How openBC Broke Through – Chapter III (3)

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…in interview with Lars Hinrichs.

Q: How do you measure success?

We generally base our success on the success users are experiencing with openBC. And this is reflected in users’ level of activity and satisfaction: over 70% of members have been active on openBC in the past 30 days. We are recording almost 200 million page impressions every month. The churn rate is extremely low at around 1%.

Q: How does the premium service model work?

We have a one-size-fits-all premium membership model, which is simple to understand and simple to use. There is a standard rate applied in all countries – which is a lot of money in China.

Q: Do you think advertising can work on free sites like MySpace and Facebook?

Yes, but only because users don’t pay a membership fee on these sites. We are opposed to advertising on openBC. All social software providers have access to a lot of information about their users – and openBC could be seen in theory as a huge database storing detailed data about a highly active, professional target group. A dream for advertisers and something that would turn out to be very lucrative for us.

But we will definitely not be going down this road. Targeted advertising would go against everything that openBC stands for: We respect our members’ privacy and data security. We have built up a unique level of trust with our users in this way and would never consider placing this trust in jeopardy.