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June 18, 2013 01:21 pm GMT
WPP, the advertising giant, is taking another step into the world of startup investments, this time specifically in mobile and social media. It is taking a stake in Muzy, a Pinterest-style social media platform that lets users incorporate links to images, games, text and more, which they then share with their friends, or with the world at large. The site has some 20 million users and is adding 1 million each month. Terms of the investment were not disclosed but we are trying to find out. That growth, however, and the facts that Muzy is social and mobile, are three indications of why WPP took an interest in the site. Muzy, founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, was founded by Andrew Chen (CEO) and Matt Rubens (CTO). Chen had also held positions at Mohr Davidow Ventures and Revenue Science, while Rubens, an engineer, has worked at Amazon.com, among other places. According to a release, the company will be using the funding to staff up — it currently employs less than 10 people — and “build out the suite of creative publishing tools for the Muzy platform.” At the moment, when you go to the site, you can choose from some 50 widgets to publish content into your page. It’s this app-within-app facility that sets Muzy apart from other platforms focused on content creation and self-expression, and could be one way for the company to differentiate longer term. It could also be a way for WPP to potentially look at ways of monetizing. You can imagine, for example, widgets or channels getting sponsored by brands, not to mention pages themselves. In an age where users are getting increasingly desensitized to display advertising online, you can see how new formats like these will continue to be tested out as ways of getting users to engage with marketing (as a way, also, of financing sites like these). WPP has developed something of a track record in making strategic investments into digital, specifically mobile and other emerging areas, as a way of shoring up against larger trends in the industry away from more traditional forms of media like print. Following where the consumer masses (and their eyeballs) are going, WPP has taken stakes in e-commerce sites like MySupermarket ($10 million in April 2012); and more straight media plays, such as yesterday’s news, a stake in Fullscreen (undisclosed amount). Perhaps the biggest of
Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Htj7pfO4lxo/
Ad Giant WPP Takes Stake In Muzy, A Mobile Microblogging Startup With 20M Users
WPP, the advertising giant, is taking another step into the world of startup investments, this time specifically in mobile and social media. It is taking a stake in Muzy, a Pinterest-style social media platform that lets users incorporate links to images, games, text and more, which they then share with their friends, or with the world at large. The site has some 20 million users and is adding 1 million each month. Terms of the investment were not disclosed but we are trying to find out. That growth, however, and the facts that Muzy is social and mobile, are three indications of why WPP took an interest in the site. Muzy, founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, was founded by Andrew Chen (CEO) and Matt Rubens (CTO). Chen had also held positions at Mohr Davidow Ventures and Revenue Science, while Rubens, an engineer, has worked at Amazon.com, among other places. According to a release, the company will be using the funding to staff up — it currently employs less than 10 people — and “build out the suite of creative publishing tools for the Muzy platform.” At the moment, when you go to the site, you can choose from some 50 widgets to publish content into your page. It’s this app-within-app facility that sets Muzy apart from other platforms focused on content creation and self-expression, and could be one way for the company to differentiate longer term. It could also be a way for WPP to potentially look at ways of monetizing. You can imagine, for example, widgets or channels getting sponsored by brands, not to mention pages themselves. In an age where users are getting increasingly desensitized to display advertising online, you can see how new formats like these will continue to be tested out as ways of getting users to engage with marketing (as a way, also, of financing sites like these). WPP has developed something of a track record in making strategic investments into digital, specifically mobile and other emerging areas, as a way of shoring up against larger trends in the industry away from more traditional forms of media like print. Following where the consumer masses (and their eyeballs) are going, WPP has taken stakes in e-commerce sites like MySupermarket ($10 million in April 2012); and more straight media plays, such as yesterday’s news, a stake in Fullscreen (undisclosed amount). Perhaps the biggest ofOriginal Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Htj7pfO4lxo/
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