AGORACOM Small-cap Investor Relations Blog

I am very pleased to announce that AGORACOM has hit a major milestone this month, our 1 millionth visitor! If a picture is worth a thousand words, this snapshot from our Google analytics is worth 1,000,000 words:

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGE, CLEAR GRAPH]

As you can see, the actual number of visitors is 1,109,628. We surpassed the 1,000,000 mark on July 25. With respect to dates, we started counting on October 5, 2007, when we we announced the launch of our wiki-powered “Investor Controlled Discussion Forums”.

When we made first made the announcement, we set out to destroy the stock discussion forum status quo that we have all come to hate over the past 10 years thanks to unrelenting spam, profanity, stock bashing, stock hyping and assorted noise. Many thought it could not be done because we could neither change habits nor unseat the incumbents. We not only knew we could, we knew that we would. Now, more than lip service, the following numbers speak for themselves:

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

(Figures for October 5, 2007 – August 27, 2008. All figures reported by Google Analytics)

• Unique Visitors 1,109, 628
• Visits 6,764,163
• Page Views 90,633,470
• Pages Per Visit 13.40
• Avg Time On Site 10:04
• Number Of Countries/Territories 205
• Top 10 (Canada, USA, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Mexico)

The numbers look even better when you consider

• We built our model on quality vs quantity. As such, this is pure discussion. No spam, flaming and bickering traffic.
• We are only focusing on small-cap and micro-cap stocks …for now.

THE STATUS QUO IS CRUMBLING

We are very happy to see the data back up our theory that investors deeply desire the ability to amalgamate and discuss individual stock investments in a civilized community. investors are no longer willing to accept the unacceptable.

Until now, the trash has ruled the day, forcing the masses to abandon discussion forums and conduct due diligence either on their own, or in small groups. It is inefficient but it is the best option we’ve had for nearly a decade.

Eventually, the market corrects inefficiencies and AGORACOM has set its sights on correcting this one.

By refusing to sacrifice quality for quantity, AGORACOM is attracting and will continue to attract smart and conscientious investors that understand the wisdom of crowds. Eventually, quality begets quality and a massive community that both generates its own content and moderates itself will replace the status quo.

HAPPY TO SEE A HAPPY COMMUNITY

Despite the plethora of great data illustrating our success, nothing makes us happier than reading the reaction of our members. Here are just some of the raving testimonials we’ve been able to pull from the site so far.

While we’re talking about our members, I want to take this moment to thank each and every one of them for believing in our model, spreading the word and breathing life into it. Without them, this would be one hell of an application with no users. A special thanks goes out to all HUB Leaders that abandoned their former communities at Stockhouse, Raging Bull, Yahoo Finance and others in hopes of a better experience. I’m glad our promises to you have been fulfilled.

BLOGS CAN NOT REPLACE DISCUSSION FORUMS

With the advent of financial blogs – and some pretty great ones that include Paul Kedrosky, Barry Ritholtz and Mark McQueen to name but a few – some might argue discussion forums are no longer necessary, even outdated. Don’t make that mistake. Blogs are great for insight into the most important economic issues from a wide array of great minds. However, they rarely stay focused on a particular topic for more than a day.

Stock discussion forums, on the other hand, provide investors with an ability to exchange ideas and analyze one particular stock 24/7/365. You might read about macro events (i.e. sub-prime or Apple earnings) on a blog but figuring out the ongoing impact on your specific stock investments requires an extended micro discussion that blogs can not provide.

CONCLUSION

This is Wiki meets IGC (investor generated content) at its finest. There are bigger communities to be sure – but can you find another vertical in which the need for a drastically more efficient model is needed more? Trillions of dollars are at stake. People’s futures are at stake. The implications of inefficient or imperfect information are severe.

Stock discussion forums are vital to the lives of so many people. I believe we are about to witness a paradigm shift that makes them valuable once again. Stay tuned for more.

Regards,
George

It gives me great pleasure to announce that AGORACOM has recorded 26,802,451 page views in the first 3 full months since we announced the launch of our wiki-powered “Investor Controlled Discussion Forums” on October 11, 2007.

When we made first made the announcement, we set out to destroy the stock discussion forum status quo that we have all come to hate over the past 10 years thanks to unrelenting spam, profanity, stock bashing, stock hyping and assorted noise. Many thought it could not be done because we could neither change habits nor unseat the incumbents. We not only knew we could, we knew that we would. Now, more than lip service, the following numbers speak for themselves:

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

(Figures for November 2007 to January 2008. All figures reported by Google Analytics)

• Page Views 26,802,451
• Visits 1,776,973
• Unique Visitors 296,610
• Pages Per Visit 15.08
• Avg Time On Site 10:55
• Number Of Countries/Territories 187
• Top 10 (Canada, USA, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Sweden, Mexico, Switzerland, Austria)

The numbers look even better when you consider:

• December 10 – January 7 is pretty much a write-off for financial discussion.
• The numbers stem from pure discussion. No spam, flaming and bickering traffic.

HAPPY TO SEE A HAPPY COMMUNITY

We are very happy to see the data back up our theory that investors deeply desire the ability to amalgamate and discuss individual stock investments in a civilized community.

However, we are even happier to read the reaction of our members. Here are just some of the raving testimonials we’ve been able to pull from the site so far.

While we’re talking about our members, I want to take this moment to thank each and every one of them for believing in our model, spreading the word and breathing life into it. Without them, this would be one hell of an application with no users. A special thanks goes out to all HUB Leaders that abandoned their former communities at Stockhouse, Raging Bull, Yahoo Finance and others in hopes of a better experience. I’m glad our promises to you have been fulfilled.

STATUS QUO ISN’T SHAKING – YET

Now, I know we haven’t shaken any boots at the big 3 (AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft) just yet but the numbers and testimonials clearly show we have tabled a solution that is far more appealing to investors that are no longer willing to accept the unacceptable.

Until now, the trash has ruled the day, forcing the masses to abandon discussion forums and conduct due diligence either on their own, or in small groups. It is inefficient but it is the best option we’ve had for nearly a decade.

Eventually, the market corrects inefficiencies and AGORACOM has set its sights on correcting this one.

By refusing to sacrifice quality for quantity, AGORACOM is attracting and will continue to attract smart and conscientious investors that understand the wisdom of crowds. Eventually, quality begets quality and a massive community that both generates its own content and moderates itself will replace the status quo.

BLOGS CAN NOT REPLACE DISCUSSION FORUMS

With the advent of financial blogs – and some pretty great ones that include Paul Kedrosky, Roger Ehrenberg and Marck McQueen to name but a few – some might argue discussion forums are no longer necessary, even outdated. Don’t make that mistake. Blogs are great for insight into the most important economic issues from a wide array of great minds. However, they rarely stay focused on a particular topic for more than a week, if not a day.

Stock discussion forums, on the other hand, provide investors with an ability to exchange ideas and analyze one particular stock 24/7/365. You might read about macro events (i.e. sub-prime) on a blog but figuring out how it impacts your specific stock investments requires a micro discussion that blogs can not provide.

CONCLUSION

This is Wiki meets IGC (investor generated content) at its finest. There are bigger communities to be sure – but can you find another vertical in which the need for a drastically more efficient model is more needed? Trillions of dollars are at stake. People’s futures are at stake. We can DIGG for this and research on Wikipedia for that but what are their implications for inefficient or imperfect information?

Stock discussion forums are vital to the lives of so many people. I believe we are about to witness a paradigm shift that makes them valuable once again. Stay tuned for more.

Regards,
George