Welcome to Fear and Greed Sunday feature Michael Thompson. There's been a lot of talk this week about social media platform we Are, eight after it laid off its Australian team. Despite those job losses, the founder of the app says that the company isn't contracting, that it is reallocating resources to the US and Europe. Now. We are a somewhat unusual beast in the world of social media. It's a platform that markets itself as an ethical and non addictive alternative to the likes of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Back in October of twenty twenty two, when we Are first launched in Australia, we spoke with the founder, Zoe Kahala, who was then known as Sue Fantasy. It is a really interesting insight, this conversation into the development of a platform in a very crowded space, an app that apparently has about five hundred thousand active monthly users now with around two million downloads. It costs sixty million dollars to develop. We learned that this week, a quarter of which came out of the founder's own pocket, which is a very big sum in a very tough market. This is a great interview by Sean Aylmer. I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Fear and Greed Sunday feature Michael Thompson. There's been a lot of talk this week about social media platform we Are, eight after it laid off its Australian team. Despite those job losses, the founder of the app says that the company isn't contracting, that it is reallocating resources to the US and Europe. Now. We are a somewhat unusual beast in the world of social media. It's a platform that markets itself as an ethical and non addictive alternative to the likes of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Back in October of twenty twenty two, when we Are first launched in Australia, we spoke with the founder, Zoe Kahala, who was then known as Sue Fantasy. It is a really interesting insight, this conversation into the development of a platform in a very crowded space, an app that apparently has about five hundred thousand active monthly users now with around two million downloads. It costs sixty million dollars to develop. We learned that this week, a quarter of which came out of the founder's own pocket, which is a very big sum in a very tough market. This is a great interview by Sean Aylmer. I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to the Fear and Greed Daily Interview. I'm Sean Aylmer. Social media can be a pretty unpleasant place at times for the users and the businesses trying to advertise or promote their services. For the users, it can be very negative with a focus on superficial and hateful content. For advertisers, there's not a great deal of transparency and there can be a lot of waste. A new platform is aiming to change all of that. We Are eight. That's were new aal eight Were eight All one word has recently launched in Australia, promising a platform that's free from hate, good for the planet and puts money back in the wallets of those using it. Plus it's been built by a very highly respected tech entrepreneur. We Are eight is a brainchild of Sue Fantasy, the founder and former CEO and Media Index, the world's leading media data aggregation business. Sue is now the founder and CEO of we Are eight, a supporter of this podcast and joins me from the UK. So welcome to Fear and Greed.

Welcome to the Fear and Greed Daily Interview. I'm Sean Aylmer. Social media can be a pretty unpleasant place at times for the users and the businesses trying to advertise or promote their services. For the users, it can be very negative with a focus on superficial and hateful content. For advertisers, there's not a great deal of transparency and there can be a lot of waste. A new platform is aiming to change all of that. We Are eight. That's were new aal eight Were eight All one word has recently launched in Australia, promising a platform that's free from hate, good for the planet and puts money back in the wallets of those using it. Plus it's been built by a very highly respected tech entrepreneur. We Are eight is a brainchild of Sue Fantasy, the founder and former CEO and Media Index, the world's leading media data aggregation business. Sue is now the founder and CEO of we Are eight, a supporter of this podcast and joins me from the UK. So welcome to Fear and Greed.

Thank you. Sean wonderful to be here. Thank you.

Thank you. Sean wonderful to be here. Thank you.

There are really two elements of this that I'm keen to talk to you about from the user's perspective and then from the advertiser's perspective. Let's start with the user. Why develop a new platform because there are plenty out there.

There are really two elements of this that I'm keen to talk to you about from the user's perspective and then from the advertiser's perspective. Let's start with the user. Why develop a new platform because there are plenty out there.

Yeah. So you know it's funny when even when I hear the word user, now because we call everyone on eight citizens, you're an eight citizen where the people's platform. I was living in New York for twelve years and there was a moment when I built SMNE. We could see all of this money going to media and one hundred and seventeen billion dollars last year Sean went to Facebook in ad revenue. And the crazy thing is people didn't get a cent of that. So we're shoved.

Yeah. So you know it's funny when even when I hear the word user, now because we call everyone on eight citizens, you're an eight citizen where the people's platform. I was living in New York for twelve years and there was a moment when I built SMNE. We could see all of this money going to media and one hundred and seventeen billion dollars last year Sean went to Facebook in ad revenue. And the crazy thing is people didn't get a cent of that. So we're shoved.

Ads.

Ads.

Ads are constantly put in front of us, and yet nothing is shared with the people. So our belief is, if we're going to you know, in a world where there's an economic crisis, a climate crisis, a mental health crisis, of which socialist fueled so many problems, we need to move from a world of greed to one of sharing and really create abundance. So our mission became how could we redirect that money that's going to Facebook back to people and the causes that matter and thirty million dollars and seven years later, that's what we've built so for people. Our whole mission is to make it really fun and easy to make positive impact in the world through collecttion of action, to get money into your wallet every time you watch an ad, because if you watch an ad on EID, you watch them on your terms, so they're uncoupled from the content. You tap on it. You watch the ad answer a couple of questions and then money goes into your wallet and donations go to charity. And then separately, we can see our friends again. From October, you can see your friends in a pure friends feed free of algorithms, because the algorithms have actually destroyed our lives, and they've made people's world smaller and more isolated and take us as humans to our lowest common denominator. On eight, we want to make your worlds bigger and more connected. So we have a stage where you can discover amazing people to follow like you, and then you have your friends feed, which is just purely your friends. You see their content when they post it at the time they post it. So it's a reimagining of social. It's really social. It's what social should be, with all the money coming back to the people.

Ads are constantly put in front of us, and yet nothing is shared with the people. So our belief is, if we're going to you know, in a world where there's an economic crisis, a climate crisis, a mental health crisis, of which socialist fueled so many problems, we need to move from a world of greed to one of sharing and really create abundance. So our mission became how could we redirect that money that's going to Facebook back to people and the causes that matter and thirty million dollars and seven years later, that's what we've built so for people. Our whole mission is to make it really fun and easy to make positive impact in the world through collecttion of action, to get money into your wallet every time you watch an ad, because if you watch an ad on EID, you watch them on your terms, so they're uncoupled from the content. You tap on it. You watch the ad answer a couple of questions and then money goes into your wallet and donations go to charity. And then separately, we can see our friends again. From October, you can see your friends in a pure friends feed free of algorithms, because the algorithms have actually destroyed our lives, and they've made people's world smaller and more isolated and take us as humans to our lowest common denominator. On eight, we want to make your worlds bigger and more connected. So we have a stage where you can discover amazing people to follow like you, and then you have your friends feed, which is just purely your friends. You see their content when they post it at the time they post it. So it's a reimagining of social. It's really social. It's what social should be, with all the money coming back to the people.

Okay, so I'm just trying to get my head around this. It's an app which basically takes kind of the big tech media culture out of how people use apps.

Okay, so I'm just trying to get my head around this. It's an app which basically takes kind of the big tech media culture out of how people use apps.

I mean, the interface with Facebook really hasn't changed for a long time. We've spent years reimagining that. So what you're going to see in October is a reimagined social where you can discover people that you want to follow in a really beautiful way, free from ads, where you have your friends feed that is purely your friends. And if you want to watch ads, ninety eight percent of people do because every time they watch an ad, donations go to charity and that's how you redirect money to causes. But money goes also into your wallet to pay your mobile bill and the little subscriptions and things in your life as well. So we've inverted everything. And interestingly, where the only platform where people actually want to watch ad they want two minutes of ads a day because that's how they redirect money and pay, you know, pay for all their little subscriptions, their TV subscriptions, et cetera.

I mean, the interface with Facebook really hasn't changed for a long time. We've spent years reimagining that. So what you're going to see in October is a reimagined social where you can discover people that you want to follow in a really beautiful way, free from ads, where you have your friends feed that is purely your friends. And if you want to watch ads, ninety eight percent of people do because every time they watch an ad, donations go to charity and that's how you redirect money to causes. But money goes also into your wallet to pay your mobile bill and the little subscriptions and things in your life as well. So we've inverted everything. And interestingly, where the only platform where people actually want to watch ad they want two minutes of ads a day because that's how they redirect money and pay, you know, pay for all their little subscriptions, their TV subscriptions, et cetera.

I'm still trying to get my head around this. How did you come up with the idea because it does very much invert the commercial model?

I'm still trying to get my head around this. How did you come up with the idea because it does very much invert the commercial model?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's been an evolution, Sean. I mean, we we've had teams of behavioral scientists for years working with me to re imagine what an experience could look like, because we we wanted to imagine is it possible to have a social experience that is free from hate and that involves AI moderation, you know, reporting, infrastructure, all of that, But is it possible to have people feeling really good and connected every day? And then is it possible to deliver someone a digital ad in a way that guarantees their attention but leaves them feeling really good? For us, it's all about the feeling. And you know, we're not feeling good. We're not we're feeling like users. We're not feeling like powerful citizens who can change the world. And look, our bigger reason is to reconnect people with themselves, with each other and the planet in eight minutes so we can take collective action.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's been an evolution, Sean. I mean, we we've had teams of behavioral scientists for years working with me to re imagine what an experience could look like, because we we wanted to imagine is it possible to have a social experience that is free from hate and that involves AI moderation, you know, reporting, infrastructure, all of that, But is it possible to have people feeling really good and connected every day? And then is it possible to deliver someone a digital ad in a way that guarantees their attention but leaves them feeling really good? For us, it's all about the feeling. And you know, we're not feeling good. We're not we're feeling like users. We're not feeling like powerful citizens who can change the world. And look, our bigger reason is to reconnect people with themselves, with each other and the planet in eight minutes so we can take collective action.

Stay with me, Sue, We'll be back in a minute. My guest this morning is Sue Fantasy, founder and CEO of We Are Eight. So the hate part of it, So you're going to ensure that it's free from hate ate? How do you do that?

Stay with me, Sue, We'll be back in a minute. My guest this morning is Sue Fantasy, founder and CEO of We Are Eight. So the hate part of it, So you're going to ensure that it's free from hate ate? How do you do that?

Yes, So that has been an equal obsession. So we work with lots of Premier League footballers, musicians, artists, actors, and the hate that they have to endure is truly shocking. Actually, one of the players last week told me that he received four hundred death threats on other platforms, and not just him but his family members because he missed a goal, which is horrific. Right. So what we've built, firstly, it's a commitment to zero tolerance, zero tolerance hate. You can't be anonymous, so the way that we on book removing anonymity is a really big thing. Then the way we've architected it so your friends feed is private for everyone. So if I'm friends with you, we have friends with each other, which let's be friends on eighth you can see my posts and I can see yours. It's only if you're verified with a Golden eight halo that's our blue tick, and only then can your content be seen on the stage and you can build a following. So you have to be verified, to be able to be seen publicly, and by verifying all the talent, all of the content creators, that sort of enables us to control who is seen publicly. We've got a moderation infrastructure around the reporting because all eight citizens can comment and then we have reporting. And what's interesting the tech companies hide behind freedom of speech, and that is just crap, honestly, because it's what they're fueling is hate speech because they want people angry, fearful, scrolling longer, and we don't. We want you on eight for eight minutes a day, a couple of minutes seeing your friends, a couple of minutes getting inspired by amazing content, two minutes of collective action, two minutes of watching a couple of ads, getting money in you wallet, then go and live live you life again. And so it's a very different intention and architecture that the old world has. I mean, I think within a year we're going to be looking at that going It just doesn't make us feel good. We're being used.

Yes, So that has been an equal obsession. So we work with lots of Premier League footballers, musicians, artists, actors, and the hate that they have to endure is truly shocking. Actually, one of the players last week told me that he received four hundred death threats on other platforms, and not just him but his family members because he missed a goal, which is horrific. Right. So what we've built, firstly, it's a commitment to zero tolerance, zero tolerance hate. You can't be anonymous, so the way that we on book removing anonymity is a really big thing. Then the way we've architected it so your friends feed is private for everyone. So if I'm friends with you, we have friends with each other, which let's be friends on eighth you can see my posts and I can see yours. It's only if you're verified with a Golden eight halo that's our blue tick, and only then can your content be seen on the stage and you can build a following. So you have to be verified, to be able to be seen publicly, and by verifying all the talent, all of the content creators, that sort of enables us to control who is seen publicly. We've got a moderation infrastructure around the reporting because all eight citizens can comment and then we have reporting. And what's interesting the tech companies hide behind freedom of speech, and that is just crap, honestly, because it's what they're fueling is hate speech because they want people angry, fearful, scrolling longer, and we don't. We want you on eight for eight minutes a day, a couple of minutes seeing your friends, a couple of minutes getting inspired by amazing content, two minutes of collective action, two minutes of watching a couple of ads, getting money in you wallet, then go and live live you life again. And so it's a very different intention and architecture that the old world has. I mean, I think within a year we're going to be looking at that going It just doesn't make us feel good. We're being used.

From an advertisers perspective too, there must be a huge incentive there to be part of this. I mean, so businesses, I've run the social media comments on them, which are just wrong and their faults and whatnot. It can really destroy a business. Though I'm totally unfairly this won't allow that then for advertisers.

From an advertisers perspective too, there must be a huge incentive there to be part of this. I mean, so businesses, I've run the social media comments on them, which are just wrong and their faults and whatnot. It can really destroy a business. Though I'm totally unfairly this won't allow that then for advertisers.

Do you know it's interesting, Sean, I hadn't thought of We have a cracking model for advertisers where advertisers can reach citizens. Citizens except to watch the ad, they get their full attention, ask a couple of questions, and they build a really deep relationship. So we're getting all the biggest supermarket brands, Nike, all the big banks, Unilever, everyone use the ad model and get really transformational results. One of our campaigns last week got sixty one percent click through.

Do you know it's interesting, Sean, I hadn't thought of We have a cracking model for advertisers where advertisers can reach citizens. Citizens except to watch the ad, they get their full attention, ask a couple of questions, and they build a really deep relationship. So we're getting all the biggest supermarket brands, Nike, all the big banks, Unilever, everyone use the ad model and get really transformational results. One of our campaigns last week got sixty one percent click through.

Wow, I know our audience.

Wow, I know our audience.

It's so ridiculous that we had to get PwC to have an audit infrastructure because we couldn't report our own homework. Because for the first time, we're delivering someone an AD in a way that respects them as a citizen who's changing the world. I mean, the old world has thought of advertising as a necessary evil. We've got a jam ads in here because that's how we make lots of money, but they really don't want them our world. We see brands power to change the world with citizens because they have a lot of money, and as humans we have to buy stuff only consciously buy stuff, so we can have conscious consumers. But we can get all of that money back to the people and the planet. And if we come together, so we see brands and advertisers as doing and bringing good in the world. And once you see the good that is possible abundant and funnel the money back to people in the planet, good things happen. But you mentioned something really important. Every brand can also have an organic channel in eight. So we have brands like Nike and all the charities so they can build their following on we are as well and have an organic profile. They can bring their best content. But as you say, it's free of hate.

It's so ridiculous that we had to get PwC to have an audit infrastructure because we couldn't report our own homework. Because for the first time, we're delivering someone an AD in a way that respects them as a citizen who's changing the world. I mean, the old world has thought of advertising as a necessary evil. We've got a jam ads in here because that's how we make lots of money, but they really don't want them our world. We see brands power to change the world with citizens because they have a lot of money, and as humans we have to buy stuff only consciously buy stuff, so we can have conscious consumers. But we can get all of that money back to the people and the planet. And if we come together, so we see brands and advertisers as doing and bringing good in the world. And once you see the good that is possible abundant and funnel the money back to people in the planet, good things happen. But you mentioned something really important. Every brand can also have an organic channel in eight. So we have brands like Nike and all the charities so they can build their following on we are as well and have an organic profile. They can bring their best content. But as you say, it's free of hate.

So so it's this month October you're launching generally, is that right? And so to get the app? How do I get it?

So so it's this month October you're launching generally, is that right? And so to get the app? How do I get it?

App Store, Google Play Store, download the app. Become an eight citizen, join us in changing the world. Donate your earnings to all those charities that you love and care about, and feel your power to change the world. Invite your friends. You can share your real voice. Your voice really matters. I think you know, with all of the worry in the world, and all the fear and all the greed and everything that's happening. You know, we can feel pretty powerless. Well not anymore. This is the place where we come together and drive real change.

App Store, Google Play Store, download the app. Become an eight citizen, join us in changing the world. Donate your earnings to all those charities that you love and care about, and feel your power to change the world. Invite your friends. You can share your real voice. Your voice really matters. I think you know, with all of the worry in the world, and all the fear and all the greed and everything that's happening. You know, we can feel pretty powerless. Well not anymore. This is the place where we come together and drive real change.

So thank you for talking to Fear and Greed.

So thank you for talking to Fear and Greed.

Thank you for having me Sean. It's been brilliant.

Thank you for having me Sean. It's been brilliant.

Sue Fantasy, founder and CEO of We Are Eight, a supporter of this podcast. This is the Fear and Greed Daily Interview. Join us every morning for the full episode of Fear and Greed, Australia's most popular business podcast. I'm Sean elma Enjoy your day.

Sue Fantasy, founder and CEO of We Are Eight, a supporter of this podcast. This is the Fear and Greed Daily Interview. Join us every morning for the full episode of Fear and Greed, Australia's most popular business podcast. I'm Sean elma Enjoy your day.