Starcount is a recently launched site presenting "social entertainment charts" or charts that track the popularity of a wide range of individuals, brands and products on social media networks. They are also planning The Social Star Awards that will launch in May 2013. The foundation of identifying what's popular and building sites and events around those topics makes them a potentially powerful entertainment brand.
"Facebook, Renren, Twitter, Tencent Weibo, Sina Weibo, YouTube, Youku, mixi, Vkontakte, Google+ and Orkut"
The site features charts based on social media references using top-secret algorithms and the like (here's more on their scoring process). It's definitely about charts as entertainment and, in addition to the charts, Starcount is building profiles for subjects listed in the charts. So there's a celebrity database aspect as well.
Starcount's Record Label Chart
They are also planning:
"The Social Awards - The people's choice awards show, which re-defines the award show genre, creating truly interactive, A list content. (May 2013)"
"Starcount Live - Year round events in key strategic locations championing the existing and emerging stars of social media across all genres. The first live event being The Singapore Social music event in June 2013."
"Starcount(2) - Unique global insights and measures for both consumers & brands across multiple genres and social media platforms. Aggregation of social media data and trends creates opportunities for content and analysis."
Given that musicians are always going to be a major element in celebrity social media, music will be a big part of these charts and likely of the events as well. Though there are a variety of charts on the web for different purposes, no one's truly dominated the charts as entertainment space. So it will be interesting to see how they build over the next year to their Social Awards which will be "produced by the same team who created the pioneering F1 Rocks event in Singapore and who are also producing the London 2012 Olympic Opening & Closing Ceremonies and The Victoria's Secret Shows in the United States."
The Musician Chart is what you'd expect with Justin, Rihanna and Katy in the top spots. Lady Gaga? Of course, but she's no. 4 today.
Currently you can choose a country and topic to create a chart via the "Discover your own Charts" tab at the top of each page. That option and nichier categories, for which one wouldn't already know who's on top via mass media coverage, is where it gets more interesting for browsers.
The potential for a brand built around social media charts and related events is quite large. Starcount is producing a product that's inherently designed to reach people with a focus on what's currently catching their attention. Of course, catching people's attention based on what's currently trending is the key focus of many media and entertainment sites. Having those elements built into your product rather than simply responding to information from third party solutions to decide your focus makes Starcount a potentially strong competitor with major entertainment sites.
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) maintains a business writing hub at Flux Research and blogs at Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
