- New site lets users share half the advertising earnings from their posts
- YouTube already pays users for popular posts - but much less
- Social sites such as Facebook and Twitter keep all earnings to themselves
Chime.in's creator says he is 'firing a shot' across the bows of giants such as Facebook. The site takes a new approach to advertising - users are actually paid half of the advertising revenue generated by adverts alongside their posts.
Facebook earns its £1.1 billion a year in advertising revenue by posting adverts at the side of users pages.
So if you're a prolific Facebook poster whose every post is buried in 'Likes' and comments, you're effectively providing free entertainment while Mark Zuckerberg's multi-billion company pockets the profits.
A new start up - Chime.in - aims to take what it sees as a fairer approach.
Half of the revenue for the adverts which appear on someone's Chime.in page will be split with the person in question - and if users sell the space direct to companies they can keep all of the money.
The arrangement is unique for social networking and is ‘firing a shot’ across the industry, said Chime’s creator Bill Gross.
Until now websites like Facebook and Twitter have simply raked off all the money made from advertising whilst users earned nothing.
The arrangement is unique for social networking and is ‘firing a shot’ across the industry, said Chime’s creator Bill Gross.
Until now websites like Facebook and Twitter have simply raked off all the money made from advertising whilst users earned nothing.
Gross said that with Chime ‘finally, the interests of the content creators are aligned with the interests of the publisher because they get something for their hard work’.
Gross currently runs the Ubermedia network which is responsible for Echofon and UberSocial, two popular Twitter clients which reach a combined six million users.
It will have many of the same features as Twitter and Facebook such as a news feed, a panel to see who is online, messages and updates.
It will have many of the same features as Twitter and Facebook such as a news feed, a panel to see who is online, messages and updates.
Chime.in is made by Ubermedia the company behind the popular Twitter clients Echofon (pictured) and Ubersocial - which have a combined total of six million users worldwide
He has dubbed his new creation an ‘interest network’ rather than a social network because of the way it works.
But the main difference - aside from the revenue sharing - is to make it easier for people to choose and be introduced to their specific areas of interest.
Gross says Chime’s algorithms will be better at recommending groups and ideas based on personal interest, ensuring users are not overwhelmed with content.
Users can label their ‘Chimes’ with up to five interest tags which dictate what is posted on their page.
Major brands like Disney, Bravo Entertainment and Universal Pictures are also on board and have created pages which give previews up upcoming shows and films.
Corporations such as Disney are already signed up to 'partner' with Chime.in to offer previews of upcoming shows and films. The idea is to inspire discussions on the site, which will be built around 'interest groups'
In an interview with the Huffington Post he said: ‘‘This is not just about urgent news and keeping up with friends and relatives. It's about diving into interests.
‘People are moving away from searching the web to connecting with people and they'll tell me what I need to know.’
Some observers however have questioned whether or not Chime is really anything new, something that Gross admitted in an interview with technology website Socialbeat.
He said: ‘It’s an amalgam of blogging and Reddit and Facebook — there’s aspects of each in there.
‘We’re definitely borrowing those good ideas. But this is a deeper dive into their interests and intelligent conversations around (users') passions.’
He added: ‘The way we get new users is through the interests and how those are related to the publishers we’re inviting to the platform.’
‘People are moving away from searching the web to connecting with people and they'll tell me what I need to know.’
Some observers however have questioned whether or not Chime is really anything new, something that Gross admitted in an interview with technology website Socialbeat.
He said: ‘It’s an amalgam of blogging and Reddit and Facebook — there’s aspects of each in there.
‘We’re definitely borrowing those good ideas. But this is a deeper dive into their interests and intelligent conversations around (users') passions.’
He added: ‘The way we get new users is through the interests and how those are related to the publishers we’re inviting to the platform.’
Revenue sharing schemes already exist on the Internet - although not on social media - but have not been so generous as that of Chime.in.
Other sites such as YouTube do offer users money for popular posts - but Chime is uniquely generous. On YouTube, a video that is watched 1,000 times would earn $0.85
From 2007 YouTube began paying contributors a per centage of the advertising revenue to users whose videos become popular.
According to Business Insider, the cost per minute for a banner advert would be o $0.85, meaning that for every 1,000 channel views, a YouTube partner receives $0.85.
Some clips have been watched more than 40 million times, earning those who posted them a small fortune.
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