Transcription of Finance News Network Interview with migme Limited (ASX:MIG) CEO and Co-founder, Steven Goh
Lelde Smits: Hello I’m Lelde Smits for the Finance News Network and joining me from migme Limited
(ASX:MIG) is its CEO and co-founder, Steven Goh. Steven, welcome to Sydney and to FNN.
Steven Goh: Thank you, glad to be here.
Lelde Smits: migme’s model for monetising social media is the virtual goods model. Could you explain how this works?
Steven Goh: Companies which are in the business of social media are in the business of mass intimacy. It’s about how do you connect people and a lot of people to interact and play with each other. Virtual gifts and goods are about creating premium interactions between users, which lead to monetisation. In the old days we used to send hallmark cards to each other. In this modern framework we can send small snappy interactions, be it hugs, kisses, we can send poo, we can throw rotten tomatoes. We can send songs and the like, all of which that wide spectrum which is valuable, we charge and we bill for.
Lelde Smits: What’s the appeal of your strategy?
Steven Goh: The strategy is that the larger the network is, the larger more playful the interactions are, the more gifts and games are played and the more revenues we drive.
Lelde Smits: Could you detail the rationale behind choosing Indonesia as migme’s initial market?
Steven Goh: Indonesia we think represents, it’s a great representative of what the rest of the emerging markets will look like by income profile, by demographics, by consumer behaviour. And it is proximate to where our head office is, which is Singapore. Indonesia does have 240 million people; it is an internationally valuable market for us to be in. It allows us to develop the business model to a point where we can then replicate it to other countries, which is what we’re doing at the moment.
Lelde Smits: migme recently purchased online shopping site Sold.sg. How do you see online shopping contributed to the Company?
Steven Goh: We think that it simply adds to the business model. Once again, we’re about creating or unlocking prmium interactions between users, between media companies and their audiences. E-commerce represents a part of that.
Lelde Smits: How do you think the penetration of Facebook in your markets such as India and Indonesia, will impact the amount of users signing up to the migme platform?
Steven Goh: We think the companies like Facebook and Twitter are great for companies like migme. They help us establish the channel and get people aware of what a social media option might be. And we don’t believe that Facebook is the long run best model that fits these markets, and we offer an exciting viable alternative.
Lelde Smits: migme has also been adding about one million subscribers per month and hit ten million subscribers, at the end of last year. What are you targeting for the current calendar year?
Steven Goh: We think that we’re going to deliver somewhere between 30 and 50 million of the active users. And there’s a range of different things which may contribute to the wide variation between those two numbers. The rate at which we’ll be able to bring partnerships on board, the way that we’re able to form business development relationships on the ground, and how sticky our users going to be.
Lelde Smits: How many users do you believe you need to achieve profitability?
Steven Goh: Classically similar businesses to this monetise at several per cent, at several dollars per month. On that basis, on the basis that we get to five or seven per cent at $4 to $6 per month, we think that we can get to profitability somewhere between that 20/30 million monthly active users. But it will depend on once again, matching the user base growth, building out the engagement infrastructure and the payment infrastructure, to get to collect the cash.
Lelde Smits: What is the competitive framework like in Indonesia and India?
Steven Goh: It’s fantastic for migme we think where we believe that we’re a leading player. We have a very unique proposition. All the media partners and partners we’re forming on the ground are excited with us, to be with us and we’re just powering on.
Lelde Smits: Finally Steven, what are the Company’s priorities over the coming year?
Steven Goh: Last year we were getting user base momentum moving, this year we’re working at consolidating user base growth. There’s the rate of growth that we can deliver a very large relevant company. And the priorities, the added priorities for this year are to ensure that the monetisation framework follows user base growth, so that we can ultimately deliver a profitable and extremely valuable company.
Lelde Smits: Steven Goh, thank you for the update from migme.
Steven Goh: Thank you so much.
Ends
