

Tsū: A social network that shares its advertising revenue with its users - xdmnl
http://www.tsu.co/

======
downandout
The more I've played with various ways to share revenue with or create
economic opportunity for users, the more I've realized that people just don't
care about the money. There are of course some notable exceptions to this
(Uber, eBay etc), but generally users have jobs and a few extra dollars just
isn't enough to motivate them to change a single behavior.

~~~
xdmnl
People had jobs before doing youtube videos for a living.

I don't think Tsu should be seen as a way to make money (at least not in a
near future) but as a way to get rewarded for the content you produce. The
same content which makes the value of Tsu. Take Instagram for example,
talented people post beautiful pictures which add value to Instagram. And yet
they only are rewarded with likes/comments. Tsu tries to fix this.

~~~
goblin89
> Take Instagram for example, talented people post beautiful pictures which
> add value to Instagram. And yet they only are rewarded with likes/comments.
> Tsu tries to fix this.

They get rewarded with feedback, and if they produce good art they can license
it through other means. Supposedly the latter should bring much more
substantial money than earning a percentage on ads displayed behind a sign-up
wall (why not do like YouTube and serve both content and ads to everyone?).

On the other hand, there do exist people who produce good art but choose to
not monetize it. I can understand the attitude: unless I'm sure my art is
great and will be widely appreciated, any resources I spend on monetization
attempts will likely go to waste, only lowering morale. How do I tell my art
is great? Well, fame.

On yet another hand, there's the YouTube crowd that makes money on their art
without spending any resources on monetization _or_ waiting to validate
whether their art is good first. (Maybe this is due to specifics of video
production? It's more engaging to consume and the barrier to entry is a little
higher than with photography or text content.)

All in all, Tsu sure seems like an interesting initiative, it gives some food
for thought and it'll be interesting to see what comes out of it.

------
justrandomanon
Why can't I just give you money for a service.

I don't want ads.

I don't want you to give me ad revenue.

Just take my money and respect my privacy. Is that really so much to ask.

I will happily pay someone a yearly subscription for a simple social network
that respects users privacy.

~~~
Blahah
[http://app.net](http://app.net)

------
ultimoo
Good concept but with the whole referral code and profit sharing paradigm it
starts looking a little bit like a pyramid scheme.

~~~
LinaLauneBaer
I may be wrong but a 'real' pyramid scheme works a little different.

    
    
        A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that 
        involves promising participants payment or services, 
        primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, 
        rather than supplying any real investment or sale of 
        products or services to the public. (wiki)
    

So by getting more users they are getting more value (ad revenue). A real
pyramid scheme works like this:

    
    
        * User 1 sells good G for $n to User 2.
        * User 2 sells good G for $n+1 to User 3.
        * User 3 sells good G for $n+2 to User 4...
    

Or am I wrong?

~~~
andypants
This is what a pyramid scheme is:

    
    
      * User 1 pays $20 to join the program with the promise of getting money back for their 'investment'
      * User 0 gets paid $20
      * User 1 refers user 2 to the program
      * User 2 pays $20 to join the program with the promise of getting money back for their 'investment'
      * User 1 gets paid $15 and user 0 gets $5
      * User 2 refers user 3 to the program
      * User 3 pays $20 to join the program with the promise of getting money back for their 'investment'
      * User 2 gets paid $15, user 1 gets $4, and user 0 gets $1
    

And so on. Users make money by referring more users to pay in to the program.
The people at the top of the pyramid make a lot of money, and the rest of the
people lose more of their 'investment'. No goods or services are exchanged,
nothing of value is created. As soon as people stop joining, the flow of money
stops.

The similarity with tsu is in the pyramid-shaped referral payout scheme, but
it is not a pyramid scheme because it doesn't depend on new users 'paying in'
to generate money. I don't think this kind of referral payout scheme is
uncommon.

~~~
newaccountfool
Am I correct in saying that the only difference from this and a referral
program is that there is another product, such as hosting.

~~~
paublyrne
That's a pretty big difference. Using referral fees to bring in new business
for a product with a different revenue stream is sustainable, provided the
core product is a sustainable business. There is no way for a pyramid scheme
to not collapse.

------
jawns
A lot of for-profit companies have referral programs (which is what this
amounts to), and many of them have a similar multilevel marketing component.
So this isn't really anything new or novel.

What I would love to see is an social-media site that is willing to take the
concept of sharing profits with its members to the next level and organize
itself as a cooperative.

Co-ops, unlike for-profit companies, are entirely owned by their members, and
thus any profits they make eventually go back to their members, either in the
form of greater investment in the site (which benefits the members) or in the
form of rebates (where the profits get divided up and distributed to the
member-owners, similar to dividends in the for-profit world).

Of course, the problem with organizing as a co-op is that it's harder to come
up with capital, because you can't accept outside investment. But with
Kickstarter and Indiegogo and the era of fundraiser-driven product
development, I don't think that's as much an issue nowadays.

An added bonus of a social network organized as a co-op is that each member-
owner gets a vote -- a genuine say in how things are done -- which is often
absent in for-profit companies.

~~~
tryitontriton
check out [http://www.favorsome.com/](http://www.favorsome.com/), you may find
what you're looking for

~~~
jawns
I don't see how that's at all relevant to what I was talking about. Favorsome
doesn't appear to be a co-op, or anything like one. By the way, I see your
only other HN activity is also plugging Favorsome. Kinda spammy?

~~~
tryitontriton
sorry, I'm new to HN, trying to surf and learn about social networks. my very
first post was about Favorsome because I found it interesting.

You're right, Favorsome is not a co-op, but since you're talking about a
network reinvesting its profits back into the users, I see that Favorsome is
doing the same and thought you'd find it interesting, that's all

------
wes1233
On tsū, users own their content and own their network, therefore they own the
royalties generated from advertising, sponsorship and partnership dollars
wrapped around their content.

Additionally if any users came to the platform via a user’s short code or
invitation, then that user will in perpetuity earn a portion of the economics
of the newly invited individual and their social network on tsū.

Right now you need an invite to join this up and coming social network. I just
found a generic user like
[http://www.tsu.co/FunnyImages](http://www.tsu.co/FunnyImages) and created a
profile. Hopefully this catches on, then anyone in on the ground floor will
have a nice passive income to build on for simply posting.

------
TobiEndres
So the network has definitely potential but I think that the pay will be very
very minimal, as the number of users but greatly increase the revenue through
advertising can not even begin to keep up.

The first impressions were very good, it is nice designed simply and clearly.
For this, just not quite as many features. You can not create groups or other
but perhaps Tsu has also not at all before.

We certainly have a page on Tsu created where we post extraordinary art and
designs. Since we have many followers, you will receive automatically by us
money if you do register on our Tsulink. Conversely, of course, just as :)

Get the link:
[http://www.tsu.co/WorldsBestDesign](http://www.tsu.co/WorldsBestDesign)

------
xdmnl
From all its (future) advertising revenues, Tsū will keep 10% and give back to
its users the remaining 90%:

* 50% goes back to you directly

* 50% goes back to the people who have invited you, such as the person who invited him gets 33%, the person who invited him/her gets 33% of 33% (~ 11%), the one after that 33% of 33% of 33%, etc...

The website is invite-only. You can register here:
[http://www.tsu.co/xavier](http://www.tsu.co/xavier).

~~~
eperoumal
How do you plan on controlling fake profiles ? For instance, if I create a
bunch of fake profiles linked to a real profile and I post randomly on some
fake profiles, access posts from fake profiles from the others, what could be
preventing me from doing this (and keep all the advertising money to myself) ?

~~~
xdmnl
I don't plan anything since I'm not affiliated with Tsu =)

I don't know if they thought about it but since their goal is to give back
advertising money to users, doing so won't harm anyone other than the user who
referred you.

------
thinkoutside
IF the ones who are popular 50 cents etc gets majority of the money, what is
the incentive for the lay person. The average Joe. I mean the work involved is
time consuming. Take for example i spent alot of my time hiting likes, and
posting random stuff on line. Some good quotes some good poems, and a few
pictures. However, 5 hrs have gone by and i don't even see a penny generated.
Google has the browser market and i don't get paid from them but i get
excellent service and find what i need. So i asked again for the little man
why switch over to tsu?

------
conradk
Yet another centralized initiative?

Every new initiative is good if it brings new ideas.

But sadly, most new social networks we see try to convince people that
Facebook is bad (ads, privacy concerns, etc) instead of convincing them that
the new thing is good. IMO, this is backwards. I have never heard someone tell
me "Facebook should share revenue with us". I mean come on: Facebook hosts
servers, creates tons of jobs and they should now start paying users?

~~~
rapidlb
Sure thing Facebook has nice servers architecture and most brilliant
engineers, but does FB creates any content? That's just a website, an empty
shell where people upload content. And FB gets 100% of ads revenue, generated
by others' content. Look at content creators like The New York Times's
website, they get money through ads by attracting people thanks to their
article. Plus you give up all of your rights and privacy, in exchange of a
free service. I think the idea is not to "start paying users", but creating a
fair platform.

~~~
conradk
That's "just" a website? You are kidding, right?

Facebook is way more than "just" a website: \- the only platform that has
managed to make people share this much content \- a way for businesses to
advertise and thus make more money \- the maintainer of amazing open source
projects such as HHVM or React.JS

I don't think Facebook is perfect. But focusing on the privacy concerns to say
Facebook sucks is just wrong. If you're concerned with your privacy, simply
don't sign up on Facebook or don't share private content.

According to Wikipedia [1], Facebook makes 7.8$B and has a net profit of
1.5$B. If Facebook gave 90% back to its user base, no way it could survive
with the level of quality they provide (accessibility, technical reliabilty,
etc).

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook)

------
piokoch
Good idea, I am surprised Google Plus is not working that way. As far as I
know Youtube is doing similar thing to Tsu: those who upload movies get part
of the ads revenue.

------
jsanto
I earned some cents already. I'm skeptical but lets see how it develops. If
you need an invite: [http://www.tsu.co/jsanto](http://www.tsu.co/jsanto)

------
YO_MINUS
I just signed up and so far I think it is super easy to use! Here is my "short
code" [http://tsu.co/YO_MINUS](http://tsu.co/YO_MINUS)

------
inkventive
If you're looking for a code use: Inkventive and my profile is available at
[http://tsu.co/inkventive](http://tsu.co/inkventive)

------
strulock
The content so far has been fantastic, and the folks who have signed on
include 50 cent, Carmelo Anthony, Le Ann Rimes, Miss Universe, former
Olympians, etc. Feel free to check it out at
[http://www.tsu.co/invited](http://www.tsu.co/invited)

------
alphadevx
Cayova tried that before (it is now defunct):
[http://digitalmarketingplanet.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/cayov...](http://digitalmarketingplanet.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/cayova-
a-new-phenomenon-in-social-media-security/)

------
RomrickSherlock
If you want to join, just click this site.

[http://www.tsu.co/Romrick_Sherlock](http://www.tsu.co/Romrick_Sherlock)

Then fill up your registration form. Then earn money ^_^.

------
donniedarko
Check it out [http://www.tsu.co/Donnie_Darko](http://www.tsu.co/Donnie_Darko)

------
reicoor
Tsu Register is free
[http://www.tsu.co/getinvited](http://www.tsu.co/getinvited)

But... it's like earn cts reading emails? u remember?

------
valevk
Checkout [https://community.fidor.de](https://community.fidor.de)

A bank with a social community, and you get paid to answer questions.

------
sschueller
Paid 2 Surf 2.0?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_to_surf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_to_surf)

------
nitishshah
I really like the idea , I don't care about money , but I like the whole
concept ...www.tsu.co/veerraj

------
trucoseotips
Pro tip: Apparently tsu.co has dofollow links, so you can generate quality
content _and_ get quality links. Try it out:
[http://www.tsu.co/seotips](http://www.tsu.co/seotips)

~~~
achairapart
Profiles are visible to members only.

------
sauravt
For those of you looking for an invite, join here
[http://tsu.co/sauravtom](http://tsu.co/sauravtom)

------
crazychrome
not going to work, checkout Marc Andreessen's take on his own version of the
same concept: Ning.

Edit: typo Xing <-> Ning

~~~
brador
Why won't it work?

~~~
tsu_question
One issue could be that the $ argument won't work with 99% of users b/c they
don't generate enough traffic (i.e. who really cares about, say, $5/month of
revenue).

One way to solve it could be to pool the revenue and to position Tsu like
this: "90% of revenue goes to a good cause of your choice (climate,
humanitarian, etc.), not to 1 huge corporation"

Edit: Every profile would then get a "I Donated $x today" badge (visible
publicly) as a feel-good engine. You could then convert the amount to real
things like "I paid 2 meals in a 3rd World country today" or "planted 3
trees", depending on your choice of the cause.

~~~
reitanqild
> One issue could be that the $ argument won't work with 99% of users b/c they
> don't generate enough traffic (i.e. who really cares about, say, $5/month of
> revenue).

Thats $60 a year? A nice discount on most gadgets. Am I wrong?

~~~
tsu_question
> A nice discount on most gadgets

Or 1 month of a life in a 3rd World country.

What's more important to us?

------
gondo
will see how this one will play out. if you have a spare minute, make me rich
maybe :) [http://www.tsu.co/gondo](http://www.tsu.co/gondo)

~~~
andypants
Looks like content is only visible to users. I can understand gating the sign
up to require an invite, but hiding the content as well will just kill ad
revenue.

~~~
realusername
I agree, and the blurry image weight approximately 678KB (~88% of the size in
bytes of the whole page). I'm sure there are less costly ways to create a fake
page or to show that you are not allowed to view the page.

