My City Lives: Philosophy Update

As big believers in collaboration, we’ve made a habit of sharing our guiding philosophies noticing that each time we do, My City Lives gets better. Without a doubt, this has been most true in our answers to the three most common questions that we’re asked:

Who will use My City Lives?

Akin to traditional forms of Media such as a newspaper, My City Lives is a Multi-Sided Platform with three distinct user segments:  The Creators, The Explorers and The Suppliers.  Each is unique in their motivations for participation and thus the value we provide for them is different in each case.

The Creators are those contributing content to the site. They are artists, journalists, storytellers, city lovers, advocates or simply someone with a camera and a story to share. Motivating this group is that My City Lives provides a compelling way to be discovered or market their message.  Collectively, they will tell Toronto’s story.

The Explorers are those consuming videos on the site. Making up the majority of our user base, The Explorers will be motivated to use My City Lives to discover new ways that they can live local.

The Suppliers have something to offer – a product, a service or a social contribution to improve our city. They are the ones who reside in the locations that we bring to life. Their motivations are explained in great detail in the next question.

How are you going to make money?

Easy, by providing value. J

There is an enormous opportunity to provide an affordable and effective marketing solution for small and medium size businesses. The majority of the attempts to service this segment have replicated the phone book online, which fails to leverage how people interact with the internet. Sure, we search, but how do we decide between the results? Written reviews and rankings help, but they have limitations and cannot compare to video’s engagement.

It is for this exact reason why television commercials are more expensive than print. But we’re not making commercials – at My City Lives we’re leveraging what has made Youtube most successful – our inherent attraction to the raw and real. We are providing a distribution platform to share people’s stories and also encouraging establishments to tell their own. In doing so, we are blurring the lines between old and new media in a purposeful and positive way. Seen this way, you might now understand what we mean when we say that My City Lives is not necessarily a technology company as much as it is a marketing company that leverages technology.

What would happen if you watched a video and wanted to know more? Instinctually, our habit is to select the link beside the video that promises more information whether it’s regarding sales, hours, menus, products and much more. At My City Lives, uploading the video is free for all but the ability to provide a link or additional information comes at a premium. As a bonus to this premium option, we also will feature these Suppliers on our main page as part of our company’s recommendation engine. But to ensure complete transparency, the fact that they’ve paid a little bit to get there will always be communicated.

One last very important thing: for the many people and organizations that are doing socially valuable things in our city whether they are not for profits, public spaces or institutions, our premium services will be available at no cost.

“What about Google?”

In the absence of a direct competitor, we are quite often asked “What About Google?” The short answer to that question is what about Google?

Google may be excellent at a lot of things, but one thing it’s never nailed is community. Knol did not kill Wikipedia, Orkut did not kill Facebook and “YouTube’s commenters seem to come from a very special place somewhere between the sixth and seventh circles of hell”. Conversely, My City Lives is both a celebration of communities and will be largely dependent on their contributions. If we are successful, our greatest asset will be one which Google’s resources cannot simply create.

Should they try, however, we welcome the challenge. The internet is not Google’s alone to rule and complacency with that possibility challenges the future that we should want.  There is a long history to draw inspiration from of innovative young companies creating space where previously considered unlikely. This is no different.