Meetme.com (MEET) reported it earnings for the quarter and fiscal year ending December 31, 2012 after the market closed on Thursday night and the earnings report send the stock up over 15% in regular trading on Friday.
You may remember that Meetme.com is the company that bought the domain name Meet.me for $450,000
“Total revenues from continuing operations for the fourth quarter 2012 were approximately $11.6 million, an increase of approximately $5.7 million or 96% compared to approximately $5.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2011. This increase is primarily the result of a full quarter in 2012 of combined operations since the acquisition of myYearbook.
MeetMe reported revenues were approximately $9.9 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2012 as compared to revenues of $5.1 million for the same period in the prior year, representing an increase of $4.8 million, year-over-year.
For the year ended December 31, 2012, MeetMe reported revenues were $34.3 million, an increase of $29.1 million over the year ended December 31, 2011. When you compare the combined MeetMe platform revenues for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2011 of $8.4 million and $28.7 million, revenues increased $1.5 million for the quarter ended and $5.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2012.
Revenues from continuing operations were $11.6 million and $9.5 million on a combined basis for the fourth quarters of 2012 and 2011, respectively, an increase of $2.1 million or 23%. The increase on a combined basis is primarily due to the growth in the MeetMe platform revenues of $1.5 million or 18%, and cross-platform revenues of $600,000 or 56% over the comparable period a year ago.
For the year ended December 31, 2012, reported revenues from continuing operations were $46.7 million compared to $10.7 million for the same period in 2011, an increase of $35.9 million or 336%. Again, the reported revenue increase is primarily the result of a full year of combined operations since the acquisition of myYearbook.
On a combined basis for the year ended December 31, 2012, revenues of $46.7 million increased $11 million or 31% from $35.6 million in 2011. The increase in combined revenues is due primarily to the growth during 2012 of the MeetMe platform revenues, and cross-platform revenues of $5.6 million or 20% and $5.4 million or 77%, respectively, over the comparable period a year ago.
The company transformed from $10.7 million in revenue and 202 people in 2011, to $46.7 million in revenue and 154 people in 2012, representing revenue growth of 330% year-over-year.
Traffic on the MeetMe platform increased by a healthy margin in Q4. MeetMe Daily Active Users, DAU, increased 14% over the Q3 average to 1.261 million, while mobile DAU increased 13% to just over 765,000. Overall Monthly Active Users, MAU, increased 40% versus the Q3 average, driven in part by the onetime consolidation with the Quepasa platform in October, but also by our international expansion efforts in general, while our mobile MAUs increased 9%, breaking 2 million average MAUs for the first time. Meanwhile, new registration has leaped 59% overall to 95.8 million, again, mostly in new international markets, while mobile registrations were close to flat versus Q3.”
This article is skewed to show that Meet.me is worth the hefty price tag. Acquiring myYearbook.com is mainly the reason MeetMe has increased in price, not because of MeetMe acquiring Meet.me. Meet.me is nothing but a vanity domain.
There is more demand for social network, especially when there are so many people who need their 15 minutes. Advertisers are using social networking platforms to promote their products and services.
Any end-user can purchase a name they don’t need for a ton of cash. Acquiring a forwarding domain doesn’t mean it will increase the value of their company. Some end-users may buy the domain to prevent another entity from developing it. If another end-user purchased Meet.me, then they would probably experience conflict from MeetMe. It really depends how they use the domain and what TMs are registered.
MeetMe is the only end-user in the world that would have paid $450K for that domain. I seriously doubt no other end-user would buy that domain. It would be interesting to read the dialogue that occurred during the negotiation process.
I have a domain story that involves a successful rebranding effort. As a result, the company is generating healthy traffic. I would have never predicted their success with the domain. Nobody would have known this.
Name one past domain you sold which is delivering greater than 100,000+ unique visits per month right now. Domain names that produce traffic and revenue results matter most. If the domain names can produce 100,000+ traffic, then they are worth a hefty price tag. Your past BigGovernment.com domain spiraled downward (high to low), which is probably due to the owner forwarding the domain to a personal website.
The financial stats are used to reinforce that MeetMe made a smart purchase. I can see if they used Meet.me as their website. However, they are not using the domain to create value in dot me domains.
The purchase of MyYearbook, which another Latin social media company purchased for $100 million with upfront cash (up to $20 million that went to MyYearbook investors) and stock options (remaining portion to be paid) that would materialize after 5 years, is the main reason MeetMe is now enjoying rapid growth.
Meet.me is merely a vanity domain that is cool. This article would be more effective is MeetMe developed Meet.me into a website that delivered the stats you indicate. In result, Meet.me would be worth $450K because MeetMe would be successful in result of that domain name. In this case, it is not the domain name that increased value in their stocks and attracted more new members.
Great promotional article to build value into the Meet.me domain sale and dot me domains. Because you have more valuable dot me domains to sell, the value of the MeetMe company will serve as your bargaining chip to ask for higher prices.