Directi Case Study Contest - Pre-Dater from ISB Hyderabad

1. U ’n’ Me
Online Networking and Dating Website
The Pre-Daters
Ashwin Mahantha, Rohit Kewlani, Shahnawaz Alam, Sonali Gupta

2. Executive Summary
Vision
To deliver an end-to-end solution to the dating needs of the alumni and college
students.
Existing Pain-point
Low turnout of women on existing online-dating websites due to the low hygiene levels of
such websites.
Deluge of fake female profiles on online dating websites and subsequent skepticism
Towards dating websites.
Solution
Provide a secure, close knit credible platform for young people to socialize and look for
date.
An online-offline model to provide a compete solution to the dating needs of the youth.
Virtual parties to provide an interesting way to interact with prospective dates online.
Investment Required
An initial investment of ` 750,000 will be required as operating expenses in the first year.

3. Our Solution
Closed Groups Online – Offline Social Events Promotional Offers for
Female Users
Reliable platform Online virtual parties Promotional offers and
conducive for women provide an easy medium for freebies for female users to
even the introverts to date. encourage higher user
Authentic profiles ensure Offline events provide activity
sustainable growth in opportunity to meet face to These promotions will not
network face with prosepecive be publicized but given
dates privately to active users.
Report Abuse Points Based Rating System
To ensure content Rating based on profile
moderation completion and user
activity
The membership of Points earned can be
consistently erring users redeemed to send virtual
will be cancelled gifts.

4. Five Forces Analysis – Online Dating Industry
Weak Strong
Bargaining
Power of
Buyers
6
4
Competitiv
Threat of
e Rivalry
2 New
within the
Entrants
industry
0
Bargaining
Threat of
Power of
Substitutes
Suppliers

5. Competitor Analysis
Fropper.com IndianDating.com UnMe.com
Target Segment •Not focused •Not clear whether it’s •Focused on dating for college
•Dating is only one of the meant for casual or long- students and alums
features term relationships
Offline Events No No Yes, Socials Events in various cities
Security Weak - does not verify its Weak – No verification of •Extensive member verification
members & their contact users authenticity •Users must use their real names
details
Marketing •Weak marketing tactics •No offline promotions •Offline promotions in target colleges.
•SEO optimizations are •Only online marketing •Online marketing through social
missing media.
•Website will be search engine
optimized
Virtual parties No No Yes
Special Gifts to No No Yes but without publicity
female users
Testimonials No No Yes

6. Market Potential
Assuming internet penetration
of 10% in the target age group,
Market potential
No. of Colleges in India
12 Million
25938
120
10 Million Million
Total market potential for 12
No. of students enrolled in years, assuming target age
colleges per year group of 18 to 30 yrs

7. Primary Research - Survey
Survey Statistics Cluster Analysis
Respondents 47
Female 42%
Respondents
College Students 53% 2.17
Average Age of 22.7 years
Respondents
Willing to Join 40% 1.29
U’n’Me
Willing to take 9%
Premium
Membership
Willing to attend 47% The The The
at least one Innovators Introverts Outgoing
Socials Event

8. Brand Potential
How likely is it that you will become a member of UnMe.com?
7%
Definitely
19%
Probably
33%
22% Don't Know
Probably not
19% Definitely not
Survey
Sample size used = 47
Using the top two box method, we estimate that we can target 40% of
the market Brand Potential = 40%(12Million) = 4.8Million
Assuming 100% awareness and availability

9. Two Level Segmentation
Level 1 – Based on Age
Segment Age Group Willingness to Use U’n’Me
Youth 18-28 40%
Marriage 28-35 21%
minded
Single Agains >35 13%
Level 2 – Based on Cluster Analysis of Youth (target segment )
Cluster Characteristics Discrimination
Innovators First to use a new networking Make new friends on social media
website Read tech blogs
Mix of guys and girls
The Outgoing Willing to meet college alums Visit sports’ websites
Willing to meet online friends Active on social media
Dominantly male
The Introvert Need ice-breakers to meet Befriend known people only on social media
even college alums Read relationship blogs
Act on recommendations of friends
Dominantly female

10. Foothold Segment - Characteristics
Un-entrenched • They have never experienced online dating and hence
less skeptical of an online dating website
Users
Eager to meet • The level of enthusiasm is much higher in the young
college going segment.
the opposite sex
Very active • Information spreads very fast.
• A good website can get a lot of time per user
social networks • A good product can get a lot of word of mouth publicity.
Low paying • Will only pay for value-for-money products.
• Initially target college students in Delhi and Mumbai
capacity who have higher than average paying capacity.

11. Business Model
User registers at UnMe, Theme of “Socials”
requests access to his User registers for the events decided by
college groups premium account premium members
Moderators grant Premium users suggested
Users register online to
request, User joins ideal matches, can
attend events at any
groups message other members
location
User interacts with others Crush list informs if two
With basic features. Earns members are in each Users attend the events
points based on activity others’ list
Virtual speed dating and Members meet their Users upload photos and
virtual parties arranged match and continue chat about the event,
by regional moderators dating make more friends

12. Monetization Strategies -1/3
ADVERTISEMENTS
• On typical social websites, 99% of the users are free account holders
Need • Advertisements will be our primary source of revenue from these
users.
• Initially, we will opt for Google Adsense advertising program.
Affiliate • Google Adsense is a hassle free and displays advertisements.
Programs • Ads relevant to the content of the site is displayed. Henec, it is less
annoying to the users.
Premium users will see advertisements only if they self-select
Exceptions themselves to view the advertisements.

13. Monetization Strategies – 2/3
“Socials” Event Fees
• Using the top two box method, we identified that 47% of those
Need surveyed were willing to pay a fee of `1500 per “Socials” event.
• Premium Members of the region will be polled to decide the theme
The Event of any “Socials” Event.
• Our Regional moderators will organize the event.
•We estimate earnings of ` 750k from “Socials” events in the first year.
•As we scale up to cover more cities, these events will be a good
Revenues source of revenue for us.

14. Monetization Strategies – 3/3
Premium Accounts
• 9% of the responders to our survey were willing to pay `3000 to gain
Need access to our premium services.
• Premium Members can break off from a virtual party to private
virtual rooms.
• Premium Members will have a say in deciding the theme of any
The Services “Socials” Event.
• Premium Members will have an ad-free experience on U’n’Me.
• Various premium plans ranging from quarterly fee to yearly fee will
be offered.
•We estimate earnings of ` 45k from Premium accounts in the first
Revenues year.

15. Marketing
Strategies
Current
Marketing
Market
Objectives
Position
Marketing
Plan
Market
Market
SWOT
Overview
analysis

16. • Get as many colleges registered as possible
Marketing • Get the maximum users registered from same college.
Objectives • “Convey the strengths and USPs of U’n’Me to the users.
• S – Unique offerings with focus on target segment
Marketing • W – Lack of experience of team in running online dating site
SWOT Analysis • O – A huge market with unsatisfied needs
• T – Envelopment due to the advent of social networks
• A huge market with unmet demands.
Marketing Plan • Market size: 12Million young internet using population.
• Expected market share: 4.8Million users.
Current Market • No presence in the market.
Position • Negative perception of dating websites
• Target eager college going students who not yet skeptical of dating sites.
Marketing • Acquire a large chunk of students from each target college. Same side
network effect and word of mouth publicity will get new customers.
Strategies

17. Product Marketing – 1/2
• Online-offline platform for college students and
Product alumni to socialize and look for date
• FREE registration for basic account
Pricing • `3000 per annum for premium account
• `1500 registration charge for offline Socials event
• In the first couple of years, we would target colleges
Place in tier 1 cities –
Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Calcutta and
Hyderabad.

18. Product Marketing – 2/2
• Promotion at colleges through introductory “Socials” event
Promotion • Reward points users with high activity on U’n’Me
• Freebies for female users – gift vouchers
• 14 day free trial of premium account
• A secure environment to meet people from your
Positioning own institute to socialize and date
• College Students
People • IT Professionals
• Social Network Users

19. Product Features – Year 1
 'Socials' events - Offline •Virtual Parties – To A user who gets reported Mr. and Ms. Socials –
socializing events interact with each other for abusive behavior Awards to two users
 Speed dating in a virtual world consistently will be every month based on
 Theme Parties •Available to Free removed from the site. user voting and rating.
members too. Special gifts for the
winners
Points System Users will Moderators will grant  Detailed user profile Crush List
be awarded points for access to users joining improves rating of the  Option to maintain a
profile completion and the group upon request user - Photos/Video crush list of 3 users
user activity. thereby avoiding the Sharing etc.  Automatic private
Points can be redeemed incidents of fake profiles  Testimonials – to message feature if 2
for sending virtual gifts to appreciate someone people are in the crush
other U’n’Me members.  Smiley based Rating list of each other
System – Sexy, Cool,
Trustworthy, Boring

20. Product Features – Year 2
Virtual Parties Extended Profile Matching Forums
 Premium users can go  Automatic algorithms to  A forum to discuss
for private virtual chat match profile based on common interests, ideas
rooms user profile and interests for the upcoming ‘Socials’
events
Love Guru Actual Dating Past Events’ details & results
 Love Gurus will groom  Setting up actual first
 Outcomes of ‘The Socials’
people to get a date time date for interested activities and contests will
 Online counseling to couples in a secure be published on the past
deal with break-ups environment (Paid events page on the website
Feature)

21. Product Plan
Year 1 Features
• Moderation - Create a secure environment for users
• Virtual Dating – USP to get users to U’n’Me
• Offline “Socials” Events – To complete the user dating experience with
opportunity for offline dating
• The other features are add-ons to enhance the user experience
Year 2 Features
• Focus is on enhancing user experience of both premium and free members
• Virtual Parties Extended – To improve demand for premium membership
• Love Guru – To groom the users to be better prepared for dating and the
problems in relationships.
• Profile Matching – For easier search ability and matching of profiles

22. Market Penetration – Bass Model
Forecasting Scenarios
100,000,000
90,000,000
80,000,000
MBA p and q
70,000,000
Cumulated Adoptions
60,000,000 FEMBA p and q
50,000,000
Average p and q
40,000,000
30,000,000
Average of MBA
and FEMBA p and
q
20,000,000
10,000,000
-
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Periods
* Source for p and q values - http://ijikm.org/Volume1/IJIKMv1p001-012_Firth01.pdf
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23. Income Statement
Year 01 Year 02 Year 03 Year 04 • We expect the services to expand from 6 colleges
no. of cities 1 2 6 20 across 1 city to a total of 156 colleges across 20
no. of colleges 6 24 72 156 cities within 4 years
no. of users 900 3,600 10,800 19,200
• With 1st year sales accounting for Rs. 10 lacs we
revenue 1,080,000 4,320,000 12,960,000 19,680,000
cogs 54,000 237,600 712,800 1,082,400
expect to a net profit margin of 20% amounting
gross profit 1,026,000 4,082,400 12,247,200 18,597,600 to Rs. 2 lacs in net profits
no. of. staff 13 22 46 88 • By the end of 4th year, we expect sales of Rs. 2
no. of. support
staff 1 5 14 31 crores & a net profit of Rs. 62 lacs
salary 390,000 726,000 1,518,000 2,904,000
sales & marketing 216,000 864,000 2,592,000 3,936,000
support 18,000 79,200 237,600 514,800
general admin 14,200 26,800 60,400 119,200
r&d 86,400 345,600 1,036,800 1,574,400
depreciation 21,600 129,600 388,800 590,400
operating profit 279,800 1,911,200 6,413,600 8,958,800
taxes 83,940 573,360 1,924,080 2,687,640
net profit 195,860 1,337,840 4,489,520 6,271,160

24. Assumptions for the Income Statement
We undertook the below shown Cogs/sales 5%
cogs growth 10%
reasonable, conservative assumptions to fixed staff 10
come up with the Income (P&L) statement college/variable staff 2
college/support staff 5
avg salary/staff 30000
avg salary/staff 15000
salary growth 10%
no. of no. of no. of
cities cities colleges users ARPU marketing expense 20%
pop>7m 6 12 150 1200 admin/staff 1000
pop>2m 14 6 100 800
pop≤2m 20 3 50 500 r&d 8%
capex 10%
capex growth 50%
depreciation 20%
tax 30%

25. Revenue Projections
Year 01 Q1 Year 01 Q2 Year 01 Q3 Year 01 Q4 Year 02 Q1 Year 02 Q2 Year 02 Q3 Year 02 Q4
no. of cities 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2
no. of colleges 1 2 4 6 10 16 20 24
no. of users 150 300 600 900 1,500 2,400 3,000 3,600
no. of events 1 1 1 2 5 5 5 5
revenue - ads 1,500 3,000 6,000 9,000 30,000 48,000 60,000 72,000
revenue - events 150,000 150,000 150,000 300,000 900,000 900,000 900,000 900,000
revenue - premium
services 7,500 7,500 15,000 15,000 75,000 45,000 30,000 30,000
Revenues from the 3 monetization Year Year
modules Assumptions 01 02
revenue - ads/ user 10 20
• Total revenue (Year 01) = Rs. 8.2 lacs revenue - events/ user 1,000 1,200
• Total revenue (Year 02) = Rs. 40 lacs revenue - premium services@5%
user 1,000 1,000

26. Organization Chart
CEO
Quality Assurance
Manager
Marketing Operation Technology Finance Legal
Vice President Vice President Vice President Vice President Vice President
Software
Event Manager
Developers
Regional Moderators

27. Team Credentials
Ashwin Mahantha : 4 years of experience in IT industry
• Worked extensively on IT product development
• Co-Founder Giving For Good – an online social venture
Rohit Kewlani: 4 years of experience in IT software
• Rich experience in web technologies like Flash across plethora of desktop/devices
• Expertise in integrating content databases with customer friendly web-interfaces.
Shahnawaz Alam : 5 years experience in Banking.
• Set up credit risk infrastructure for a large public bank in UAE
• Experienced in lubricants sales in North India.
Sonali Gupta: 6 years of IT consulting experience in 5 different countries
• Led global client teams for ERP implementation as Supply Chain Consultant
• Co-founder eKriti – a social entrepreneurial venture

28. Conclusions
• The product has a huge market potential because of the increasing
population of young population and internet savvy population in
India.
• The product will be targeted at the youth segment with specialized
marketing plan for the innovators, the outgoing and the introverts.
• The product will have strong same-side network effects and will
catch up with the early/late majority of users as its popularity grows.
• The two key features of rigorous profile authentication and virtual
parties will keep the users hooked on to U’n’Me.
• The product will be priced high to give the users quality service and a
sense of quality service.
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29. Mockups

30. U’n’Me Home Page

31. U’n’Me – Virtual Dating

32. U’n’Me – Create/Moderate New Group

33. Thank
you!

34. Appendix

35. Segmentation Analysis
35

36. Discrimination Questions
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37. Attributes & Levels Used for Conjoint
Attributes / Levels Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Price 1000 1500 3000
Online Features Virtual Parties Chat Rooms Feature Not Available
Offline Events Dinner and Games Speed Dating Feature Not Available

38. Result of Conjoint Analysis
The results of the conjoint analysis reveal that:
• Respondents correlate higher price with higher quality. Hence, Rs. 3000 has the maximum partworth.
• Respondents showed a preference for Virtual Parties over Chat Rooms.
• Respondents have equal preference for Dinner & Games and Speed Networking.
Attributes Average Partworths
Rs. 1000 0
Rs 1500 37
Rs 3000 50
Virtual Parties 15
Chat Rooms 6
No Premium On-line Features 8
Dinner and Games 24
Speed Dating 23
No Off-line Features 2
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39. Estimation of p & q values Bass Model
p q m actual m
MBA 0.017 0.238 192 191
FEMBA 0.057 0.288 66 65
BAEG 0.175 0 49 43
Overall Avg 0.083 0.175333
Avg MBA and FEMBA 0.037 0.263
Source – Paper “Predicting Internet-based Online Community Size and Time to
Peak Membership Using the Bass Model of New Product Growth”
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