Yebber
Yebber is a Singapore based web 2.0 company that operates rich media review site at yebber.com. Content on the site is solely user generated and contains, text, images and videos.
The Beginnings
Started in March 2007, Yebber was initially setup as a complain site for users to post experiences relating to unscrupulous businesses that resort to unfair sales practices. Gradually, the businesses listed on yebber became more consumer oriented and reviews contributed contained both positive and negetive ones.
Services
Content and Coverage
Yebber includes listings for businesses in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Each country has its own unique domain. Both the listings and registered users will be specific for each country. Users who intend to contribute will need to register an account on each individual site. Users are able to contribute content that are business related such as restaurants, spas, retail outlets, shopping malls, beauty saloons, pet shops and anything that is related to a business operation, including museums, performance venues, sports stadiums and the like. A large percentage of users who use the site are from the 18-35 age group with a close to 50/50 gender spread.
Yebber introduce Video reviews in end 2008 and allowed users to provide reviews through a different perspective.
Community
Yebber has several features on the site that allows social networking and user interaction like private messaging, friend network, view friend's reviews, commenting on reviews, viewing friend's favorite business/ review and the like. These community features serve to identify the most ACTIVE contributors, most popular Yebbers (in terms of the number of friends they have) and users who have their own blogs or blogstores. User profile pages are also design to allow members to get to interact and link to their personal blogs.
Started in 2008, the Yebber ambasaddor program is made up of Yebbers who are highly visible on the site. These are members who have contributed greatly to the site and are equally involved in offline community building activities. Yebber has organized fashion bazaars featuring the Yebber blogstore owners as well as eat out sessions at various restaurants.
Rewards
Since September 2007, Yebber introduced the Yebber Dollar Program design to reward members for sharing their opinions, recommending new places, uploading images and videos to the site. This program is design to get users active on the site, instead of just reading the reviews. With this program, users of the site will be able to earn Yebber Dollars which can be exchanged for Cash when they reach a certain minimum sum. The amount they can exchange would depend on the exchange rate for the current month, which might fluctuate according to the revenue and site activity each month. Currently, this program is available to users in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
To date up to YD110,000.00 has been awarded and the amount keeps growing each month.
Media
Ever since it started, Yebber has been covered on several occasions by the media. Yebber was interviewed on Mediacorp 938Live by Melanie Oliveiro. Yebber appeared on Straits Times - Digital Life and on Channel News Asia That's IT program.
Advertising
As with most web 2.0 companies, revenue comes from advertisements. Business who advertise will be able to have more exposure to the reviews on the site which by the way have to be a positive one. The Yebber Decal program also allows businesses to inform their customers that they are reviewed on Yebber. In this way, businesses will be able to get their customers to "spread the word" AbOUT their business through Yebber. Only businesses with 3 star rating on Yebber will be allowed to participate in the Yebber Decal program.