Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CreativeNet (Enhancement of an advanced media sharing and networking platform to ensure connectivity among world’s creatives)
Reporting period: 2016-06-01 to 2016-11-30
The overall objective of CreativeNet project is to further enhance the functionalities of Twine to penetrate the pan European and global market. Twine is an online network for creatives, such as musicians, filmmakers and photographers, as well as a marketplace that links up between the prospective hirers and the freelance creatives who are looking for paid work. This platform also helps in collaboration among the creatives themselves. The creatives all over the world primarily faces two problems: a) they do not have a traditional CV - their history is all about their projects and artwork, not where they have worked. They struggle to showcase their CV which makes it harder to get work. b) Many collaborate on a project, few are recognised - when a project is uploaded to online services (e.g. SoundCloud, Vimeo) generally only the uploader gets recognition. It is linked to their account. The people behind the scenes (writers, vocalists, editors, producers) are unrecognised – which makes it harder for them to get work. Twine has been developed to address both the problems. It will be the professional network for the creative industry. It will act as a “market network” - bringing best parts of a social network and a marketplace to provide an end-to-end service to the creatives and their hirers. It is important for the society because it helps open the door of the global creative market for the freelancer creatives. The purchasers of the creative works also get access to the pool of creatives from all over the world. This ensures fair remuneration for the freelance creatives and optimum price for the purchasers. It also helps create collaborative environment amongst the creatives from any part of the world.
The objective of this feasibility study was to envisage the technical and commercial feasibility of CreativeNet project. The aim was to consolidate the technical development requirements of Twine, the social network and marketplace for creatives, to reach TLR 9 from TRL 6 and develop a robust business plan to penetrate the European as well as global market with a security of maximum profit within a reasonable time. Under the technical feasibility study, the growth potential of Twine subscribers for next five years was assessed. Based on this result, IT infrastructure requirement analysis and comparison between continuing the hosting service and developing own data centre were conducted. Survey was conducted to identify customer requirements and new features including locale specific components, facilitation of hiring and payment system, adding pitching, rating, milestone, dispute resolution, messaging system, marketplace administration system etc. were planned to incorporate in Twine. Cost, time and resource requirement to incorporate all the technical features were also accomplished during the study. Under the commercial feasibility study market research, competitor analysis, developing strategy for collaboration with partners etc. were performed. Global creative market size and its trends, strategies to penetrate the market for the creative freelancers and their hirers were also analysed. Several schemes were developed to bolster the partnership with potential partners. Several technical, commercial, financial and people related risks were identified and mitigation strategies developed during the risk analysis. IPR protection strategy was developed for Twine platform as well as the creative works developed and uploaded by the clients of Twine. Finally, a robust business plan was developed with support from EC coach. With all of these analysis performed in this study, we have identified our next technical and commercial tasks that mainly include adding new features of Twine, analysing features of competitors, market size and penetration strategy, risk management and IPR protection plan to achieve maximum technical and financial gain through CreativeNet project.
During the feasibility study, we have analysed the functionalities of 181 online platforms that provide similar services. But we found no company that provide the entire end-to-end solution for creatives and their hirers that we are providing through Twine. Twine help creatives collaborate even in the physical world and get credited for what they have done on their portfolio on Twine. However, we see two of the online networks as our main competitors: Fiverr and Behance. But neither of these platforms provide networking, collaboration and a marketplace at the same time. Twine will have several areas of socio-economic impact. Creatives can showcase all their talents from the same platform. They need not to go to different sites to upload audio, video or image using different profile. They can develop a portfolio that shows their creative works not just list where they worked (like a normal CV). This increases their chance to get paid work. They can collaborate with other individuals easily and in relatively cheaper prices. Every piece of the collaborators’ work is recognized and added to their portfolio. This increases their employability. Hirers of the creative individuals can see the vivid profiles of the creatives and offer a bid. In this way they can get the best creatives at the most competitive price. Twine has the potential to redefine the entire creative market. Twine offers an innovative new business model that will disrupt the traditional gatekeepers-controlled creative industry where currently a person must go through gatekeepers such as record labels, advertising agencies and film studios to get access into this industry. It will create more value in the creative economy than the current business model in this sector, and will exploit the benefits of participation and collaboration of creatives in the EU and across the world.