Meebo looks to monetize its chat rooms for partners
Meebo is looking to open up its interactivity platform in an effort to increase both its reach and ad revenues, which will be shared with partners.
At launch, the company is announcing that Piczo, Revision3, RockYou, Social Project, and Tagged would employ the API and Network platforms. Advertising revenues will be split 50 percent between meebo and the partner. It also will provide licensing options for those wishing to eliminate ads.
Meebo claims that through its website and widget offerings, it already has a monthly reach of about 25 million people, more than both Google Talk and Skype.
The API will be geared toward social networks, and allow for the integration of Meebo rooms into pre-existing installations. For example, a developer can easily add a room for a specific group without having to add each one manually, as was necessary before.
The meebo Network will be the advertising platform on which ads are served to users of the API. The company will begin to shortly start testing ad formats with its partners to see which ad sizes and methods work best.
Ads will also be easily targeted to a specific group since the chat room will be tied to a specific community.
Once testing is complete, the ads will run in an "unobtrusive and user-friendly" manner within meebo chat rooms that would be shared with its partners. One of the launch partners, Revision3, plans to use the chat rooms in conjunction with a live loop of the Internet network's shows so that users can chat about what they are seeing in real time.
Others, like Social Project, plan to use the technology to allow customers of its Flux community platform to add chat functionality to their sites. That company counts among its customers MTV Networks, Dave Mirra, Lil' Jon, and NikeSB.org among others.
"meebo is looking forward to collaborating with a new set of partners with larger demands on scale, revenue model and automation," meebo business development chief Daniel Bernstein said.meebo "The meebo rooms API, together with the development of an ad network, gives our partners the best solution around."