London-based Zoo Qoo launched in August this year as a creative showcase to promote talented game designers, photographers writers, musicians and the rest of the creative community. With a small staff of two full-timers and four part-timers and his own cash, Rich Wilson wants to help promote the creative industries but also spot some stars - and make commission on their work.
Wilson explains how it works.
ZooQoo founder Rich Wilson
• Explain your business to my Mum.
"Zoo Qoo is an online talent showcase and creative publishing network. The site allows users to publish their work through one of twelve creative categories ranging from music to photography, fashion to architecture, art to games. Users can either publish their work for free or sell it through our digital marketplace. They can then link to other artists, rate and review work by others or just look at content on the site. The strong underlying theme is quality over quantity; we ensure this high standard of content by asking the Zoo Qoo Council to vet all work pre-publication."
• How does that work?
"The Zoo Qoo Council, currently made up of over 150 site aficionados all dedicated to the creative cause, must give entries at least five "yes" votes but no more than two "no" votes before publication. Going in front of the council is basically make or break point for the artist's entry and a watertight way of ensuring quality is maintained throughout the site. Anything we genuinely take a shine to will be passed around our growing list of industry insiders and talent scouts. The ultimate aim is to put high quality grassroots talent onto a global platform; we've had some success to date but are still waiting for that first 'golden' signing."
• How do you make money?
"A combination of premium ad inventory, sponsorship deals, account upgrades, commission from the digital marketplace and merchandise."
• Any weird business experiences so far?
"How much time you got?"
• What's your background?
"I studied architectural engineering at Leeds but having worked for Ove Arup for six months, I began to realise that the construction industry in the UK was more about arbitration and mediation than the realisation of people's dreams. I travelled the world working in a rodeo, a circus sideshow, a mayonnaise factory; I worked as a rabbit-hutch maker, a gardener, a painter- and then came home to establish my own jewellery design business and write a book on Zoo Qoo."
• Are we in the middle of a new dot com bubble?
"I'd say we're towards the end of the bubble. All of the big acquisitions made over the past two years have, by now, proved that the investments simply weren't worth the money."
• How many users do you have now, and what's your target within 12 months?
"100,000 per month at present – our target is 1,000,000 per month in 12 months time."
• Which tech businesses or web thinkers are the ones to watch?
"Obviously the big players like Facebook and MySpace. I'm intrigued to see if Google can successfully monetise YouTube too – they still have a large mountain to climb there. I'm looking forward to seeing where Tim Berners-Lee's new semantic web goes and over in Japan they're developing a new "secure" web – I'll be following that one with interest."
• Name your closest competitors.
"LuLu, MySpace, eSnips , Deviant Art, Flickr – they're all linked in some way but maybe not direct competition. The way I see it as a promoter of the arts is that we should all ultimately be trying to help each other achieve success – try telling that to someone like Mr Murdoch though."
• Where do you want the company to be in five years?
"A top 100 global website."
• Is there really a strong enough long-term business in this kind of showcase?
• Doesn't Zoo Qoo need to be more clearly defined for a specific community, rather than trying to appeal to all the creative arts?
• And shouldn't this kind of showcase and talent spotting tool be run by a university, government skills agency a major digital media player?
