The French Zuckerberg, who dreams of finding the Italian Justin Bieber: is the story of the very young Alexandre Malsch, 28 years old (one less than the Facebook Mark), but already one of the best-known “geeks” beyond the Alps thanks to Melty.fr, a portal co-founded with 27-year-old Jérémy Nicholas and which in just 4 years has become the leading French online publishing group in the 12-30 age group, with over 15 million readers per month.
“That band – Malsch explained to theinauguration of the Milan editorial office Site Melty.it, which has been in business for less than a year and already boasts 1 million monthly visitors – which nobody considered, neither the publishers nor the advertising. We have created a site just for them, for university students, for teenagers who want to emulate them and for 30-year-olds who want to keep feeling cool by reading the trendiest news of the moment in the youth world".
The idea was born almost by chance (“In 2000, at the age of 15, I was on vacation in Germany and I couldn't find a single information and entertainment site truly capable of speaking to my generation”), but now Melty (which born from a "melting pot", amalgam, and from Young's "Y") is already a very solid reality, ready to expand in Italy, the first country chosen by the two transalpine geniuses to broaden the boundaries of success: in 2012 what has become a real publishing group, from the generic site to gossip, from food to video production, social networking and advertising, has doubled its turnover to 2,3 million euros, and forecasts – thanks above all to the new Milanese editorial staff – expect to reach 36 million in 2016, with a presence in 10 countries (currently there are Italian and Spanish sites, the next ones will be in Germany and Brazil).
But how did the very young Malsch manage to intercept that segment of the public, and above all to channel advertising investments into such a niche segment? "As for the boys, we don't ask them to come to us, but we go to them: this is possible thanks to Shape, an innovative algorithm created by us (and currently used only by them, ed) which captures the hottest topics on the web in real time".
Let's explain better. “On the Internet – says in an affable tone Alexandre, who has surfing as a hobby – everything is connected: the Net is like a lake in which a wave is generated by throwing a stone. Shape is able to monitor and measure these waves, fishing a little from social networks and a little from search engines and finally cross-referencing the data with the profiles of registered users. In this way, our editorial offices are able to delve into the most talked-about topics, producing dedicated content". And maybe even to anticipate some trends, at the first hints: “Yes, us for example we were the first to launch star Justin Bieber to the French public, before he even signed with his record company.”
And as for the contents, the founders of Melty Group have also studied it well for advertising: they involve the sponsors in the same structure of the portal, no longer through a cold banner or a brand content, but through the partnership of entire sections, such as for example the “Coca-Cola Zero Gaming Box”, the corner financed by the US giant and dedicated to video games.
E in Italy How does the award-winning company Malsch-Nicholas plan to move? “In Italy – reveals the francophone double of Zuckerberg – we hope to reach one million in turnover in 2013, but above all to involve many young people in the project. We chose Italy because the first choice had to go to countries where there is culture: Italy is, and the numbers tell us that in its first year Melty.it is doing much better than Melty.fr”.
