It is our great pleasure to introduce qbeats as a new member of the SIIA. qbeats is a unique information company that combines principles of demand with an accessible and user-friendly platform. Believing it has created the first real “marketplace” for news, qbeats links information consumers to appropriate information providers. Learn more about qbeats and their thoughts on the future of information industry in this exclusive interview with Greg Joslyn.
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Kathy: Tell me about qbeats. What do you do?
Kathy Greenler Sexton, VP & GM, SIIA Content Division
Greg: qbeats is an internet platform that connects news buyers directly with publishers. The heart of qbeats is a patent-pending algorithm to determine the price at which content is sold at any moment in time. The platform also facilitates subscriptions for users who find themselves drawn repeatedly to a particular publisher’s offerings.
Kathy: What is unique about your platform?
Greg: We’ve created what we believe is the first true marketplace for news. We are sometimes compared with iTunes, but with an important distinction: While a song will have the same static value two hours or two months from now, the value of news is very dynamic. Think about a big scoop – say, a biotech company has hired an M&A advisor. A hedge fund trader with a large position in the stock will want that breaking story the microsecond it comes out and he will pay a premium for it. The CFO of the biotech’s main competitor, on the other hand, is also going to be interested, but she can wait a few minutes till the price goes down. Meanwhile, a year from now, an equity analyst compiling research on biotech M&A might be happy to purchase the same story from the archive at a fraction of the original price. Current publishing models, whether one-size-fits-all subscriptions or metered paywalls, don’t do a very good job differentiating between these three use cases and efficiently monetizing the demand curve. The qbeats demand-based dynamic pricing engine does.
Kathy: What types of companies does qbeats look to partner with?
Greg: On the content side, we are looking to team up with publishers of proprietary information who want to grow their audience and add incremental revenue. We are starting with publishers who have or are seeking an audience with the financial community.
Kathy:Who does qbeats sell to?
Greg: For now, the emphasis is on a professional financial services audience, especially in the commodities and foreign exchange verticals. But that will broaden quickly. We think qbeats ultimately will have just as much appeal on Main Street as it does on Wall Street.
Kathy: What do you see as the biggest trends in the industry in the next 12-18 months?
Greg: Publishers seem to be asking, “What’s next?” They’ve invested a lot of time and effort in crafting paywalls and some are starting to see a return on that investment. But, while paywalls may be necessary to retain wallet-share from legacy readers who have transitioned to digital, publishers are realizing that they’re probably not sufficient to attract brand new customers and thereby drive significant revenue growth. That’s where we think the qbeats platform can really help.
Kathy: Is there any recent news that you’d like to announce?
Greg: We started our “by invitation only” soft launch in the first week of June and will be making refinements this summer based on intensive feedback from that exercise, before ramping up with more users in the fall.
Kathy: What is the best way to contact qbeats?
Greg: Rich Sabreen (rich.sabreen@qbeats.com) and Greg Joslyn (greg.joslyn@qbeats.com) are the point people for prospective publishing partners.
