The team interviewed 94 customers and developed several iterations of their Twibo product. Initially focusing on celebrities and schools, they pivoted to serving businesses by matching them with Chinese social media marketing agencies. While the monthly fee model was not viable, they found that a full-service agency charging over two years could achieve a lifetime customer value higher than the customer acquisition cost, making social media management a potential lifestyle business.
2. Team members
Haohan (Alfred) Yuan
Master of Financial Engineering, ’13
Hacker
Kuan (Kevin) Yang
Master of Financial Engineering, ’13
Customer Development
Zhibai (Blake) Han
M.Eng. IEOR, ’13
Chinese Social Media Expert
Harvey Duan
EWMBA, ’14
Business Development
4. Diagram of MVP
MVP
Account setup
Account verification
Tweet reposting
Content generation
Pain
Content management
Follower interaction
Language barrier
Cultural challenges
Gain
Global audience
Central platform Features
Translation service
Content management
Recommendation
Engine
8. What we found
Number of Twitter Users 140,000,000
% of Twitter Users with over
100,000 followers
1%
Number of Twitter Po 1,400,000
% of converting users 2%
Number of paying customers 28,000
Average payment per customer
per month
$100
Target Market $33,600,000
10. Canvas Version 2: Serve
Businesses
Focus:
Businesses
Find
Talented
Marketers;
Add
Authentic
Followers;
Partner:
Chinese
Social
Media
Marketing
Agencies
Matching
American
Businesses
with Chinese
Agencies
13. What we found
―We were a bit surprised at the monthly
fee —we really are not in a budgetary
position to partner with you.‖
—Lia L. Kennett
General Manager, D: All Things Digital
14. Canvas Version 3: Business Model
Validation
Enterprise weibo management fee
vs
Enterprise subscription fee platform
Educating
customer
segments
Educated
vs
Non-educated
15. Customer Acquisition Cost
Educated customer
1 hour lead gen
4 hours of education +
business development
25% acceptance rate
$50 per hour
CAC = $1,000
Non-educated customer
1 hour lead gen
1 hours of education
10% acceptance rate
$50 per hour
CAC = $1,000
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Educated Non-educated
Customer Acquisition Cost
16. LTV – Subscription Fee
Platform
LTV = expected life x avg revenue x gross
margin
Tweet re-posting only for non-educated
customers
Expected life = 6-9 months
Avg revenue (tweet re-posting) = $100 per
month
Gross margin = 90%
CAC > LTV
$1,000 > $810
17. LTV – Weibo Management
LTV = expected life x average revenue x gross margin
Full-service social media agency
Expected life = 2 years
Average revenue per customer over expected life = $17,840
Months 1-2 = $2,000 per month (basic)
Months 3-4 =$4,000 per month (advanced) x 50% retention =
$2,000
Months 5-6 = $6,000 per month (pro) x 25% retention = $1,500
Months 6-12 = $6,000 per month x 10% retention = $540
Months 12-24 = $6,000 per month x 5% retention = $300
Gross margin = 50%
LTV = $8,920
LTV > CAC
$8,920 > $1,000
More Lucrative!
18. Conclusion
1. Not a venture backed business.
2. Small and medium size businesses are not
yet ready to adopt Chinese social media
marketing strategies.
3. Our sales cycle includes educating the
customers about the importance of Chinese
social media marketing.
19. Is this a viable lifestyle
business?
Yes
Twibo, LLC
Onethousand
1,000.00
Weibo Consulting StudentUniverse, Inc.
you should work on a market big enough to make you profitable, video advertising seemed like the kind of market with the decent sizeif you are charging companies, take money from the budgets they already have, like ads, not from budgets they need to createdon't give out equity too easily, pay developers instead.