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Opportunity Analysis Project (OAP):

Team Dream Killers: Rick Ramirez, Greg Justice, Joe Lau, Alan Guo

Concept:

Today, the trends in social consumer internet are towards attainment of status and reputation:

Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Foursquare, LinkedIn allow their users to portray a desired persona.

Because each user’s content is generated by the user alone, the persona they adopt can be and is

often non-representative. More and more, we see that users are interested not only in what another

user has to say about himself, but what that user’s friends and acquaintances have to say about

him. While social networking has been thus far limited to a user generating his own content and

reputation, we believe it can be expanded to users generating content about other users.

DirtyPlate solves this problem by providing a platform where a user’s real-life acquaintances and

friends have primary control of his online identity. A user’s page looks like a cross between a

Wikipedia biography and a Facebook page, a place where contributors craft the user’s identity by

telling stories, poking fun, and reliving good memories. Inherently viral, DirtyPlate will keep users

coming back because they won’t be able to resist seeing what their friends are saying about them

and writing back.

Market:

When talking to Konstantin Guereckie, he advised: “Pick your host carefully. Paypal chose Ebay,

LinkedIn chose Outlook, mixedTent chose LinkedIn, etc.” Facebook seems to be a natural host for

us. It currently has over 500 million active users, has a powerfully interactive API, and according todata from July 2010 (See Figure 1) 39% of Facebook users are between the ages of 13 and 25 -- our

targeted demographic.

We think the younger demographic is less concerned with grooming their professional online

identities. In fact, after reading over the 51 comments generated by our survey many concerns

revolved around defamation in the eyes of friends, but none voiced concerns about potential

employers.Figure 1: Demographic Pie Chart

Jan 26, 2011 Page 1



Figure 2: Fairly Uniform Fear Distribution

Using the user demographic data from July 2010 (figure 1), there are approximately 195 million

users between the ages of 13 and 25. As figure 2 would suggest, we hope to tap into at least 50

percent of that demographic, capping our potential market size at 100 million people (the size of

LinkedIn).

Customers:

Users are our customers in our case. In our initial survey, we discovered that over 80% of college-

aged Facebook users doubt the credibility of their friends’ online profiles (Figure 3). Hence, we

believe there is dmeand for DirtyPlate : the idea of ‘Wikipedia for the everyman by everyman’ could

really catch on with our target demographic. Facebook users feverishly ‘like’ and comment on other

friends’ photos, status updates, and wall posts. If given the chance, we believe that Facebook users

would jump at the chance to create original content about their views of their friends. Though

receptivity would vary dramatically (Figure 2), the omnipresent ‘fear factor’ would drive the site’s

traffic.

Figure 3: >80% Skepticism Concerning Profile Authenticity

Business Model:

As the size of our user-base grows, so does the value of our service. Our viral strategy of user

acquisition can be summed by Konstantin: “Focus on the seven deadly sins.” So we will: envy and

pride, (LinkedIn's) and one of our own – fear.

We also have a few ways to monetize in mind once gained enough traction:

Jan 26, 2011 Page 2



1.Provide basic options for user to edit his/her own profile (opt-in/opt-out), but charge for

additional editing power

2.Introduce editing credits and bidding by users' friends for placement of comments in

prominent spaces on the user's profile.

•Streamline profiles to a few key categories (i.e. one quote that capture the friend, best

friend, etc.)

•Credits needed to edit one's own profile and to bid to place the comment on the top/ replace previous content (e.g. two friends bid for the category “Who is A's best friends.)

Figure 5: Slander Concerns

Figure 6: Fear Factor

Our biggest risk arises from lawsuits linking the usage of site with psychological or physical harms.Feedback from our survey (figure 5 & 6) highlight this concern, and we understand that this risk

could potentially turn-off investors.

Here our our preliminary strategies to mitigate this risk:

• Generated content will NOT be anonymous.

• Separate profiles that is modified by the profile owner with the ones that is solely produced

by their friends

• Control settings can be modified at any point

Competition:

Currently, there are a few sites that provides similar services such as Wikibios, 1000memories,

Honestly, threewords.me, Social Interview (a Facebook app). Let us break down each of our

competitors:

• Wikibios: similar idea; site is outdated; does not leverage existing social network, the

interface is Pre-Web 2.0 era.

• Honestly: a reputation service for professional; leverage Facebook Connect and LinkedIn

API; currently low engagement since little incentives for average users to contribute

• Facebook apps (Social Review, Honesty Box): use facebook wall as a channel to engageusers; are within the groomed system of Facebook. Dirtyplate runs counter to the groomed

philosophy.

Our biggest threat, if proven succesful, comes from Facebook itself. Since the technology barrier is

low, and our user base will largely come from Facebook, Facebook could potentially build a product

that is distinct from the existing profile page that features our idea.

Jan 26, 2011 Page 3

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