So, I've been interacting on Empire Avenue, a startup social media site that is in essence a stock exchange for buying and sharing people. Here's an excerpt from a blog post I wrote about it:
quote: Co-founder and CEO of Empire Avenue, Duleepa Wijayawardhana (aka Dups), brings years of game-theory design to a new social media platform (he was a developer at BioWare Corp., the gaming company that brought us titles including Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights & Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic). Basically, Empire Avenue brings a gaming dynamic to social media as a platform and aggregator, measuring users “worth” from their interaction and connections on Facebook, Twitter and other online networking sites.
On Empire Avenue, instead of friending or following connections, you are given the opportunity to buy shares in them, much like a traditional stock market, based on their social media, or virtual, value.
To me, this seems like the logical next step in the evolution of social media - and a potential godsend to advertisers looking to measure social media ROI, ROE and better ways to target their markets. But the platform, like all meaningful social networks, also gives power back to the consumer. Each user is free to invest, sell and trade in those individuals or companies they want to support - again much like a traditional stock market.
While the site is still in it’s beta phase, I see a fascinating and potentially powerful platform in the works - one that is both focused on the user and also makes no bones about what it is: a market to leverage the connections you make online.
It's a bit more exhaustive than your typical social media platform, having a bit of a learning curve. But I can foresee interesting applications from such a medium.
Is anyone else here on it? What are your thoughts? If you're interested in checking it out or joining, I'd appreciate if you used this link to give us both extra "cash" (Eaves as they are referred to in-game): http://empireavenue.com/?t=2700778e Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Frankly, I think it's a ridiculous idea.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
The best I can tell from the wiki, you're just betting (potentially with real money) on which social media personality will interact with other people more. Aside from being able to game that, I can't see how this is different from a ponzi scheme.
Posted by Godric 2.0 (Member # 11443) on :
I've been looking at it in context of comparison to Klout. I think it's much more useful for measuring social media influence (for what that's worth).
Mucus: I'm not seeing the ponzi scheme comparison. Care to elaborate on that?
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
I don't have a strong opinion, I'm just going off wiki
quote:Much like other social media games, Empire Avenue uses a strictly virtual currency called Eaves as a means of purchasing shares in other players, additional rights within the exchange, advertising and services. Eaves can be purchased with real-world currency via PayPal, but cannot be exchanged for real-world currency. The founder and CEO of Empire Avenue stated that there are plans to introduce features that would allow the players to exchange Eaves for real-world rewards.
So people put in real money, buy virtual shares in something that has no value, and maybe can get some money out if they cash out while new cash is coming in.
But there's no underlying value to what people are buying shares in, no equivalent of real dividends (as in real stocks) to extract value from what you own, you have no rights, the only hope is that enough people are still buying the virtual goods so that you can get your money out first.
I guess I'm being a little uncharitable, you could play it purely as a game and consider your purchases of Eaves as buying entertainment. *shrug*
Posted by Godric 2.0 (Member # 11443) on :
There is an option to purchase in game currency, but from my experience there's no real need to. I think they leave that option there for hard core players and let's EAv acquire some cashflow.
They're pretty open and transparent. If you ask the CEO Duleepa or pretty much any of the visible employees something via Twitter or email you'll get a direct response.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:I think it's much more useful for measuring social media influence (for what that's worth).
Why would anyone want to do that?
Posted by Godric 2.0 (Member # 11443) on :
Working in today's advertising I can assure you, for better or worse, everyone wants to measure their social media influence. Klout has become a sort of standard measurement among a segment of mainstream business. See this Ad Age article from last September:
quote: Among the marketers already working with Klout are Starbucks, CoverGirl, Dannon Yogurt, Virgin America, and most recently, Fox.
Personally, I think Klout's metrics aren't much more useful than the messages John Edward shares from beyond the grave. And I'm not alone in that criticism. Here's just one of thousands of articles I could reference.
Empire Avenue, on the other hand seems to me a much more useful tool. Of course, it's designers aren't quite engaging in a battle with Klout at the moment, instead referring to it as a game.
Here's a great article summarizing a lot of the potential I see, from The Red Recruiter:
quote: I can’t say whether Empire Avenue is the next evolution in social media grading or a simple blip on the map of new things… the users and overall adoption will ultimately judge that. But, what I can say is that I’m intrigued with how robust and thought through the product is – from their help menus to their Facebook App. I’m also fairly certain that their goals are simultaneously fun and relevant.
For some time now, social media has created a buzz that’s resulted in a wide-array of individuals jumping in and exploring the tools. Interestingly, adopters seem to have chopped Social Media in half. Some adopted the “Social” piece and others simply saw it as “Media.” As the new “Media” adopters’ eyes glazed over with dollar signs, we all saw a massive rise in people who claim expertise in the realm based on their abilities to spam the networks. I get it, but it sure the hell didn’t do any favors for the experience of the masses.
What I see in Empire Avenue is a noble attempt to truly rate and judge social media success. Let the market decide how engaging and useful someone’s presence is. If they are doing it “right,” one can expect a higher share value, increased dividends and happy investors. The spammers will fall into the realm of irrelevance and it will all be on full display within Empire Avenue.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:Working in today's advertising I can assure you, for better or worse, everyone wants to measure their social media influence.
Why would anyone want to work in today's advertising?
Posted by Godric 2.0 (Member # 11443) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson:
quote:Working in today's advertising I can assure you, for better or worse, everyone wants to measure their social media influence.
Why would anyone want to work in today's advertising?
I'm not sure I'm following your line of questioning now. Are you asking me personally or in general?
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
*laugh* Really, I'm just being snotty. There is absolutely nothing that I find more irritating than the monetizing of personal relationships, or the personalizing of monetary relationships, and the "social media" phenomenon is all about that crap.
Posted by Godric 2.0 (Member # 11443) on :
Wow. Did I really just get TomDavidson to admit he's "just being snotty?"
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
No. I admitted it, with no help whatsoever from you. Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Man, you even make admitting being snotty sound snotty...... Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
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