Bebo

Bebo is one of the world’s biggest online social networking sites, with a membership of more than 40 million individuals worldwide spending 2.14 billion minutes on the site per month.

The company

Bebo was launched by British entrepreneur Michael Birch and was founded in 2005 as an online community where users could post pictures, write blogs and send messages to one another via their User Profile.

Today, Bebo has evolved to become the world's only global Social Media Network. This radical new vision for online media combines community, self-expression and entertainment to enable its users to consume, create, discover and share content through the Bebo Web site.

Bebo is the only site that offers users access to a line-up of high quality programs from professional broadcasters, independent producers and other rights owners giving Bebo users the ability to "curate" their media in dedicated areas making it easy to discover and share.

Aim

Bebo’s main aim in setting up a London office was to grow the UK and IE arms of the business from an internet-savvy city that is deeply rooted in creativity, youth markets and next generation technology. The company wanted to base sales for the region from the London office as well as the global heads of corporate and social responsibility and communications.

Think London helped with:

• Providing useful contacts in real estate, as well as valuable information on salaries including specific reports
• Providing information and contacts on data protection regulations
• Pointing the company in the right direction for services and information

Market factors

• London is the capital of cool. It leads the way in fashion, design and architecture and is a world renowned centre for music and youth-orientated sectors
• London is a world leader across creative disciplines including: design, film, animation, TV and radio, multimedia, computer and video games, publishing, advertising and the arts
• The UK market for design-related activity is estimated to exceed $40 billion annually
• London is Europe’s most e-enabled location with greater than 50% of London’s households and 94% of companies having web access, making London Europe’s largest on-line market.
• London leads the way in the growth areas of mobile, broadband and wireless technologies and is at the forefront in developing Europe’s third generation wireless networks. All the major networks, hardware and application providers are present in London, attracted by the city’s culture of early adoption as illustrated in the rapid role out of Wi-Fi networks
• London has access to an IT skills pool of 324,000 people, nearly 50% of the UK total. This consists of:
  • 66,000 software engineers, a quarter of the UK’s software professionals
  • 110,000 analysts, 53,000 operators and 19,000 computer engineers

Business Success

Bebo aims to grow its London office from 5 employees to around 20 inside three years. The company has also announced a tie-in with telecommunications giant Orange.

In their own words

“Think London were really great. They really appreciated the bases we had to cover, the people we had to meet, and the infrastructure requirements we had in order to set up effectively over here in the UK. “I think one of their key strengths was that of effective communication and efficient advice, coupled with wide-scale, thorough local knowledge.

“London is the kind of funky, cool city where our networking site thrives. We were really drawn to its go-ahead buzz and knew we had to have a presence here.

“We really enjoyed working with the Think London team – they were supportive, helpful and, crucially for our particular business, kept in touch! Ten out of ten!”

Sarah Gavin
Global Communications Director, Bebo.com

You can register for a free Bebo account at www.bebo.com