Tsu: Robin Hood is Facebook Killer # 2

What did we tell you? A few weeks after the privacy-centric social network Ello made the waves around the Internet, a new social network has arisen. This time, it’s less about about giving the money back to the people. Its name is Tsu.

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Here’s a short recap. Several weeks ago, due to the constant invasions of privacy perpetrated by the social giant, Facebook, a start-up social network that wanted to address this issue was born – Ello. The network focused on the user’s privacy by allowing them to display only what they wanted to display and by refusing to sell their information to marketers and ad platforms. It exists on an invite-only basis which does not make it available to the general public. It is currently at a beta phase so a lot of the features that are standard for a social network are missing. We previously said that even if Ello might flounder away, its birth might give rise to a new wave of social networks that will attempt to topple the giant.

Now, we’re seeing signs of that trend starting. Unlike Ello, Tsu (pronounced ‘sue’) focuses on paying users for content that they have created. The founder argues that current social media broadcasts your content (your status updates, your artistic creations, your photos) for free without giving you any royalties. We’ve all been living under the thumb of giants like Facebook and Twitter.

Unlike these big names, Tsu wants to bring the money back to you. It has its own internal economic system which it uses to transfer revenue from them to you. It works similar to an ad platform that pays clients per click of an ad. The site itself has ads but instead of keeping the revenue, it will give most to its users. In that sense, it targets content creators, like artists, designers, photographers, and Youtubers. The site considers this distributed revenue as royalties. And anyone can be a content creator. Regardless of what you post, you still earn. Sharing videos, photos, and updates will earn you a portion of the revenue. Unless you post copyrighted content, of course, which will result in content deletion.

So how does it work? Tsu itself does not invite members. The only way to get an account is by signing up through another person’s shortcode or profile URL. It’s the equivalent of saying, “Yeah, I know this guy inside and he said I can come through.” Doing this gives the inviting person some earnings from the invite. In a sense, Tsu will actually pay you to join their site. Once you’ve set up an account, you can post your own content and updates, similar to Facebook. Tsu gains capital from ad revenue, in order to monetize the content from its users. At the end of the day, Tsu keeps only 10% of the revenue, while distributing the 90% to its users.

And now, here is where the system gets a little more complicated. The site applies a ‘family tree’ approach when it comes to its users. Whenever a user uses your shortcode to sign up, that person becomes a permanent part of your tree as your Child. If another user uses your Child’s shortcode, that person becomes your Grandchild, and so on. The revenue system runs up the tree. For example, if your Great Grandchild created content and gains revenue from it, he/she will get 50% of the revenue allocated to users. 33.3% will go to your Grandchild. 11.3% will go to your Child. Finally, 3.70% will go to you. The revenues will be divided infinitely by a third as it goes up the line. This is the rule of infinite thirds.

Below is Tsu’s philosophy, as seen on its homepage. Obviously, the system sounds a lot more complicated than what we’re used to on Facebook. Content creation is similar enough to Facebook to be simple. But you have to take some time to understand its economic system. You really have to experience it to understand. If you can get an invite, that is.

So far, we’ve got Facebook, Ello, and Tsu on the battlefield. Right now, Facebook is the despot that rules all over us. Ello is the socialist that wants equality for all its users. Tsu, on the other hand, is the free-market capitalist that wants to bring the money back to the people and away from the despot. Who knows who will win? We’ve got one emperor that’s sitting comfortably on its throne. We’ve got two worthy competitors each with a unique and attractive vision. We’ve got three different ideologies. But one thing’s for sure: Leonidas is no longer alone in this war. Robin Hood has joined the fray. Who knows who else time will bring?