Every week over at m-pulse we discus the companies and concepts rocking the industry and my pick was Scoopshot, a mobile crowdsourcing app (and ecosystem) that allows media companies to post location-aware photo ‘assignments’ to the community of app users. The upshot is user-generated content that impresses on two counts: media (newspapers, magazines, online) have fresh content and people earn money for their photos. What’s more, the app is plugged into an ecosystem that manages right and makes payments.
It is refreshing to see such a well-executed strategy and end-to-end ecosystem, so I caught up with Niko Ruokosuo, who acts as the CEO of the company (owned by Helsinki-based P2S Media Group Inc.) and is in charge of Scoopshot’s internationalization efforts, business development operations and marketing. Niko has a long track record in the media industry and held executive positions in companies including: the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, one of the largest media organizations in the Middle East, the Finnish magazine publisher Sanoma Kaupunkilehdet and the Los Angeles Times. The team (and brains) behind Scoophot is Petri Rahja, along with CTO Timo Rinne and Head of Development Jussi Markula.
Scoopshot: at-a-glance
- Scoopshot is a free mobile app for iPhone and android devices allowing users to capture and send photos to the media. An app for Windows Phone is next in the pipeline.
- The service is ‘live’ in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands, where it is supported by agreements with leading media companies. Anyone, anywhere can download the app and start capturing photos (thus, responding to the ‘assignments’ posted by media companies to the ‘community’).
- As of January Scoopshot counts over 35,000 registered users in 135 countries. (Of course, the real action is mainly in Europe because that’s where the media partners are — for the moment.) And stats show the users are fairly active, with 52 percent of the users actually using the Scoopshot app in the last two weeks of January (when I interviewed Niko).
Interview with Niko Ruokosuo
MG: You are in several countries in Europe through media partnerships. How do you set up shop?
Niko: We launch a country by making an agreement with media there. The company basically agrees that it will start using Scoopshot within that country. Then the question becomes how do we recruit the photographers, the Scoopshooters. In 90 percent of the cases, this comes from the media companies. They tell their readership that they are seeking user-generated content by means of Scoopshot.
MG: You have more than app, you also have a community and a way for media companies to post ‘assignments’ detailing the photos they want. How does this work?
Niko: The other major functionality in Scoopshot is a way for media can send targeted tasks to the Scoopshooters anywhere in the world. In other words, I select a region and I direct and send a push notification to all the Scoopshooters in that region asking them to take photographs of an event. At the same time I tell them how much I’m willing to reward them for that photo.
MG: Let’s talk about the IP to hook Scoopshooters up with media companies. Is it yours?
Niko: Every line of code, everything that is used within the system, is written by us. We have numerous patent applications, invention notifications that relate to the technology that we use and we’re fairly advanced in the process of applying for patents. Those relate to the messaging technology, the location technology and authenticity of the content that we can provide through the system. All communication is directed through the app. In the next version of the app the communication with our user base becomes much more visual and much more engaging…
MG: What can we look for?
Niko: We will introduce new features, new functions and they will all be focused on boosting ease of use and simplicity. Video support is next. This will allow Scooshooters to shoot and send video because we know how media now is yearning for video content at low cost because it improves stickiness and social media.
MG: It could also open up advertising opportunities…?
Niko: We’ll be introducing Scoopshot Race in a few weeks. That, to me , is very exciting because it turns the application into a marketing device. Let’s say that Coca-Cola wants to capture their consumers, the old fashioned theme of capture a Coke moment. They can send the branded Coca-Cola task with a description or image that pays out exactly what they are looking for, as well as the prices. It is very visually engaging for a competition as well. The app says ‘capture a Coca-Cola moment, push this button, take a photo and send it, and Coca-Cola will reward the best photo with 5,000 Euros.
To make this all possible for the brand to offer and manage we have built a website that takes the branding of a Coca-Cola and pushes all of those photos that the users send to a Coca-Cola moment website directly from the readers’ mobile phones. On top of that, we can also provide Coca-Cola with certain rights to those photos if they want to use them in their marketing.
MG: You mention Coca-Cola. It may be a brand on your radar, but what can you tell me about the brands that have signed up or showed serious interest?
Niko: We are in concrete discussions with agencies and brands. Interestingly, we also have interest from one of the top music companies in the world. They approached us and want to offer a branded app so the fans can take photos from concerts on the tour. So, I think the opportunities are pretty much endless. Any brand that wants users to become engaged and participate, they can use this app to capture the content as part of a bigger social-focused advertising campaign.
MG: It’s definitely an app that brands can use. Are you looking beyond that to in-app advertising?
Niko: In one of the next releases we want to be able to inform our users of certain things on the homepage. So, when they open the app they will see a field for messaging. How we’re going to use that field hasn’t been decided. In the early stages it will news and announcements about Scoopshot, like announcements, profiles of successful Scooshooters…
MG: Which brings me to another key question: how much money are the Scoopshooters making?
Niko: On average, the media now pays 19 Euros per photo. But, we have had where media companies were so pleased with the results that they wanted to pay 5 times that.
MG: You are new — but you are also working to expand your footprint. Where will we see you launch next?
Niko: Our focus has been on Europe and Asia. We have signed to launch in countries. And I can tell you that we will also be launching outside of Europe. North America is also our focus. (Editor’s note: Niko hinted later that Latin American countries and Canada figure high on the list, so I gather we can look for those next…)
MG: Scoopshot has social media at its heart. How do fit in with all the other social media out there?
Niko: There is the ability to link Scoopshot on Facebook and media all together with this application by sharing what the user is doing on Facebook. I see Scoopshot fitting right in the middle, allowing media companies to reach out beyond the walls they have built to engage with people and encourage them to participate. We are right in the middle of that, building a bridge using social media and the eagerness of the audience to participate in content creation, and linking that to the needs of media companies.
MG: As you mentioned, there are social networks out there and creating and sharing content is a part of who and what we are. How are you going to compete?
Niko: While they all allow people to share content, we have the entire ecosystem in place that is needed to manage a publishing cycle from the user to the end media. We have the intellectual property rights covered in the system, both for the Scoopshooter and for the media. So there is no vagueness about who owns the rights to the photo, which is the case for Flickr, Facebook and any other social media.
The rights belong to the sender —the Scoopshooter. The rights are transferred to us for a period of 48 hours, giving us the right to sell the photo. If no one buys a photo within 48 hours, then rights are transferred back to the sender. If the media buys it, the company can buy a single license — single time publishing rights— allowing that company to publish the photo once in their print, online and broadcast media. If they want to publish that same photo a week later, then they need to re-purchase that photo. They can also buy exclusive rights, which is 10-fold the price. If the media company clicks the button to buy exclusive rights, then no one else can publish that photo — period.
We also have created the related payment structure because there needs to be a payment to the source. So media can transfer money instantly and the Scoopshooter gets feedback about paid photos instantly on their mobile device, including the money.
MG: This really is an economy around an app…What are the nuts and bolts of the mobile payment process?
Niko: In countries where the IBAN accounts system is prevailing, you have two options – PayPal or direct transfer to a bank account. In countries where IBAN is not used, it’s primarily PayPal. Payment is fed into the system and it’s made instantaneous. We also make sure the photo is authentic and original. We track and include in the photo information the location, what device it came off of, who the sender is, where the sender can be located. Photos cannot be imported or exported of the system for Photoshop or anything like that, so authenticity is baked into our system.
Finally, we orchestrate the value chain. Where we launch we have media on board. There’s already a purchaser, a publisher for these photos, and that makes it worthwhile for the Scoopshooters to engage and participate.
My take:
Media and marketing are deep in the corporate DNA of Scoopshot, which is why it has cleverly focused on both of these segments. It recognizes the opportunity for a user-gen content creation service aimed to take the pain out of generating fresh, hot content from everywhere on the planet. No doubt the decline in print media also plays in favor of this model since these companies are hard-pressed to generate a continuous flow of original content and lack the staff to do the job. But don’t just think media. In an age where advertising is content, this could be the community-building tool that will put brands (and their social media outreach) on the fast track. Video is in the pipeline, and so is expansion to North America and Latin America. Scoopshot clearly has the infrastructure in place (communication, rights management, payment methods) to make crowdsourcing an ideal business (and not just a business ideal). Lots of possibilities, and a great capabilities mix, now we just have to see how the company executes on its strategy to build a bridge between companies (media, brands, even cities) and the people eager to participate.