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Billionaire Bets $60M Against Instagram by Investing in Mobli

TMCnet Feature

November 07, 2013

Billionaire Bets $60M Against Instagram by Investing in Mobli

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By Jacqueline Lee
Contributing Writer

Although many may not recognize his name, Carlos Slim has topped Forbes's list of the world's Top 20 Billionaires for four consecutive years. The Mexican telecom king has an estimated net worth of over $73 billion.


 According to TechCrunch, Slim is sinking a little pocket change—about $60 million—into a company called Mobli. Mobli competes directly with Instagram and will use the investment capital to build a visual search engine. In addition to the cash, Mobli also gets distribution through Slim's company, America Movil. 

 Mobli is an Israeli company founded by Moshe Hogeg, and Hogeg is no stranger to big name investors. His company has received capital from celebrities like Serena Williams, Tobey Maguire, Lance Armstrong and Leonardo DiCaprio. Mobli has also raised $22 million from private investor Kenges Rakishev.

 


Hogeg has no fear of taking the fight to
Instagram. Earlier this year, his company launched a campaign called #mylastinstagram. New Mobli members were invited to post photos for the contest. In exchange, Mobli gave the winning photographer $100,000.

 While Mobli does offer a social photo-sharing platform similar to Instagram and a video-sharing platform like SocialCam's, Hogeg's ambition extends far beyond social. He wants to build a visual search engine patterned after Google (News - Alert) that can show "everything in the world worth seeing."

 By tagging photos and videos, Mobli users can share them with people outside of their social networks. For example, if a Mobli user wanted to see photos or videos from a live concert, then he or she could scroll through tagged visuals taken in real time even though by users outside of his or her network may have taken the footage. Users can take advantage of Mobli's face and image-recognition software for easier tagging.

 Mobli hasn't developed any specific monetization strategies, but it may sell ads on premium content, which is similar to what YouTube does. It may also take the Twitter (News - Alert) route and set up branded promoted accounts.

 Currently, Mobli has about 12 million users. Hogeg expects a real tipping point for Mobli when the company reaches 15 million users.




Edited by Cassandra Tucker


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