LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 15, 2012) - Truli Media Group, Inc., (
Dear Shareholder:
Truli Media Group's launch of Truli.Net this summer, and our successful transition to a public company, were two major milestones in our company's history. I would like to welcome all of our new shareholders, and take this opportunity to introduce myself, and discuss our position, strategy and goals for the next twelve months.
Previously, I served as President of Warner Bros. International Television -- the apex of a successful 50-year career in global television content distribution. I was honored to build Warner Bros. International TV operations into the global leader. To see our initial management team, please visit: www.truli.net/truli-management.
At the time I left Warner Bros., television had become a consolidated, mature industry. So I began research to identify a relatively untapped, new media content distribution market that would leverage the newest digital technologies. These technologies, ranging from the cloud to mobile devices, had suddenly become very powerful and quite inexpensive -- so now more than ever, "Content is king, but distribution is emperor." Unlike in the '80s or '90s, today we have a new, digital economic paradigm in which massive business success can be achieved in a short period of time.
Truli Media Group - The Beginning
The advent of the Internet in the late '90s allowed many companies to start up inexpensively, but few had the management, business plan and access to capital to grow and dominate their sector. With Truli, we see unlimited opportunity to transform a large, highly fragmented and underserved new media market sector by aggregating our sector's content to serve its owners and consumers with a robust, highly interactive experience.
Evangelical Christians are believed to be the world's largest affinity group with over 100 million in the U.S. and another 700 million internationally. Truli.Net is signing up ministries so we will have thousands of sermons delivered every week and -- most importantly -- we store and index all of them by subject matter that makes them easy to seek, find and share. In addition, we will feature a tremendous and growing amount of family and secular content ranging from thousands of family oriented movies, music videos, books, educational materials, videos, merchandise and more.
Only recently have corporate, internet related and mobile device technologies become powerful and prolific enough, and its prices low enough, to enable the profitable global aggregation and distribution of interactive content. For example, Google now enables Truli.Net to serve up highly targeted advertisements based on geographical, contextual, behavioral and many other metrics that create a rich environment for advertisers as well as a value-added personal experience for our users.
Timing is everything. Today, growing public anxiety over our economic future, wars, terrorism, and a loss of confidence in our many political and financial institutions is driving a resurgent desire for spiritual, family and religious inspiration, entertainment, and connection to other like-minded members of the worldwide Evangelical community. Truli.Net fulfills all those needs.
Truli.Net Launches to a Fragmented $9 billion Addressable Marketplace
Expertise and industry connections are everything when building a successful content distributor. Over the past two years, our hand-picked team of veteran technologists and content, advertising, social media and e-commerce experts met with ministry leaders and business executives to refine the business model and build Truli.Net. We launched on July 10.
With a highly fragmented, $9 billion addressable market, Truli.Net's fully consolidated offering has no substantial competition. Analysts estimate annual U.S. Christian retail industry sales are $4.3 billion, with international estimated at another $4.5 billion or more.
Truli.Net provides a free, innovative platform that hosts a vast and fast growing library of on-demand and queried media including sermons, music, books, audio and music videos, concerts, movies, comedy and specialty programming -- all within a trusted social network of shared affinity.
Highly Scalable Business Model
Becoming a registered user of Truli.Net is fast and free. All of our globally aggregated content is provided to Truli.Net at no cost. We do not produce content, nor own any plants or equipment. We are strictly a conduit of family and faith-based content. We offer most of that content to our users for free.
Our highly scalable business model monetizes that content through multiple revenue streams, primarily advertising and sponsorship. Additionally, we have a revenue share with feature film (VOD) content providers. We also offer a shopping network selling over 300,000 items, with all fulfillment performed by our partner. We earn a commission on Truli.Net click-through sales of family-based movies & children's content, streaming audio video content as well as DVDs, CDs, lectures, pay per view concerts/events, books, educational materials and merchandise.
Other companies with similar business models that exemplify our 21st century interactive digital business model, low cost structure and scalability include Priceline.com and Kayak, both online travel companies. Priceline is a mature company initially built with technology from the '90s. It recently posted a gross profit margin of 76 percent and has a $31 billion market value and price of $622 per share. Its younger rival, newly public Kayak Software, recently reported a 94 percent gross profit margin on $77 million in second quarter revenue.
The online real estate information companies are also instructive, with Move achieving 80 percent gross profit margin on its second quarter revenue of $49 million, and Zillow reporting 88 percent gross profit margin on $28 million in second quarter revenue.
Growth Strategy
Our growth strategy is simple:
- Invest in state-of-art but off-the-shelf technologies. This ensures a robust, intuitive and interactive user experience on the desktop, tablets, Roku, game consoles, smart phones and more. It also keeps our costs low, while we integrate these various technologies in ways we deem proprietary.
- Aggregate content worldwide. Our content spans ministries and global film, music, children's content, entertainment, educational and merchandise providers. We plan to dominate the sector, starting with direct outreach to 3,000 U.S.-based ministries to extend their reach from local neighborhoods to millions of viewers worldwide.
- Build brand awareness and traffic. This includes public and media relations, advertising, and social media marketing. We make it easy for the many millions of Christian and family-oriented consumers to become a Truli.Net registered user. Any Facebook or Twitter user can register in seconds with Truli.Net.
- Serve the youth market. We are developing a youth focused initiative named DOXA. With youths' growing purchasing power, and the opportunity for advertisers to create lifetime brand loyalty, DOXA is a subsidiary with a functionally identical platform to Truli.Net that provides enrichment, entertainment and interaction around three impulses that capture the rising generation of Christians between 16 and 35: humor, social good and spirituality.
Truli Media Group 2013: Positioned for Success
Our business plan is based on an ambitious agenda for the next 12 months. Our goals include:
- Reach positive cash flow. We target reaching positive cash flow in mid 2013.
- Reinforce management team. As the Company grows, we will add seasoned industry executives and experts to management, the Board of Directors and an Advisory Board.
- Stay at forefront of technology. We plan to grow and evolve our technology to capitalize on the latest innovation ensuring the most intuitive and robust offering for our users.
- Raise growth capital. As a public company, we have a lower cost of capital. When the time is right, we will raise an initial round of capital to fund growth.
- Aggressive Marketing Strategy. This includes social media, public and investor relations, advertising and cooperative marketing agreements.
- Form Strategic Alliances. These may include joint ventures, acquisitions, co-marketing agreements with key content or e-commerce providers and distributors.
- Communicate Proactively. We will implement an investor relations program to keep our shareholders informed and to communicate proactively with Wall Street.
- Capture Christian Youth Market. Our youth initiative, DOXA, is slated for launch in the first half of 2013.
- Build World's Leading Faith-based & Family Content Platform. Our 12-month goals include a minimum of 1,500 children's videos; signing up 500 U.S. and 500 international ministries; and one million international Truli.Net viewers.
After only a few short weeks, and before deploying our major PR campaigns, Truli.Net already has over 200,000 people talking about us weekly on social media, with a second-tier reach of 50+ million people.
While Truli.Net is an Evangelical Christian and family-oriented platform in its content and social media themes, it is also important that we be as inclusive as possible. Truli.Net will reach out, and offer content, to invite people -- of all faiths, no faith, and those who have lost or question their faith -- into the Truli.Net tent. Not to proselytize, but to energize, uplift and revitalize all of our users' spirit, in community, with humor and with grace.
As a newly public company, Truli Media Group has greatly raised its visibility and increased its opportunities for growth. It is a privilege to lead this company into what I strongly believe to be an exciting and rewarding future.
Sincerely yours,
Michael Jay Solomon
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business or financial results, new features or services, or management strategies) and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These statements are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may vary materially. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as "may," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "plan" and other similar expressions. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors not within the control of the company. The company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.
Contact Information:
Investor Relations
Chuck Arnold
386.409.0200
310-666-1703
