TaiKa - A Game of Social Business Management

Idea in brief

TaiKa would be a game-like online platform for people to come together and run their social businesses either as a business owner, leader, or employee. Bystanders - citizens and tourists - could also make a small impact. Thus this hybrid of Habbo Hotel, Second Life, LinkedIn and Kiva.org would offer anyone a meaningful way to contribute in entrepreneurial action to solve world issues.

Challenge

Complacency; unawareness; inaction.

Markets

Existing social entrepreneurs buy access into the game so that they can get hold of funding, (very cheap) employees and partners. This costs them initially 100 € which is very cheap investment. For similar reasons aspiring social entrepreneurs would join the game.

People interested in self-development and leadership would join the game to take part in meaningful work (online) and learn how to run projects virtually. For people to advance on their TaiKa career they would be investing varying amounts on the way (ca 5-50 € on average).

People with good will would join only as tourists (guests) or citizens (registered users) in order to contribute to good causes without taking responsibility. 10 € voluntary donation is expected from everyone when they join.

Profit prospects

The only investment is the time (and salary) of the game developers, system administrators and viral marketers. Cost estimation: 20.000 € initial investment + 1.000 €.

Life cycle of TaiKa is estimated to be 5 years (after which people lose interest or the concept evolves to something else) with following annual user estimations (with average of 5 euros spent by a user):

1. year: 200 users = 1.000 €

2. year: 4.000 users = 20.000 €

3. year: 80.000 users = 400.000 €

4. year: 40.000 users = 200.000 €

5. year: 20.000 users = 100.000 €

Total revenue: 721.000 €

Total cost: 60 (months) x 1.000 € + 20.000 = 80.000 €

Profit: 641.000 €

Competition

Ordinary social networks: LinkedIn, XING, Facebook, MySpace etc. Platforms for social entrepreneurs: e.g. Social Edge, UnLtdWorld. Competition is irrelevant due to the radically innovative nature of TaiKa.

Differentiation

There are platforms for social entrepreneurs to chat and connect but in none of them you can actually virtually run your business. TaiKa combines the best of both worlds: fun participation of computer games and professional benefits of business world - such as networking and self-development.

Impact

TaiKa helps build a new society where social innovators can connect, share and function much more effectively.

Primary impact: awareness and action.

Secondary impact: personal development of people involved.

Possible negative impact is that people would treat TaiKa solely as a game and would do nothing in practice (i.e. wasting their time). This can be prevented by checking on all the participating companies on their social relevance and demanding on-going reporting of their business and social success.