Bebo Extends Media Emphasis With New Hire

Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 21st, 2008 11:33 PM

This afternoon Bebo announced a new hire, Kelly Bratt as Head of Original Productions. According to the release, “Kelly previously worked on Bebo’s award-winning online series, KateModern, which achieved more than 67 million views nd two BAFTA nominations.” KateModern was at the time known as Lonelygirl15, one of the most popular YouTube series. This new hire emphasizes the company’s focus on original programming and highlights Bebo’s existence as a media company as I wrote yesterday.

Yesterday Bebo announced yet another new program which is a strategy most other social networks are not yet entertaining. Can traditional media strategies work in a new media environment? Bebo seems to think so and I can’t blame them. When nothing else is working in the way of monetization, start using techniques that have worked before.

While Bebo may not have the reach that Facebook does, it’s clear that they have decided to shift their strategy to generating quality content and more revenue. This contrasts Facebook’s strategy which is build a top tier platform which continues to attract users. Facebook’s strategy makes a lot of sense as well though. How valuable is your content if the users decide to stop viewing it 6 months from now?

That’s only one type of question that Bebo needs to answer. It’s clear that there is a balance between technology and advertising among the top tier social platforms and each company has their own strategy. Bebo is going the media route and honestly, while they aren’t the biggest social network, their strategy appears to make a lot of sense. We’ll have to see if the company can continue to attract successful shows.

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