The
Meet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEET), a public market leader in the mobile
meeting space, today announced that it has added Podcoin,
a first-of-its-kind mobile app that rewards podcast listeners, to its
portfolio of mobile apps.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190501005229/en/
“Podcoin is the social podcasting app that pays its listeners,” said
Geoff Cook, Chief Executive Officer of The Meet Group. “Within four
months of initial launch–and entirely organically–the app surpassed
one million daily listening minutes. We look forward now to bringing
Podcoin to our 15+ million monthly users, across our livestreaming
portfolio of social apps. We expect that 40% of our US audience will
listen to a podcast in the next month. We see an opportunity to reach
not only these users, but also the other 60%, as the podcasting industry
continues to rapidly expand.”
Podcoin has been moving up the charts organically and is highly rated on
both the Apple and Google platforms, with 4.7/5 stars on iOS and 4.6/5
stars on Android, based on thousands of ratings.
“Our mission has always been and continues to be about increasing human
connection, and podcasting is an inherently intimate medium. It makes
you feel like you are in the room, participating in a meaningful
conversation,” said Cook. “We see an opportunity not only to help our
users discover content, but also to participate in meaningful
conversations around that content. We expect to roll out likes,
comments, and an enhanced social graph in the coming months to encourage
connection. We see podcasts as an untapped interest graph and a relevant
signal for meeting new people. If our livestreaming video experience is
the lean-in, interactive blend of connection and entertainment,
podcasting is its lean-back audio complement.”
“While of course we focus the vast majority of our resources on
livestreaming video with more people working on it than ever before, we
also see the importance of exploring truly new, blue sky ideas,” said
Cook, “as we have done throughout our history. Audio is a clear
adjacency to video and podcasting is one of the fastest growing segments
of audio. We want to enable social experience around podcasts, and we
believe Podcoin has the right hook at the right time to appeal to our
15+ million monthly users.”
With more than 40,000 monthly users today spending an average of six
hours a week listening to podcasts, Podcoin gamifies podcast listening
by paying the listener one Podcoin for every ten minutes spent
listening. Leaderboards show the top listeners, and listeners can follow
each others’ profiles. Podcoin currency can be redeemed for rewards,
including gift cards, headphones, and more.
“We aim to amass a sizable audience,” continued Cook. “With that, we
believe we can drive discovery of new podcasts to podcasters who ‘claim’
their podcasts on Podcoin. Claiming is free, and as a quick Twitter
search for #podcoin shows, has proven effective for driving listening
minutes. So far, approximately 30-40% of Podcoin’s listening minutes
have gone to claimed podcasts. We believe the ability to drive listening
minutes to a subset of podcasts through minor variation to
Podcoin-earning rates points a pathway to future monetization.”
Podcasters who claim their podcasts can get direct insights into what
other podcasts their audience members are listening to through the app,
and they also have access to advanced analytics that track listening
minutes, listeners, subscribers, taps in search, and more. The company
expects in the coming months to enable community so that podcasters can
engage their audience of listeners and so that listeners may discover
each other.
About Podcoin
Podcoin
is a first-of-its-kind mobile app that rewards listeners. Our mission is
to increase the time the world spends listening. By adding social and
gamification to podcasting, Podcoin intends to solve the problem of
discovery for podcasters and provide the most efficient way to build and
engage an audience. For more information, please visit https://www.podcoin.com/.
About The Meet Group
The
Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET) is a portfolio of mobile social
entertainment apps designed to meet the universal need for human
connection. We leverage a powerful live-streaming video platform,
empowering our global community to forge meaningful connections. Our
primary apps, MeetMe®, LOVOO®, Skout®, Tagged®, and Growlr®, keep
millions of mobile daily active users entertained and engaged and
originate untold numbers of casual chats, friendships, dates, and
marriages. Our apps, available on iPhone, iPad, and Android in multiple
languages, use innovative products and sophisticated data science to let
our users stream live video, send gifts, chat, and share photos. The
Meet Group has a diversified revenue mix consisting of in-app purchases,
subscription, and advertising, and we have offices in New Hope,
Philadelphia, San Francisco and Dresden. For more information, visit themeetgroup.com,
and follow us on Facebook,
Twitter
or LinkedIn.
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, including whether we will bring Podcoin to our users across our
livestreaming portfolio of social apps, whether 40% of our US audience
will listen to a podcast in the next month, whether we will successfully
reach our users, whether the podcast industry will continue to rapidly
expand, whether we will help our users discover content and participate
in meaningful conversations around that content, whether we will roll
out likes, comments, and an enhanced social graph as expected, whether
we will enable social experience around podcasts, whether Podcoin has
the right hook at the right time to appeal to our monthly users, whether
Podcoin will amass a sizable audience, whether with a sizable audience
Podcoin we will monetize by driving discovery of new podcasts to
podcasters who claim their podcasts on Podcoin, whether the ability to
drive listening minutes to a subset of podcasts through minor variation
to Podcoin-earning rates will point a pathway to future monetization,
whether Podcoin will remain effective for driving listening minutes, and
whether we will enable community as expected so that podcasters can
engage their audience of listeners and listeners may discover each
other. All statements other than statements of historical facts
contained herein are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,”
“may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,”
“could,” “target,” “potential,” “project,” “is likely,” “expect” and
similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking
statements largely on our current expectations and projections about
future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our
financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and
financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results to
differ from those in the forward-looking statements include the risk
that our applications will not function easily or otherwise as
anticipated, the risk that we will not launch additional features and
upgrades as anticipated, the risk that unanticipated events affect the
functionality of our applications with popular mobile operating systems,
any changes in such operating systems that degrade our mobile
applications’ functionality and other unexpected issues which could
adversely affect usage on mobile devices. Further information on our
risk factors is contained in our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2018 filed with the SEC on March 8, 2019. Any
forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date
on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual
results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible
for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly
update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new
information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required
by law.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190501005229/en/