The public has always been passionate about buying their favorite movies, music, games and books, as well as finding ways to help benefit their favorite charities. The new social networking website, Huzo, not only allows the world to connect with each, but has stepped above and behind its competitors; not only does it also allow its users to buy their favorite entertainment, but also donates two percent of the profit to charity.
Huzo's CEO and president, Terrell Samuels, has also made the social networking website unique in the fact that celebrities who join can sign up their favorite charities. When their friends and fans make entertainment purchases on the website, their donations will benefit their charities.
When the public subscribes to Huzo and watch movies, play games and listen to music on the website, they can even generate income for themselves. Users can recoup two percent of the cost in cash, which they can keep for themselves or designate to go to any organization they choose. Huzo subscribers also receive additional cash incentives for referring friends who subscribe.
Samuels generously took the time to speak about Huzo over the phone from Los Angeles. He discussed his motivation in launching the social networking platform, the positive support he's garnered since starting Huzo in June, and how successful the website has been.
Question: What was your motivation in launching Huzo, and why did you decide to donate some of the profit to charity?
Terrell Samuels (TS): I decided to launch the website because I'm pretty much a Christian. I believe in giving back and being a blessing and doing good for other people. On all these entities, like the iTunes, Amazon and Netflix of the world, people are spending over $100 billion every year, just in the U.S., on movies, books, games and music. I said, why not create a platform where we can give some of that money back, because it's a recession right now.
Even during the recession, the number went from $1 billion in 2009, to $120 billion. More people want to stay at home, and not take their families out to dinner and things of that sort. What better way than to come up with a platform to give some of those revenues back to school, church or business during the process.
Q: What is the process like in getting celebrities to sign up for Huzo?
TS: Well, let me give you our definition of a celebrity first. Our definition of a celebrity is anyone with a fanbase or database of 5,000 or more people. A celebrity to us can be a school, a church, a charity, a foundation or person. What we found was that some of these Hollywood celebrities, they've worked so hard to build up their fanbases on these social media sites, since the start of the whole social networking movement, with Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.
But no one has figured out how to monetize on that fanbase on a consistent basis. Considering that we figured that out with our platform, we wanted to lead by example, and make sure some of that money was going to charity, or using it to give back. The celebrities meet with me and the members of my team, and we emphasize signing up their charity, and the whole philanthropic aspect, keeping that in the forefront.
Q: Tyrese Gibson and Rob Kardashian are just two of the Hollywood celebrities who have joined Huzo. Does having such name recognition draw attention to Huzo's goal of raising money for charity?
TS: Well, it does, because people want to find out why a lot of these A-listers are signing up on our site. The benefit behind it is that Tyrese Gibson, Jamie Foxx or Rob Kardashian, they have a couple million followers on Twitter. When I sat down with them, I asked them, how are you monetizing that database? The normal answer is when they watch my show or buy my music.
With our platform, we found a way to actually give back to their fans. Some of our athletes, like the Lakers, Matt Barnes. He was excited about signing up his foundation (Athletes Vs. Cancer). He said, Terrell, fans come and see me play every night. I'm signing up with Huzo because I can finally give back to them, and invite them to join a network, and receive a rebate back in cash. Hopefully, if they get enough people to join their Huzo pages, they can come see me for free eventually. In addition to that, I don't have to go ask my friends, family and other people to raise money for my foundation.
Matt's foundation benefits cancer, because his mom died of cancer (in 2007). He thought it was a great way to raise money for his foundation without having to ask people. It's almost like you're raising money and giving back in the same breath, which has never been done before.
Q: When people subscribe to Huzo to purchase entertainment, they can also recoup two percent of the cost in cash, which they can put towards future purchases. Why did you decide to offer this option as well?
TS: Well, the cash back option, I thought was imperative. With so many people out of work and losing jobs, and so many companies laying people off, I wanted to help find a way to help bring this country out of this recession.
We partnered with Merrick Bank in New York, and they developed the Huzo Visa Debit Card for us. They will also electronically upload cash on everyone's Visa Debit Card monthly. They can use it at any ATM, restaurant or grocery store.
Most people have about 300-500 friends on Facebook. If you had that many friends on Huzo, you'd be receiving a nice, monthly check, just for having friends in the community and them redirecting their spending from the other competitors, like the iTunes or Amazons or Netflixs of the world.
Q: What has the public reaction to Huzo been like since you launched the website?
TS: In the past three years we've been in the development stage, we beta-tested it four times. During that time, I actually flew all over the world, meeting with everybody and anybody, from Russell Simons to Tom Hanks and his entourage to Michael Jordan. Anybody and everybody, from janitors to employees of grocery stores.
I interviewed so many people. I took notes on objects on why they would not, or why they would, sign up for a company similar to this. I made all those changes, overcame all those objects before we launched, in June of last year.
The public response has been overwhelming. Most people are saying, wow, this is too good to be true. Some of the people are saying, wow, why didn't I think of this? So we're getting a really, really good response. Since we launched in June, we've had at least one person in every state in the U.S. sign up to get a profile page.
We also have a presence in 22 other countries, just by referral alone. We also signed up to have a translator into 14 different languages. That's been an objection that we've been getting a lot of emails about. So the public response has been phenomenal.
Q: Besides donating a portion of users' purchases to charity, what differentiates Huzo from other social networking websites?
TS: I truly believe empowering the consumer, and allowing them to own their profile page, and by the consumer getting a rebate and a percentage back, as well as the charity, I think that sets us among the rest. To my knowledge, no one is out there doing this.
Q: Huzo users can share their favorite movies, games, e-books and music with their community. Why do you think entertainment creates such discussion and debate among people?
TS: Partly because the entertainment industry keeps our dollar strong in the United States. The average person spends about $20 a month on any one of those four vehicles, and it equates to $120 billion a year. It's going to cause a huge impact on conversations. People here in the U.S., and all over the world, they love to be entertained.
That's probably one of the reasons why people spend a lot of time talking about it and spending money on it. It's an outlet for people. It gives them a relief of stress, and is a form of release and peace.
Q: You launched Huzo to be an effective fundraising vehicle for organizations, and to provide more value for the money people are already spending on entertainment. Has the website been successful in maintaining this goal?
TS: Yes. I would say to date, we've had about 15 to 20 charities sign up. We've had a few charities invite their databases to join Huzo. In our beta testing numbers, they have created some revenue for their charities. It hasn't been substantial, because we're just now getting out of the gate of allowing people to start inviting others to join.
It was a lot of behind-the-scenes work, to get our servers up-to-speed, and get everything done. As of right now, we definitely have a few charities that have raised money, using our platform. To give an example, the Matt Barnes foundation, or the Bobby Jackson Foundation, or the Leap Foundation with Matt Nordgren, we have a few charities that have signed up, and actually used our platform the way it's supposed to be used.
They have sent out invites to their databases. The response they've been getting has been about 30 percent of their databases. We're definitely making a difference from day one.