Clionee is crazy to create a platform which everyone can do visual communication easily.
Today we have interviewed Mr. ‘Jason G.’; Director in the department of Visual-Communication Social Media of the US (California)-based start-up “Clionee Inc”.
“Clionee” is a visual social media platform that offers you a way to remember your past through stories, photos, and images.
Below is the full interview that we have conducted with Mr. ‘Jason G.’; regarding his start-up Company “Clionee Inc”;
1. What is it exactly that you do and what “Clionee” is all about?
Clionee is crazy to create a platform which everyone can do visual communication easily.
Visual communication is the new way of communication in the future which people who becomes a mature and learn a language with vocabulary and grammar forgot and has a great desire about.
Clionee is a new type of social media platform that allows you to share your life through visual storytelling that uses images and customizable visual objects and to connect others.
2. When has “Clionee” been founded? And what stage is “Clionee” currently at?
We set up the visual communication platform team in June 2010, and we started open beta service in July 24 2012, it takes almost 2 years.
Now we are fixing and developing more details about our service for official launching in 2 months. We are also developing mobile service for our service; it will be ready in 8 months later.
3. What is “Clionee”’s business model and how does it work?
Clionee is the social media service based on membership joining. User joins Clionee in as a member, scribble something, put some stickers, and draw some pictures on image feeds of the friends who have friend relationship to enjoy happy moment with your friends properly at Clionee.
This is most effective way we choose for visual communication.
4. How did your team meet? And who in your team does what?
Unexpectedly we met together as photographer, designer, planner and developer.
We have been discussed about why we forgot about the memory and the way of visual communication of our youth age.
And we just got an idea to organize our business model from that and decided to develop this as a service named Clionee.
5. What, exactly, makes you different from existing options, what will make your product and/or service stand out in the marketplace? In other words what’s unique about you and what’s new about what you make?
Is MS word and MS power point same program? This is stupid question, but if I ask other peoples to describe about them, both are very similar program with the listener’s recognition. Because they both are document creating programs which use text, image and have a function to create sheet.
But both programs have different market depends on users’ needs.
MS Word is document creation tool based on text environment for rational persuasion.
MS PowerPoint is document creation tool based on image for emotional persuasion.
Facebook and Twitter are text based social media like MS Word; Clionee is image based social media like MS PowerPoint.
6. What is your growth like? And what milestones has “Clionee” achieved so far?
Clionee just started Open Beta Service, and 2 months are remained for official launching.
These procedures look like put the first step into the marathon race. We have been prepared for this time until now, and just waiting for the signal to start for that.
We are expecting to progress about our service ‘Clionee’ with seeing bright future.
7. Who are your competitors? And what is “Clionee”’s competitive advantage over them?
Everyone thought all the apps which decorate photos to get funny and enjoyable communication are Clionee’s competitors.
But Clionee is totally different from them. Clionee has not only a function to decorate photo but also has function to have relationship with friends, providing Clionee’s address book to invite your friends, and searching by Drawing.
8. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?
Clionee doesn’t have any kind of obstacles to overcome. Because we are cultivating new world of visual communication through all of our functions we’re providing as a social media.
One important issue is that how to make people to understand about the genuine concept of our social media service with more fun.
9. What are the key things about your field that outsiders don’t understand?
This is what difference between photo, image decoration and visual communication is.
Photo and image decoration is one-sided communication, and Clionee’s is dual-way communication based on images.
The most different thing is the function of Reply. We Clionee provide not only text reply but also visual reply.
10. Why are you going to succeed?
There isn’t existing any kind of visual communication based social media like our service named Clionee yet.
A lot of teenagers want to show their unique creativity and share their own memories at the moment of great lifetimes each other with more fun.
Just decorate the image and have a visual communication are totally different.
We’re the pioneer of the visual communication market, so we will be going to succeed.
11. If “Clionee” succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?
Create big database through using this service to collect all of life visual stories of users naturally.
And then, we have a plan to activate commerce ecosystem with library function that visual art worker or other wannabe buy and sell images, print service or design mall merchandising.
And also open the App market to enjoy various visual programs.
12. Why did you choose this idea and concept to build “Clionee” based on?
The generation of communication is moved from verbal communication era to text communication era.
Then, what type of communication occupies our present life? We got an idea from this question.
And we thought visual communication will occupy our present life due to progress of communication devices and stared this idea.
13. What have you learned so far from launching your idea?
Our prediction was right. Mobile devices are activated and we can see the customer’s desire for the new communication platform at various places.
Reading the needs of customer is most important to create new business model and appeal to them.
So, we have learned how to meet customer’s needs on the right time to make business.
14. Six months from now, what’s going to be your biggest problem?
Clionee is image-oriented communication. So, it causes overload problem by traffic increasing suddenly focuses on server operation management and using speed.
That’s why we need a technology to process a job that spread the traffics out.
We are also concerning about this issues and continue to discuss with our developers to seek a right answer to solve this problem.
15. What’s the benefit for the customer/user?
Ordinary user can meet new friends or get more various communication experiences by visual communication tool like sticker, brush and graphic font to communicate with your close friends in my strongly belief.
Also, visual art worker or developers can get new profit from the new market as a commercial ecosystem.
16. How did customers/users find out about you?
We already prepared Clionee’s fan page channel to help customer to find us at the famous social media.
You are able to have a communication to Clionee under the link we provided.
You may meet our service Clionee more closely!
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ClioneeSNS
Twitter: https://twitter.com/visualecriture /
indiegogo: http://www.indiegogo.com/ClioneeSNS
17. Who are your current customers/users? Who are your target customers/users?
Clionee’s main target is teenage girls. They spend a lot of time to take, decorate some pictures and talk about that.
They are expressive and full of energy, sensitive to the visual attributes, Imaginative and fanciful, blending fun into every life.
We strongly believe that our service will be suitable to them.
18. Where do new customers/users come from and what makes new customers/users try you?
Customer’s desires for the new way of communication induce themselves to Clionee.
And also, we have some strategies to increase members like upload the introduction of our service at Crowded Funding Site named ‘IndieGogo’, spread the introduction out at power blogger and related communities as online influencer, and hold the beta test event at Clionee’s facebook page.
19. What do your customers/users say about your product and/or service?
Almost of the users’ responds are very positive. Especially, Teenager who is familiar to SNS tends to express their lifetime with visual properly.
These customers satisfied with the way of Clionee’s visual communication that inserts visual comments on the existed images to create story.
So, they are waiting for the date to release our service in official. But, other ordinary user still feels unfamiliar to the visual communication, they might embarrassed and feel difficult when they saw the main screen of Clionee at first.
And also has incomplete part of speed and function processing during the development.
But these issues were almost solved. We will continue to supplement our service to launch in official soon.
20. How are you going to scale?
Clionee has self-spread system. This information will be spread naturally into social network through the function of invite friend, Social login and FB open graph application, social share.
Clionee will collect visual based life stories from around the world and invite users via a range of platforms so as to create an environment of visual communication.
21. What’s the biggest missing feature? The one thing customers/users keep asking for?
Customer requires making our service simpler. That means subtract more additional function to make our service simple, it would be better than add more functions because customer loves to use simple service.
That’s why we thought we need to concentrate on the essential function to have visual communication than others.
22. Are you going to internationalize? And if yes how are you planning to expand your start-up’s operations accordingly?
Our service will be launched in North America at first, and we will expand it into Asia, Europe and Middle East as soon as possible.
Actually, worldwide internet service is optimized to North America region with English.
So, we arrived in conclusions that succeed in the US means global success.
Currently we have language limitation to use English only, but it will be released after our service will be launched in the US successfully.
23. How big do you think you can get? Why? And how you are planning to achieve your goals?
Since we will launch the official service in September 2012, we aim to secure 100 million users within 3 years by expanding through annual version up for our service, expand the technical contact points with customers and use marketing strategies, and to reach a break-even point by 2015 by increasing unique users and average revenue user.
24. Are you looking to hire a new workforce? And if yes, what job vacancies do you currently offer and where can potential applicants contact you at?
We need CEO, CFO and also illustration designers to create various visual objects.
If you are interested in, please contact to heart@clionee.com
We will recruit some people who have great talent with visual things and has a passion to grow up our service like world’s biggest SNS Facebook or Twitter.
We want to recruit talented people in the US.
25. Are you looking for partnership opportunities or funding from Venture Capitals (VC) or other funding sources? Or your business is self-sustainable? And if the first option applies where can potential partners / investors contact you at?
Fundraising is most important activity for us to help continuous development and give stability for our service.
If anyone who is angel or VC (Venture Capital) has interested in our service, please contact to heart@clionee.com to ask any inquiries about our service.
We will provide helpful information to make you understand about our service.
26. What advice do you have for fresh entrepreneurs?
Think deeply and think again what is an authentic differentiation to set up our service in the global market successfully.
To be better is not important, but to be unique is most important to survive in the competitive global market.
27. Finally, do you have any other comments that you would like to add?
People use SNS to build relationships with others via communication. People have made communication verbally and literally.
These days, visual communication can be the effective way to communicate.
Clionee Service is different from other text based SNSs since it focuses on visual communication, rather than text communication.
Our service’s main target is Teenage girls I said. We strongly believe that our service will be suitable to them.
They will make photos in their own ways and represent what they think. Clionee wants to create new world of visual communication. Thank you.