eYeka
 | This article contains promotional content. (August 2016) |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | Paris, France (2001) |
| Headquarters | Paris , France |
Key people | Gilles Babinet (President) François Pétavy (CEO) |
| Website | www.eYeka.net www.eYeka.com |
eYeka (/aj kɑ/) is an online crowdsourcing and co-creation platform that allows brands to announce and conduct contests through the Internet.[1] Companies create sets of questions, called "community briefs" or "call-for-entries", to which people can respond by submitting visual creations.[2]
Development
[edit]eYeka was founded in Paris, France, in 2006 by Gilles Babinet and Frank Perrier as an online platform that enabled brands, media, content owners, and mobile operators to operate their own media.[3][clarification needed] The name "eYeka" was chosen as a combination of the English word "eye" and the Egyptian word "ka", meaning spirit. The company received its seed funding of €5 million from Ventech, DN Capital, and SFR Développement SAS. The French venture capital firm, I-Source, became an investor in January 2010, and eYeka raised €3 million in its second round of financing.[4] In 2010, eYeka opened offices in London, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.
Over time, eYeka's focus changed from operating user-generated content channels to hosting creative contests online.[5] Since 2008, eYeka has exclusively hosted online co-creation contests for brands and nonprofit or public organizations. Its first community participants were photographers and videomakers. By December 2010, eYeka had about 100,000 members.[6] Companies use the material posted by the members to guide new product development,[7] to gather marketing,[8] and/or to obtain user-generated content.[9]
In early 2011, eYeka launched in San Francisco and New York City[10] and increased its membership to about 150,000. In late 2011, Japanese advertising agency Asatsu-DK acquired exclusive distribution rights for eYeka's platform in Japan. The company's sales increased by about 80% in 2011, and eYeka secured a venture loan through Generis Capital Partners for expansion into Brazil, Mexico, and Korea.[11]
In 2011, eYeka launched an online interface called "beYond", which allows client organizations to find, manage, and share crowdsourcing projects.
In April 2012, eYeka was selected as a winner of Red Herring's Top 100 Europe Award.[12] In 2012, eYeka organized a contest to support UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day.[13]
In 2015, the company employed about 50 people.[14] By this time, it had posted about 400 contests; it had 200,000 content creators from 94 countries and a number of corporate clients.[15][16]
References
[edit]- ^ "eYeka Creates Crowdsourcing Marketing Platform". Forbes, Jul 27, 2015 Bruce Rogers.
- ^ Fernando J. Garrigos-Simon; Ignacio Gil-Pechuán; Sofia Estelles-Miguel (8 May 2015). Advances in Crowdsourcing. Springer. pp. 21–. ISBN 978-3-319-18341-1.
- ^ Elevator Pitch: Eyeka pitches for its part of the mobile TV space, The Guardian, Jemima Kiss 14 April 2008
- ^ Eyeka raises €3 million for crowd-sourcing ad campaigns, Techcrunch.com 2010/01/15
- ^ "eYeka: WIP of the Week". Spend Matters, Andrew Karpie, June 17, 2016
- ^ Co-création: Triple 100 pour eYeka Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Capital.fr
- ^ Co-creation and crowd-sourcing: a powerful tool for NPD, Gfktechtalk.com 2011/02/22
- ^ eYeka Delivers Creative Crowd-Sourcing To Big Brands, Marketingmanagersinfo.co.uk
- ^ TAG Heuer Unveils New Link Watch with Stunning Consumer’s Videos, Brandingmagazine.com 2011/09/12
- ^ Eyeka launches in the US so big brands can crowd-source creative feedback, Techcrunch.com 2011/01/19
- ^ eYeka secures €2.5 million after 80% growth, Rudebaguette.com 2012/02/13
- ^ "Europe 2012 Finalists", Redherring.com
- ^ Finalists and winners of the eYeka competition in support of World Press Freedom Day, Unesco.org
- ^ Co-Creation Agency eYeka Consolidates Business Model, Mrweb.com
- ^ Unilever expands its involvement with eYeka | News | Research
- ^ "eYeka signs partnership deal with Unilever | ADAsia". Archived from the original on 2013-10-07. Retrieved 2013-12-01.