PRESS RELEASE - ASMALLWORLD AG announced its 2022 H1 results. EBITDA grew by 6% compared to the 2021 H1 due to a strong EBITDA margin improvement from 13.7% to 18.8%. The net result for the period was up by 29%. ASMALLWORLD also made its final payment for the acquisition of First Class & More and is now completely self-funding.
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ASMALLWORLD 2022 H1 Results: EBITA Increased by 6% and Net Result by 29%
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ASMALLWORLD Partners Emirates Skywards to Expand Its Prestige and Signature Membership Offering
YAHOO FINANCE - ASMALLWORLD announced that it has entered a partnership with Emirates Skywards, the award-winning loyalty program of Emirates, the world's largest international airline, and flydubai. Starting from Sept 2022, customers of ASMALLWORLD's best-selling Prestige and Signature memberships will be able to earn 250K or 500K Skywards Miles, which in turn can be used for exclusive travel benefits including flight rewards and upgrades with Emirates.
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A Record Year for ASMALLWORLD: 30% Net Sales & 61% EBITDA Growth
EQS GROUP - ASMALLWORLD AG announced that 2021 was a record year, delivering the highest sales and highest EBITDA result in the company's history. Company-wide sales increased by 30%, from CHF 12.0M to 15.6M, and EBITDA increased by 61%, from CHF 1.5 to 2.4M. The overall EBITDA margin increased by 3.0%-pts., from 12.4% to 15.4%. The member base grew by 2%, from 62K to 63.3K. Both business segments, Subscriptions and Services, contributed to the strong revenue growth, while cost control measures helped improve profit margins.
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ASMALLWORLD to Acquire a 10% Stake in Global Hotel Alliance
YAHOO FINANCE - ASMALLWORLD AG will acquire a 10% stake in the parent company of Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), the world's largest alliance of independent hotel brands with ~800 hotels, and join the company's Board of Directors. ASMALLWORLD will support GHA in delivering its recently re-launched loyalty program GHA DISCOVERY, which will expand to ~20M members in 2022.
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ASMALLWORLD Expands Its Online Functionality With New 'Member Posts' Feature
YAHOO FINANCE - June 25 - ASMALLWORLD AG introduces a new 'Member Posts' feature, allowing users to share photos with other members by uploading them from their phones to ASMALLWORLD. The newly introduced feature is a significant expansion of ASMALLWORLD's social networking functionality and is expected to create a wealth of user-generated content, ultimately resulting in increased user engagement.
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ASmallWorld Continues to Grow Profitably Despite Difficult Market Environment
PRESS RELEASE - Aug 27 - Today, ASmallWorld AG announced its H1 2020 results. For H1 2020, the company recorded revenues of CHF 5.9M ($6.5M), compared to CHF 5.7M ($6.3M) in H1 2019, an increase of 4.4% YOY. Both its business segments, Subscriptions and Services, contributed to the growth with 2.1% and 8.2% respectively. Net profit came in at CHF 0.3M ($331M), on par with H1 2019.
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ASMALLWORLD Expects Growth and Positive EBITDA for H1 2020
MARKET SCREENER - July 7 - ASMALLWORLD AG grew its revenues during H1 2020 and expects a positive EBITDA for the first six months of 2020, despite a difficult market environment due to the global COVID-19 health crisis. H1 revenue is expected to come in above CHF 5.7M ($6M). Compared to June 2019, the company grew its member base from ~55K to ~61K, which represents an 11% increase. Full financial results for the first half of the year will be published on 27th August 2020.
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ASMALLWORLD To Be Profitable By Q4
HUFFINGTON POST -- Aug 14 -- ASMALLWORLD, the exclusive high-end social network backed by the production company among others, has reported an 11% increase in ad revenue from Q1 to Q2 and plans to be profitable by Q4. The site laid off 40% of its staff last fall. SMALLWORLD has 400,000 members worldwide, and in the last quarter has added advertisers including Volkswagen, Mercedes, Tudor Rolex, JLC, M Gallery and the Starwood Hotel Group. FULL ARTICLE @ HUFFINGTON POST
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Affluence.org Sees Rapid Growth
Mark Brooks: I had dinner with the seasoned CEO last week. This site is one to watch.
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ASMALLWORLD, Founder Erik Wachtmeister - SNW Interview
SNW INTERVIEW -- Aug 2 -- ASMALLWORLD is exclusive to the jetset crowd, mainly in Europe. They may grow to one million users, in time. But size is not what counts with this social network. ASW is shooting to be the creme de la creme SNS. Now, would someone please send me a darn invite? Please?! - Mark Brooks
What’s ASMALLWORLD’s founding story?
I would say we’re definitely a pioneer in this business. I had a passion to develop this as early as 10 years ago. I have a 25 year Investment Banking background and I was born into a diplomatic family. l have lived in places like Washington DC, New York, LA, Paris, London, Moscow, Stockhom, Kiev, etc. I have also had the opportunity to frequently visit the social “hot spots” around the world.
I realized there was an existing community out there, which I have named ‘a small world’ and this is what I refer to as the 3 million people that are connected by 3 degrees of separation. (As you know, the common notion is the world has 6 billion people and everyone is connected by 6 degrees of separation.) The people from the community tend to go to the same places, have a lot of the same interests and they all need trusted information which they typically get from each other as opposed to getting it on public websites or publications. There was this strong need to exchange information and information about other people in this community. So that was really my goal and passion to create a platform for this group of people. The purpose also is to creat a super-network of Mavens (local experts) and Connectors (highly connected people). By aggregating this “collective intelligence” you get some fascinating results that the community as a whole can benefit from!
We launched the site in March 2004, which was at the same time that MySpace and Facebook were launching, except Facebook was a Harvard-only related network
I remember when I heard about Friendster in August 2003 and I was kicking myself because I thought I was going to be the first one launching a social network. But I was happy not being the first one because you can then learn from other people’s mistakes.
What is the typical demographic on ASW?
The average age is 32. 95% of our audience is above 25. It is a very cosmopolitan and international membership spread over 200 countries, 325,000 members. It’s largely a European audience; somewhere between 65% and 70%. The largest countries are UK, US, Italy, Germany and France, followed by Spain, Switzerland, Austria, UAE and Sweden. Our members have an interesting professional mix from the fields of investment banking, hedge funds, management consulting, law, advertising, media, fashion and government.
How does one become a member?
It’s an organic system where our members decide how it grows. It’s invitation only and all you need is an invitation from somebody who is already a member, with invite rights. We’ve traditionally used an algorithm referred to as our “secret sauce” that uses about 15 different variables that score the members and those who score the highest, end up getting the invite rights. Then you either get the right to. Typicall invite 12 people. The whole goal is for the community to grow in a way that keeps it intimate and filled with fun, interesting and compatible people.
Is it more of a country club feel?
It can have a country club feel, or that of a wedding party athmosphere where people let their ” hair down” and are much more accessible to people in general due to the intimate environment. Depending what your angle is, it could also feel like a business club or sometimes like a very civilized night club.
The goal is that every new member should add something to the mix. Whether that means energy, ideas, information, as well as a sense of congenial spirit. The key word is intimate. The worldwide web is filled with places that are anything but intimate and so we’re just trying to create a sort of intimate corner on the worldwide web and make the world smaller.
What makes you a little different from other sites?
Its kind of a one stop shop. We are a private social network. People can Skype, IM and send messages to each other. We have our own spam free private mail, an incredibly active forum divided into 12 different sections which is travel, nightlife and business related; a high end classifieds similar to Craig’s list; a birthday calendar for everyone in your network; an interactive event calendar. There were 13,000 user generated events in ASW last year, which is a staggering number. We have a whole bunch of other cool applications including the City Guide. It is 100% user generated and interactive similar to a Zagat but including 30 categories in addition to restaurants and hotels. Our members comment, rate and rank restaurants, hotels, etc. around the world.
Do you have guidelines about people you should be inviting or not inviting? How do you maintain that?
Not really. We don’t want to tell people who they should invite. We tell people to use their judgment. We can then monitor how they use their invite rights.
Our members are also very active in monitoring the community. They can report things that are going on and then we have a full time staff of web masters around the world who take action and enforce our rules by issuing a warning or sending people away to a place called ABIGWORLD and that’s definitely a place you don’t want to be in. We created ABW right after the launch in early 2004 and it’s been a very effective tool, our own sort of online penalty box where you can end up for a few days or a few years.
Can they get out of the Big World at some point?
Our webmaster staff makes the decision. They have their own little legal system and it really depends on what you’ve done.
Let’s talk about revenue. You have two sponsors now, Mercedes and Cartier. Can you tell me more?
Yeah, those are two big sponsors that we’ve announced. Last year, which was our first full year of online advertising, we had about 100 partners. I would say 90% of them are well known global brands.
Many of the social networks have complained about very low click through rates. Some people are saying its more branding advertising and we don’t have to worry about click through rates. In your type of target audience, do you find that it’s more about branding than click through?
It’s definitely more about branding. We sell ads based on impressions. Our members want to get together in real life and that’s why you have so many events going on. And therefore we have a very unique opportunity to connect our brands with events as opposed to just through banner advertising.
So you’re both an online and off-line community, whereas most of the social networks are purely online?
I would say we are a real community where most social networks are not communities. It’s not like you’re going to meet somebody in Shanghai and say oh you’re also a member of My Space how interesting. Let’s go and grab a beer.
Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
We are building a company, and a brand that has already gotten worldwide recognition. We’re getting more interesting people joining today than we did 2 or 3 years ago simply because we have today have achieved more awareness world-wide. I think 5 years from now we will be a larger network but with many smaller niche networks within. These niche network will enable our members to connect even more around similar backgrounds and passions. We’ll certainly have state of the art tools that are available technology wise for our members to be super connected, whether it’s through their mobile or to know where all their friends are within a radius of a few hundred meters.
Is there a point where you say, ok we’re not going to have this intimacy/exclusivity if we get too big?
Yeah. My guess is we can comfortably go to a million. Our goal is to grow very, very carefully and we’ll grow also with the help of local committees. If we employ the right methodology, we can grow to a million people and still be as exclusive as we are today. The world is a big place. We’ll shoot for a million in a couple of years and then we’ll see where we are.
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VIP Social Networks
FORBES -- May 7 -- According to a January survey by the Luxury Institute, wealthy-consumer participation in social networks is on the rise. Of the 805 people surveyed (each with a minimum gross annual income of $150,000 US) in 2008, 60% of respondents participate in a social network, up from 27% in 2007. Participation levels for the wealthy in leading social networks were 16% for MySpace, 13% LinkedIn and 11% for Facebook. The wealthy are heading to a new crop of ultra-exclusive social networks, such as aSmallWorld, Diamond Lounge and Squa.re. Some networks come with strict invite-only policies and a rigorous application process based on education, job title, connections and lots of virtual velvet rope. Others, such as Squa.re and Quintessentially, requiring an invite from any existing member. FULL ARTICLE @ CBC.CA
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Social Networking For Rich People
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- Nov 30 -- aSmallWorld.net, MySpace for millionaires, promise safe havens for the affluent where they can flirt, swap advice, plan parties and find new pals without mixing with hoi polloi. People must be invited to join however membership invitations or passwords can be purchased easily and cheaply -- though in violation of the site's rules -- on eBay. A new site, Diamond Lounge, will also target the elite. Members must be invited to join by a three-person membership committee and have to pay $60 a month in dues. FULL ARTICLE @ THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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An Elitist Social Network Gets Elitist New Features
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JOSSIP -- Sep 20 -- Four years later, the velvet-roped social network aSmallWorld has 270,000 members, offices opening in London, and Harvey Weinstein making his first internet investment. It has released several new features, including the ASW Magazine and an improved design and layout, and in the next month plans to release an ASW hotel finder, picture galleries, personalized calendars, and travel contests. FULL ARTICLE @ JOSSIP
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ModelsHotel: The Hot Social Network You'll Never Join
TECH CRUNCH -- Sep 10 -- ModelsHotel is an invitation-only social network for professional models. High-end advertisers are targeting the selective site, which has granted access to only 1,000 trendsetters. The year-old site, which offers standard social networking features, is trying to raise $1.5 million in venture capital. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Mark Brooks: Nice idea, nada traffic. Another spin on 'rich guys and cute dolls' niche dating that seems to be all the rage right now. I.e. WealthyMen.com, MillionaireMate.com, Cashcats.com, MillionaireFriends.com, also aSmallWorld.com.
This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.
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