In the evolving world of digital technology, you can take control of your online reputation. You can shape it. You can brand it. And, through the variety of social media platforms, you can utilize it for personal gain. But the one question on everyone’s mind, perhaps, is how do you monetize it?
One startup, Bamboo, is attempting to answer that question.
“When COVID hit, I was talking to a bunch of different talents and creators and discussing how people were making a living online and what tools existed,” noted Nick Urbom, the Founder and CEO of Bamboo, the new mobile app and web-based social platform designed for creators to post collaboratively to monetize their efforts.
“The basic concern was the lack of monetization; putting everything out for free on the internet,” he said. “From the creator economy the issue was the revenue share companies, where a middleman takes a cut out of every single dollar earned. That inspired us to create Bamboo.”
Nick Urbom, who segued from an early career as a drummer and percussionist to create tech platforms and professional conferences supporting online content producers, was at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in New York along with Bamboo Head of Marketing Dina Marovich to participate in the panel titled “How to Leverage Collaborative Social Posting to Successfully Monetize Your Professional Life.” The NAB Show took place at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City on October 25 and 26.
Empowering Creators
Prior to Bamboo, Nick Urbom was the founder, CEO and Chairman of Infinity Festival, which unites the creative talent from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to showcase the latest in tech content. He was the Technical Producer for both the Guild of Music Supervisors Awards and the Guild of Music Supervisors Annual Conference. He has co-founded a trio of trade organizations: the International 3D Society, the Advanced Imaging Society, and the VR Society, which includes the Lumiere Awards. The international recipients of the Lumiere Awards are recognized for the use of advanced visual technologies (such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Rendering) in the creation of immersive storytelling.
“I became heavily involved in new tech and content, who is doing it well, and how we could support new content creation,” noted Urbom. “Virtual reality came up as the next technology, so we funded the VR Society to advocate for that. We did events at the Freedom Tower, Sotheby’s and other places. All of this led me look at what was going on with Silicon Valley and tech in general with these specific technologies, and I thought we needed a platform to communicate all of this.”
“From our perspective, we were talking to people, asking what tools they might be looking for to assist them, he added. “The creators were saying they just wanted to be able to set up and run their own business, set their own pricing, etc. So, we ended up generating a creator database and we formed a company called Nowbase.
Nowbase was designed as a digital platform that gave content creators the ability to bring all their content and followers across all sites. Creators could share their content, links, and social feeds in one profile online. The platform enabled you to design a fully responsive landing page that lived within a social network, where you could showcase your entire online presence and connect with your target audience in the same space.
“The idea was for Nowbase to be the place where you can find everything a creator does, almost like a personal website,” explained Urbom. “But the feedback was they were looking for new types of content, have new business models, etc., and that turned into what we are now are doing with Bamboo. We iterated, we pivoted and we became a social platform.”
Enter Bamboo
“As a destination where you can post collaboratively, on any topic you want, Bamboo is developed as an opportunity to monetize it without the platform taking a cut,’ he noted. “Some people want to do short form, some want to do long form, or video, music, information, coaching, educating, and more.”
After beta testing the monetization mechanics for Bamboo (including subscriptions, payment walls, creator tipping and creator merchandising sales), the live profile monetization is expected to launch in first quarter 2024. Users can acquire the app for a small monthly fee.
“I enjoy looking into the data and the analytics behind things, and this is an idea for an app that I truly feel passionate about and can do well in the creator space,” noted content creator, gamer, and social media strategist Avori Henderson, who participated in the app testing and teamed up with Bamboo for the “Empire State of Mind” photo contest at NAB.
The winner, Dushawn (Dusan) Jovic, had the opportunity to collaborate with Avori in a merchandise drop for a fan-meets-creator photoshoot.
“From what I have seen, only Facebook groups allows you to take a piece of content and put it in front of people who are interested in that same thing,” noted Avori, who was one of the 12 participants in the 2022 reboot of competition The Mole on Netflix. “Bamboo has built a space where you can create these little categories within your following. The most profitable thing you can do on social media is build a community and that makes you money.”
“When we started this company a few years ago, the stat we saw around the creator economy was that it was comprised of approximately 50 million creators online,” noted Nick Urbom. “Today the stat shows that there are over 200 million creators online. We think the time is now for Bamboo.”
“Here you have control over what you are posting. You can use it for marketing, targeting select audiences, or it can be completely private. And we have the tool for monetization,” he added.
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