Four IDMPO funded companies were featured in Digital Life yesterday for their unique and viable business models and who have been gaining traction (in terms of profit and user outreach) through social networking platforms like Facebook, Second Life and so on. The four companies are iHipo (international internships), Fresbo (casual multi-player games), First Meta (Second Life commerce) and Tyler Projects (multi-player Facebook game).

Here is the full story.

There is money to be made on the Internet and it is not through traditional channels like blogging and advertising. In fact, some Singapore-based start-ups have been raking in the bucks through linking people up with internships, selling virtual items and even lending out virtual money.

One of the companies, Tyler Projects, earns close to $100,000 in a good month selling virtual goods used in their online game Battle Stations.

They are not the only ones.

Of the 150 companies which have received funding from the Interactive Digital Media Programme Office (IDMPO) set up under the Media Development Authority, many are doing well, said Michael Yap, executive director of IDMPO.

“Most of the supported interactive and digital media companies operating in the social networking and virtual worlds are doing well,” he said. “Besides being profitable, some of these companies have also attracted private funding and have reached out to millions of users worldwide.”

With the Web becoming more social, there are now more ways for companies to cater to special interest groups and thus there are more money-making opportunities, said Claus Mortensen, IDC’s principal analyst of the digital market place and new media.

We profile four start-ups here that have got their Web 2.0 ways right.

Netting a job (iHipo)

Patrick Linden was midway through this MBA course in Germany in early 2003 when he decided he wanted to do internships abroad.

But a search online drew blank.

Today, search for “international internships” on Google and it throws up 9.7 million results. The fourth result on the list is a link to iHipo, a social networking site founded by Patrick, Arnout Wagenaar and Heng Cheng King.

The idea for the site first germinated when the three met in Singapore in 2004, while Patrick from Germany was here interning for Mercedes Benz and Arnout from Holland for a brand consultancy. Cheng King, a Singaporean who graduated from the University of Queensland in Australia, was already working as an engineer. They realised that job portals did not carry enough information on internships in Asia to match the demand from students seeking them.

So iHipo stepped in to fill the niche. It connects students and young professionals seeking internships abroad with companies that have these job openings.

Since they started out, the founders have pulled 12-hour workdays updating the website, vetting job postings and approaching companies to discuss advertising deals.

They decided to rent office space in Joo Chiat to keep costs down.

Said Patrick: “We know of start-ups that spend a lot of money at the beginning for prime office space, website infrastructure and consultants. As a bootstrapped start-up, you don’t need that.”

Since its online debut in November 2007, the site has seen its user base grow from 500 to 50,000. It also helps companies book ad deals with related websites, taking on the role of a media agency.

“Don’t see your business plan as a bible you have to stick to,” said Arnout. “The moment you print it, the business plan is already old.”

Business model: iHipo makes money through charging for job postings, advertising and selling premium memberships to users.

Users can sign up to use the site for free, but can pay US$13.90 (S$21) a month to gain access to extra features likes interview guides. Of the three income channels, advertising accounts for the bulk 60 per cent – of the site’s takings.

Brave new world (Fresbo World)

They had “no money or connections” when they started out in 2006, only a passion for coding and a dream to make it big. These were the factors that pushed Vincent Ng (above) and Low Bing Jiang to creat Fresbo World, an online playground for casual multi-player games.

The two computer science graduates from the National University of Singapore did not know how to write a business plan, but they just went ahead.

In 2007, their project received funding from the Media Development Authority through FrontEdge Capital, a company that mentors start-ups.

Since then, it has signed up 500,000 users worldwide, mostly through social networking sites.

“It is a lot easier to spread through these sites, especially to be known overseas,” said Vincent.

Fresbo World lets users customise avatars, play games and socialise in real-time – as they would in massive multi-player online games. The difference through, is that it is not the world of a single game, but a world of seven casual games.

Users can earn or buy parts to build their homes and mini towns. There are also plans to let users build their own games.

Business model: Fresbo World allows players to sign up and play for free, but they pay for premium items, such as blocks tat are used to build houses or even towns. The cheapest item costs only a few cents and the most expensive about $4.50.

Since it started selling premium items in October last year, the company has seen its monthly revenue breach four figures to a high of $20,000 a month.

Pay by card (First Meta)

In Second Life, reputation is priceless. But for everything else, there is Meta Card. That is the virtual credit card issued by Singapore-based start-up First Meta for the virtual world. The company, founded by Douglas Abrams and Aileen Sim in 2007, lets customers open savings accounts and issues credit cards in Second Life.

The two met in 2002 at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she was a student and he a professor at the NUS Business School.

Said Douglas: “Obstacles to starting a bank in the virtual world are not so great as in the real world relatively.

You can start off with low capital.”

First Meta’s first product was the credit card, which met with a lot of scepticism early on.

“A lot of people were saying default rates would go through the roof and we would lose money,” said Douglas, adding that most of the time, people pay on time. The maximum limit of the Meta Card is 25,000 lindens, which convert to US$100 (S$150).

First Meta is in the final stages of developing a virtual world currency exchange, where people will be able to buy and sell currencies from a few virtual worlds.

Later this year, it will also launch a real world credit or debit card that will let people pay for things like coffee or clothes using the virtual currency they have earned.

Business model: The company makes money from the Meta Card, which charges usage fees, interest and transaction fees much like real credit cards.

Game plan (Tyler Projects)

While their peers are busy making friends on Facebook. Ng Tiam yang (left), Leonard Lim (centre) and Ronnie Neo (right) are busy making money, to the tone of almost six figures a month.

The Founders of Tyler Projects are the brains behind Battle Stations, a multi-player Facebook fame that has 200,000 registered players.

“We would meet at the Bishan McDonald’s to programme games,” said Leonard on how they started. “It was more of a Sunday hobby, until my professor from Singapore Management University encouraged us to start the company.”

The three dragged their feet until the professor secured funding for them.

Their first game, though, did not take off. Mobile Weapon was a single-player title for mobile phones.

“We learnt a couple of lessons from that. If you want to make money, multi-player games are the way to do it, because there is more interactivity. So people will come back to play more and buy more things,” said Leonard.

They created Battle Stations in 2007. They emulated the business model of another popular online game, Maple Story, of selling virtual goods.

“It’s good to be innovative in your product. But as far as business models are concerned, it’s always better to follow something that has been tried and tested,” he said.

Business model: When the company first started, it depended on online ads, which generated $3,000 a month. It now has a turnover of $50,000 a month selling game items, such as action points.