EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The venture capital firm UNIQA Ventures was consulted by a student team regarding one of their investments – the hyperlocal social media platform FragNebenan that aims to connect neighbors seeks to increase user growth and cash flows.

Accelerating growth and delivering new revenue streams through a compelling expansion model was the main objective of the student team.

Methodology

Throughout the project, the team analyzed 40 academic papers, executed a market and competition analysis and conducted a user survey with approx. 380 participants. Based on their findings the team designed recommendations for action. These recommendations were validated and further developed through scenario analysis and a co-creation workshop attended by both current and potential users.

Outcome

Extensive testing of the hyperlocal social media platform quickly displayed major technical potential. An improvement of the platform´s response rate and an update of the interface as well as the launch of a mobile app would strengthen FragNebenan’s position in the highly competitive social media market substantially. Hence, exploiting the platform´s technical opportunities is an inevitable milestone towards superior user experience.

However, only a platform that grasps cutting-edge opportunities will stay competitive in the future. Therefore, the team also developed advanced features to master the skill of seizing such potential:

• A progressive search engine makes recommendations from neighbours as local experts on various subjects like restaurants, bars and activities more accessible and boosts engagement.

• A data-driven task feature revolutionizes FragNebenan's neighbourhood help by offering users a simple 3-step model to get their to-do lists done by either neighbours or peer-rated professionals from nearby.

• Cooperation with local newspapers and authorities adds relevant content and potential revenue streams.

Furthermore, a highly profitable niche market was detected. Expanding into rural areas expedites FragNebenan’s user growth since suburbs are the fastest growing regions and the demand for community spirit is high.

Value

Introducing a state-of-the-art platform, implementing advanced features and expanding into rural areas increases user growth and produces feasible revenue streams. More importantly, FragNebenan gains an edge on its competition.

Cooperation Partner

• UNIQA Ventures GmbH
  Untere Donaustraße 21
  1029 Vienna
  Austria

Contact Person

• Georg Ioannidis
  georg.ioannidis@uniqa.at

• Nikolaus Wrabetz
  nikolaus.wrabetz@uniqa.at

Student team

• Andro Ofenheimer

• Anna Plaschke

• Franziska Menke

• Sandor Benko

Projektbetreuung

• Barbara Mehner

• Linn Kretzschmar