Weblo.com, a website that allows content creators on networking sites to monetise content, is now eying the Indian market, after its success in the US. The website is a virtual copy of the real world, where people are encouraged to deal in buying and selling of cities, and celebrities, and make money out of the content they share and upload online. The focus on India is because of the large number of Internet users in the country, especially on the social networking front.
Weblo.com was co-founded by Rocky Mirza and Anu Aujla in December 2006 with an overall investment of $5.6 million. Explaining the concept and the business model, Mirza, who is also CEO of Weblo.com, said, “The Internet is dominated by user videos, blogs and social networking profiles. Many of the content providers are not paid for what they upload on the Internet. By calculating the Internet worth, users can find out the worth of their digital assets, and start making money with Internet ads.”
The amount of money that could be made via this concept is interesting for all bloggers to know. Mirza said that with Weblo, a member could earn 66 cents for 10,000 impressions, and $10 every 1,000 impressions, after reaching the landmark of 10,000 impressions.
Mirza further said that Weblo was a virtual world for its members to negotiate sale of celebrities and cities around the world. For example, if a member wanted to buy a celebrity or a city, out of which there could be substantial content creation, then he has to negotiate and buy it from the existing owner at a price. “It’s like having a monopoly on steroids. Every property, city or a celebrity is for sale at Weblo.com. It is social networking with commerce, where members finally get paid for their popularity. Before Weblo.com, only website owners and shareholders profited,” explained Mirza.
But taking into consideration that such a concept could have legal issues as it deals with selling of people in the virtually world and then making money out of it, Mirza said that the website was more about creating publicists for celebrities.
