NEW HOPE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Meet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEET), a public market leader in the mobile meeting space, today announced that it has added Podcoin, a first-of-its-kind mobile app that rewards podcast listeners, to its portfolio of mobile apps.
“Podcoin is the social podcasting app that pays its listeners,” said Geoff Cook, Chief Executive Officer of The Meet Group. “Within four months of initial launch--and entirely organically--the app surpassed one million daily listening minutes. We look forward now to bringing Podcoin to our 15+ million monthly users, across our livestreaming portfolio of social apps. We expect that 40% of our US audience will listen to a podcast in the next month. We see an opportunity to reach not only these users, but also the other 60%, as the podcasting industry continues to rapidly expand.”
Podcoin has been moving up the charts organically and is highly rated on both the Apple and Google platforms, with 4.7/5 stars on iOS and 4.6/5 stars on Android, based on thousands of ratings.
"Our mission has always been and continues to be about increasing human connection, and podcasting is an inherently intimate medium. It makes you feel like you are in the room, participating in a meaningful conversation,” said Cook. “We see an opportunity not only to help our users discover content, but also to participate in meaningful conversations around that content. We expect to roll out likes, comments, and an enhanced social graph in the coming months to encourage connection. We see podcasts as an untapped interest graph and a relevant signal for meeting new people. If our livestreaming video experience is the lean-in, interactive blend of connection and entertainment, podcasting is its lean-back audio complement.”
“While of course we focus the vast majority of our resources on livestreaming video with more people working on it than ever before, we also see the importance of exploring truly new, blue sky ideas,” said Cook, “as we have done throughout our history. Audio is a clear adjacency to video and podcasting is one of the fastest growing segments of audio. We want to enable social experience around podcasts, and we believe Podcoin has the right hook at the right time to appeal to our 15+ million monthly users.”
With more than 40,000 monthly users today spending an average of six hours a week listening to podcasts, Podcoin gamifies podcast listening by paying the listener one Podcoin for every ten minutes spent listening. Leaderboards show the top listeners, and listeners can follow each others’ profiles. Podcoin currency can be redeemed for rewards, including gift cards, headphones, and more.
“We aim to amass a sizable audience,” continued Cook. “With that, we believe we can drive discovery of new podcasts to podcasters who ‘claim’ their podcasts on Podcoin. Claiming is free, and as a quick Twitter search for #podcoin shows, has proven effective for driving listening minutes. So far, approximately 30-40% of Podcoin’s listening minutes have gone to claimed podcasts. We believe the ability to drive listening minutes to a subset of podcasts through minor variation to Podcoin-earning rates points a pathway to future monetization.”
Podcasters who claim their podcasts can get direct insights into what other podcasts their audience members are listening to through the app, and they also have access to advanced analytics that track listening minutes, listeners, subscribers, taps in search, and more. The company expects in the coming months to enable community so that podcasters can engage their audience of listeners and so that listeners may discover each other.
About Podcoin
Podcoin is a first-of-its-kind mobile app that rewards listeners. Our mission is to increase the time the world spends listening. By adding social and gamification to podcasting, Podcoin intends to solve the problem of discovery for podcasters and provide the most efficient way to build and engage an audience. For more information, please visit https://www.podcoin.com/.
About The Meet Group
The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET) is a portfolio of mobile social entertainment apps designed to meet the universal need for human connection. We leverage a powerful live-streaming video platform, empowering our global community to forge meaningful connections. Our primary apps, MeetMe®, LOVOO®, Skout®, Tagged®, and Growlr®, keep millions of mobile daily active users entertained and engaged and originate untold numbers of casual chats, friendships, dates, and marriages. Our apps, available on iPhone, iPad, and Android in multiple languages, use innovative products and sophisticated data science to let our users stream live video, send gifts, chat, and share photos. The Meet Group has a diversified revenue mix consisting of in-app purchases, subscription, and advertising, and we have offices in New Hope, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Dresden. For more information, visit themeetgroup.com, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including whether we will bring Podcoin to our users across our livestreaming portfolio of social apps, whether 40% of our US audience will listen to a podcast in the next month, whether we will successfully reach our users, whether the podcast industry will continue to rapidly expand, whether we will help our users discover content and participate in meaningful conversations around that content, whether we will roll out likes, comments, and an enhanced social graph as expected, whether we will enable social experience around podcasts, whether Podcoin has the right hook at the right time to appeal to our monthly users, whether Podcoin will amass a sizable audience, whether with a sizable audience Podcoin we will monetize by driving discovery of new podcasts to podcasters who claim their podcasts on Podcoin, whether the ability to drive listening minutes to a subset of podcasts through minor variation to Podcoin-earning rates will point a pathway to future monetization, whether Podcoin will remain effective for driving listening minutes, and whether we will enable community as expected so that podcasters can engage their audience of listeners and listeners may discover each other. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “project,” “is likely,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include the risk that our applications will not function easily or otherwise as anticipated, the risk that we will not launch additional features and upgrades as anticipated, the risk that unanticipated events affect the functionality of our applications with popular mobile operating systems, any changes in such operating systems that degrade our mobile applications’ functionality and other unexpected issues which could adversely affect usage on mobile devices. Further information on our risk factors is contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the SEC on March 8, 2019. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
