Zombies, animals, cannibalism. That's the content Australians click on, according to Mi9 CEO Mark Britt. But they also want breaking news, free of charge and agenda, and they want to share it. "Advertising is a brilliant model," said Britt, but media companies are in trouble because they don't have registered users.
The company nailed its colours to the flag yesterday ahead of a new human-curated Twitter style news service called Now.
Britt reeled off the stats to journalists and media companies yesterday. Amongst other nuggets, interest in zombies spikes after economic bad news, said Britt, and dogs are largely more popular than cats. "The number one dog is the panda dog," said Britt. The data was thrown up by a 'likeability engine' created by the company which is beefing up its editorial department ahead of the launch of the new Now service.
As well as the quirky, Britt said that immediate breaking news was also a huge traffic generator, and that the shareability of content was a key factor in the amplification of news.
To tap into this, Mi9 is launching a mobile first news product that aggregates content from 40 of its platforms and displays it in a scrolling feed that updates to show users everything that has happened since they last checked in.
In beta tests, around 1% of Mi9 traffic is being directed to the site ahead of full launch, the company told AdNews. Eventually, the service will come close to the immediacy of Twitter, but in an editorially-curated environment.
“[The Now product] is a completely new direction from us. The immediacy of now, being able to check in with what’s going on in your life becomes the centre of the story and connected experiences," said Britt.
Britt also committed to keeping content free, adding that “We don’t think users should need to pay for content. We think advertising as a business model is phenomenal. Mi9 is deeply committed to keeping it free and more importantly, free of an agenda."
If that was a swipe at News Corp, with its partisan support of Tony Abbott over the last few months, Britt flagged another key difference: registered users.
While News and Fairfax are struggling to reach 100,000 IDs the number of registered users that Mi9 has acquired across its networks and platforms "is 14.2 million," claimed Britt.
He said the lack of registered users was "one view why [traditional] media companies are in such trouble".
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