discharge some of their mandate. Opportunity Social sites have been developed but they have been done based on the status quo. Upworthy introduces a new dimension of delivering news by being as precise as possible and still being able to spread the information. Upworthy capitalized on the opportunity availed by the digital platforms to make a difference in the market. Theirs was to optimize on the preexisting opportunity while applying innovativeness in order to develop a competitive advantage over other social networks (O’Donovan, 2013). It is apparent that there are many media platforms that presents news and other information, however, Upworthy ventured is an idea of building a social media that has a goal; this is to make any important message go viral. The rise of the opportunity emanated from the realization that bad content was predominant in going viral. They thought about developing a site where vetted and verified information such as videos go viral. This is geared towards increasing the awareness base. Product The ability to provide a platform for ease sharing of important information made the site to attract huge traffic within a short period. Kemper (2013) provides that the solution provided by the introduction of a new product is actually the pain. The focus of Upworthy is not only to solve to generate traffic but positive traffic. The site provides a solution to the need for news and at the same time, it serves a social purpose of making viral charitable endeavors. The site gives an opportunity for charitable ventures to be communicated very well; the case of Sach Sobiech is a good example. Judging from the visitors as well as the contributions that have been made courtesy of the site, positive feedback is identifiable. While delivering their messages to the public, Upworthy has a unique way of capturing the attention of the reader. For example, it arouses the pain of the reader when they find a headline such as “a video of some idiot surfing off his roof.” They have branded their information as both “shocking and significant, sensational and substantial, and entertaining and enlightening.” Another spectacular aspect with their site is that it has so many pop-ups. This feature has created value in the delivery of information as enhanced the ability to trace information that one would be in need of. Technology The rise in social networking is the basis of Upworthy’s existence as well as its innovation. Social media has been has been providing information to the users but to move a notch higher they initiated the ‘viralization’ of information so that the traffic that will be reached is big. The development of viral programs is the same underlying technology behind Upworthy’s ‘positive’ viral information. Information technology is the hit in the market today and every business is rushing to catch up with it, the scalability of Upworthy is impressive. Being ahead of competition for Upworthy can be attributed to this technology. With the development in making information viral, the targeted entry into marketing will be boosted a great deal. Company Upworthy is a unique company, it come with the ability to make the world a better place. The implemented change in the delivery of information is not only interesting but also positive and quite informative. With the great audience in the social media today, the untapped potential is too high. Upworthy is realizing many alternatives to come money especially through advertising. However, this is an afterthought since this was not the main mission why the company was developed. In addition, the company has been supported heavily, with a total of $ 20 million; it means that there is full confidence with the company. Throughout the period of existence, the online traffic in the company has been on the rise, an observation of this trend shows a great potential in the company. Upworthy’s information is verified and can be relied upon since it is fact-checked. Besides, it is presented in a very interesting way that will attract the reader. For example, ‘if this video makes you uncomfortable, then you make me uncomfortable’ and many others that are able to raise the curiosity of the reader. Leadership The leadership of Upworthy defines the creativity, focus and the progressive development that the company has exhibited to this far. Among all other resources, the people are the most important P as provided by Kemper (2013). The workforce has dedicated individuals that are talented and capable of working out of their own initiative. Under the leadership of Peter Koechley, a charismatic individual who exhibits business acumen, the website has grown tremendously. References Bercovici, J. (2013). With 30 M Uniques under its belts, Upworthy is ready to Monetize. Forbes. Retrieved on 11 February 2014 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/07/01/with-30m-uniques-under-its-belt-upworthy-is-ready-to-monetize/ Kemper, A. (2013). Entrepreneurship. Introduction of Entrepreneurship. Lecture. Koechley, P. (2012). Could this be the most upworthy site in the history of internet? Retrieved on 11 February 2014 from http://www.upworthy.com/could-this-be-the-most-upworthy-site-in-the-history-of-the-internet McKenzie, H. (2013). Upworthy says we’ve been doing viral all wrong: Serious stuff is more shareable than LOL cats. Pandodaily. Retrieved on 11 February 2014 from http://pando.com/2013/04/03/upworthy-says-weve-been-doing-viral-all-wrong-serious-stuff-is-more-shareable-than-lol-cats/ O’Donovan, C. (2013). “If you’re not feeling it, don’t write it”: Upworthy’s social success depends on gut-checking “regular people.” Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved on 11 February 2014 from http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/06/if-youre-not-feeling-it-dont-write-it-upworthys-social-success-depends-on-gut-checking-regular-people/ Read More