New York social media content-sharing startup Jellysmack has launched in Australia and New Zealand, to take advantage of a booming local content market and offering new opportunities to SMEs.
Founded by Michael Philippe, Robin Sabban and Swann Maizil back in 2016, Jellysmack uses AI tech and data to help video creators grow their audiences across multiple social platforms.
Through the Jellysmack Creator Program, it uses both tech tools and expert editors to optimise and distribute content across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube on behalf of the creator, helping them reach new audiences and generate new revenue streams.
According to Jellysmack, its managed content gets about 10 billion global views each month, and a cross-platform reach of some 125 million unique monthly users in the US alone.
More than 350 creators around the world use the program, including the likes of YouTube legends — and high earners — PewDiePie, MrBeast, Nas Daily and Bailey Sarian.
The global expansion follows a Series C investment, of an undisclosed amount, from Softbank. The US business is now focused on growing the ‘creator economy’, currently worth about US$100 billion ($133 billion) even further.
Ezechiel Ritchie, former Google industry manager and the first employee of Taboola in Australia, is heading up the ANZ rollout as country manager.
Already Jellysmack has signed up ten of Australia’s finest video content creators, including artist and animator Jazza, Italian cooking channel Vincenzo’s Plate, and tongue-in-cheek how-to channel HowToBasic, which is Australia’s fifth biggest YouTube channel with 16.7 million subscribers.
“We essentially do all the heavy lifting,” Ritchie tells SmartCompany.
“They can focus on producing the content.”
ANZ was a key market for expansion for the US business, and a unique market for content creation, Ritchie explains. Monetisation of social media content here is among the highest in the world, he explains.
Content made in Australia and New Zealand is also very exportable, going down well in the huge markets of the UK and the US.
When the creator program launched in the US, the team saw a lot of interest from Aussie and Kiwi creators. There’s a clear demand from local creators for a tool like this.
It’s not only professional content creators changing their habits online. We’re seeing more business owners boosting their social presence on platforms like Instagram and TikTok and finding new ways to engage current customers and find new ones.
That only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jellysmack caters to any and all creators, Ritchie says. That includes broadcasters, radio stations, publishers and businesses of all sizes.
“We enable them to start diversifying across all social media platforms, with all the advantages that come with it,” he explains.
There’s very little overlap between Facebook and YouTube users, for example. Being able to easily spread content across allows businesses to reach a wider audience.
It’s also a way of de-risking, Ritchie says.
“If anything happens across one platform, you know you have a strong presence across multiple ones … you’re able to maintain your revenue stream.”
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