Social picture sharing website for pet and animal pictures. Currently growing 100-150 members/day.
Business overview
| Location | Pontypridd United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Social media | |
| Website | www.fuzmo.com |
| Sectors | Home & Personal Digital B2C |
| Company number | 08623126 |
| Incorporation date | 24 Jul 2013 |
Idea
Introduction
Fuzmo is aiming to be the number one picture sharing website for all animal and pet related photos.
The idea came to us when one of our co-founders started an Instagram account (Insta_Animal) and dedicated it to posting pictures of cute animals. Over the last year we have watched the account grow from nothing to now 1,500,000 followers, and from this we are now running a total of 7 accounts with a combined following of 2,593,505.
Knowing that so many people share our love for pets and animal pictures alike, and continuous requests to share our users' images we decided to create Fuzmo as a platform where people can share their own pet pictures. With our current users heavily requesting a mobile application we aim to use investment raised through Seedrs to allow our CEO, CTO and head of development to work full time while also outsourcing development of an IOS application. Instagram: @Insta_Animal, @Insta_Dog, @FuzmoApp, @PuppyTagss, @InstaAnimal_Baby, @TinyDogs, @Your_Pets
Intended impact
Currently when searching for animal pictures online the immediate place people will head to is Google Images. We are looking to create the central hub for any pet, animal and wildlife pictures online giving people access to the pictures that they require instantly through a very simple search.
When browsing social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook you will find numerous accounts that have been set up by people representing their pets.
We would like to welcome all users that enjoy promoting their pets in this way to Fuzmo and create a community of like-minded people that share the same passion as we do for sharing their pet and animal pictures.
Fuzmo is looking to establish itself as the first port of call for anything animal related online.
Substantial accomplishments to date
MVP Launched 15th November 2013.
As of 7th January 2014 we have 6,504 members.
There have been 15,271 pictures uploaded onto our website. Since launch we have seen 15,940 unique website visits, 32,045 total visits. There have been 113,569 total page views.
49.69% of website visits are new.
Daily visits on Fuzmo.com are currently ranging between 500 - 800 unique users.
We have an average daily conversion rate of 26%.
We are growing by 100 - 150 new members daily.
Stats above are based on time of writing this, 7th January 2014, below is a more up to date screenshot.
Monetisation strategy
We are working towards brand pages being created on our platform. A brand page could be in the form of any pet and/or animal related company creating a page on Fuzmo as a representation of their brand in order to promote a product and/or service that they offer.
Another form this could take is a page to represent rescue shelters, wildlife conservation parks, charities etc. These brand pages can pay for coverage to users that would benefit from said brand. We aim to hit this stage within the next 6 months.
We are also planning on collecting a lot of data which could be very valuable to the pet market globally.
Use of proceeds
The investment would allow our main development team to continue full time and also outsource the development of an IOS application.
Over the next 6 months the following features are scheduled to be finished on our website by our in-house team:
* API Created
* Navigation Redesign
* Top Photos Redesign
* Introduce Tags, Tag Cloud & Search
* Categorize Pictures
* Homepage upgrades
* Mention other users in comments using @Username
* Invite Facebook friends to follow user on Fuzmo
* Ability to share pictures to Facebook/Twitter/Google+/Pinterest/E-Mail
* Steps to encourage users to complete profile.
The total amount raised in this campaign will be combined with our personal savings to work on the following:
CEO Elliot Thomas, CTO Steve Tozer & Head of Development Chris Edwards to work full time on Fuzmo.
Outsourcing of IOS application to highly experienced development team.
Office space located within Tech Hub, Swansea.
Dedicated Web & Database servers, backup servers and two DNS/Name servers.
In the case of over-funding, another developer shall be hired.
Market
Target market
Our target market is anybody worldwide that owns a pet or animal and has access to the internet along with a camera.
According to the Pet Food Manufacturers Association, in 2013 25% of UK households have a dog. That's 8.5million dogs in the UK alone.
19% of households have cats and there are also roughly another 4,400,000 pets (excluding fish) in UK households.
In the United States the pet industry is worth over $40BN with over 42.5 million US households owning one or more dogs, and there are an estimated 6 million dogs in Canada.
Characteristics of target market
Fuzmo is looking to enter the social networking market and encourage people to share pet and animal images with each other.
27% of total U.S. internet time is spent on social networking sites.
15% of total U.S. mobile internet time is spent on social networking sites.
23% of marketers are investing in blogging and social media this year, a 9% increase from 2012.
Picture sharing website Instagram was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for $1BN.
Brand adoption of Instagram has grown 80% in the last year.
Instagram has now welcomed over 150 million members onto their picture sharing platform.
Marketing strategy
We intend to use our Instagram accounts for the majority of our initial launch. Currently we encourage people to register at Fuzmo and post their images in order to receive a 'shoutout' on one of our Instagram accounts, however currently we just select pictures and users at random for these shout outs.
Once the iOS application has been launched in the app store, we plan to offer a shout out to every single user that invites their Facebook friends list to join them on Fuzmo. This would be done in one week stages on and off for a few months with changes being made where appropriate, A-B testing and other social media invite options being added.
We are currently in the process of writing many great articles to be added to our up-and-coming blog to boost our content marketing efforts.
Competition strategy
With numerous picture sharing websites and applications currently live, Fuzmo is looking to distinguish itself from competitors by focusing solely on the pet and animal market.
In order to achieve what we are aiming for we believe it is essential that we built a very simple and easy to use interface that can be used by all age groups without difficulty.
We intends to differentiate ourselves from Instagram and other picture services through innovative features that we have planned for future development, although we are ultimately set apart by focusing solely on the pet and animal market