Purdham on song with we7
NORTH West entrepreneur Steve Purdham says he is delighted with progress of the pioneering advertising funded website, we7.com, he runs.
The Cheshire-based businessman told TheBusinessDesk that we7, which is backed by rock legend Peter Gabriel, now has 2.5 million users, and is looking at ways to add complementary services, such as concert booking and merchandise sales, through the site.
The founder and former chief executive of Congleton-based SurfControl, an Internet security business, said the growth in user numbers and the length of time users are spending on the site, bodes well for the future.
“Growth is really positive and to have reached 2.5 million in nine months is really good. Our online jukebox has four million songs on it and word is clearly spreading.”
He said the company’s user figures had also been boosted by partnership deals with the music publication NME and with GQ and Glamour magazine publisher Conde Naste, which is driving a lot of traffic to the site.
Based in Oxford we7 is funded by its investors, including Mr Purdham.
“We’re not in profit yet. The thing with advertising-funded music is it’s about scale – you have to have a big enough audience for the major brands to take notice of what you’re doing.
“We’d hope though that we’d be getting towards profitability in the UK in 2010.”
He said we7 was developing an application for Apple’s iPhone, which would allow users to listen to, buy and download songs.
“It is something on the radar, we see the mobile market as becoming even more important in the next year. We have not put our application forward for approval from Apple yet because we have to make sure of its functionality.”
