Enhanced UGC App Plays Up Mobile, Location

Andy Leff looked into the mirror on Time Magazine’s Person of the Year cover back in 2006 and saw great potential in its designee: You. Noting a sidebar story on blogging U.S. soldiers and Iraq and their massive following, Leff registered the domain name of Meporter.com, thinking that one day, when the right technology had arrived, there might yet be more gold in the user-generated content hills.

Flash forward to 2010 and the ubiquity of smartphones in the digital firmament, and that moment had come for Leff, the CEO and founder of Meporter. By the following year, he released the Meporter app, empowering users to turn their smartphones into reporters’ notebooks (and cameras), along with giving them a network onto which they could publish their work.

Today, Leff said he sees Meporter’s growth happening on two tracks: the further development of the internal network as a publishing platform for UGC from all over the world and the even more pivotal pursuit of profit-yielding white label relationships with media companies looking to get some enhanced functionality out of their UGC.

“Right now we’re focused on getting these media relationships because that gives us credibility and users,” Leff said. “Once we have that network built out, we can then focus more of our marketing dollars on the actual Meporter network itself.”

The latter, however, already has tens of thousands of registered users according to Leff, who use the app to upload their pictures, videos and articles. In turn, they are able to leverage their accumulated content into badges sponsored by the site’s advertisers, which can in turn be exchanged for products or services.

One of the site’s (and app’s) largest current sponsors is Forbes Magazine, which incentives users to write 10 local business stories that can be then redeemed into a subscription to the print magazine. Another upcoming sponsor is a northeastern-based jewelry store chain, Leff said, which is incentivizing contributors to submit fashion and lifestyle-oriented content utilizing certain keywords, which can then be parlayed into the user’s name in a drawing for a pair of diamond earrings.

So what’s in it for the sponsor? “They’re hoping it will build foot traffic for them and get people talking and get their logo out there because it gets branded on the badges in the users’ accounts,” Leff said.

But he sees even greater profitability among existing media sites with either no or limited UGC capability, especially on the mobile platform and in smaller markets. “You’d be surprised at how many local newspapers and local TV stations don’t have their own user generated mobile app,” Leff said, adding, “It’s a new advertising unit that they can sell to local advertisers.”

Leff said that Meporter further distinguishes itself in the UGC field by offering a live feed of all the news coming in from a certain location or as flagged by certain keywords, along with an API that newsrooms can hook into to pull out those UGC streams.

And as with social apps like Foursquare, there’s a check in feature that users can activate if they’re on the scene of breaking news that will show them on its map.

For now, Leff said, “Revenue is coming in, but we’re not at profitability yet.” And beyond the white label, he’s looking at some “guerilla tactic-type” approaches to covering the Occupy movement along with an upcoming partnership with an Australian music publication as some of the more creative approaches to monetizing the UGC age of You.

Vendor: Meporter, LLC

Launched: May 2011

Cost to consumers: Free

Compatible devices: iPhone, Android

White label version: Yes

Number of downloads: More than 200,000

Revenue streams: Advertising sponsorship of contributor “badges” within site; potential ad revenue shares with white label version

Key characteristics: Meporter allows users to upload pictures, video or text to its user generated content site, where users can earn badges for their participation. Badges can be redeemed for goods and services with local and national sponsors. Meporter also geotargets all content that cross-references to a searchable map interface.

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