I actually like that Referly are 'pivoting' (I really don't like the word ‘pivoting’ mainly because, in terms of startups it’s also been associated to failure but many of them aren’t failures) into a content model ala. Medium etc meaning that they’re basically becoming a content network in the sense that Wordpress and even Tumblr are. Some people may argue that Medium’s strength is actually its editor tools but they recently hired Evan Hansen (previously a long-time editor at Wired) [1] which suggests that they’re going to end up as a Content Network. Anyway, the reason I like it is because, it seemed (from an outsiders perspective anyway) that Referly wanted to be like this initially (user profiles showing the stuff users shared and some posts on there too) although they were lured by the idea of turning links into $ ala. Skimlinks[2], Viglink[3], YieldKit[4] which resulted in a hybrid – which didn’t really make sense, in the sense that Publishers (the ones Referly would really make the $$ off) already have their own websites etc that they want to monetize.
It’s an interesting play that they’re taking but if they roll out a nice new brand (which really needs to be .com as I don’t think Refer.ly is the best name for this going forward) then they can definitely win big in this space. Likewise, I don’t think this space they’re going into is going to be a ‘winner takes all’ market as we have already seen there are several winners even within the same verticals in the content space. So if Referly or whatever their new brand will be even end up Second, Third or even Fifth etc then they’ll end up with a decent sized company (there has been plenty nine figure exits for content companies) although, maybe Referly can become the first one to achieve that ten figure exit or maybe even IPO.
It’s an interesting play that they’re taking but if they roll out a nice new brand (which really needs to be .com as I don’t think Refer.ly is the best name for this going forward) then they can definitely win big in this space. Likewise, I don’t think this space they’re going into is going to be a ‘winner takes all’ market as we have already seen there are several winners even within the same verticals in the content space. So if Referly or whatever their new brand will be even end up Second, Third or even Fifth etc then they’ll end up with a decent sized company (there has been plenty nine figure exits for content companies) although, maybe Referly can become the first one to achieve that ten figure exit or maybe even IPO.
[1] https://twitter.com/evanatmedium/status/309802736831041537
[2] http://www.skimlinks.com
[3] http://www.viglink.com
[4] http://www.yieldkit.com