"Spleak"ing out on Sports and Politics

Last month, we covered the deal between Hearst Corp. and Spleak Media Network, the San Francisco-based hybrid publishing startup, whose CelebSpleak attracts a reported 100,000 visitors per day, mostly teen and twenty-something females.

Now, Spleak is launching two new offerings — SportSpleak and VoteSpleak. These two content distribution platforms will provide interactive content hubs for sports fans and political enthusiasts to gather and share opinions about their favorite teams and players as well as issues and political figures.

Users can both read and publish short-form content across a variety of platforms, including AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, MySpace, and mobile phones via SMS.

“What we’re hoping is that our teen girl users will tell their boyfriends to try SportsSpleak,” says Spleak CEO Morrie Eisenberg. He noted that the Olympics coming up this summer, combined with the steady stream of seasonal sports, make him hopeful the timing is perfect for establishing a “sports community where young people share their voices online.”

Eisenberg said roughly a thousand users tried both of the new products yesterday, the first day they went “live.”

In order to test the service myself, I downloaded two sports widgets onto a test blog site. The one for the San Francisco Giants seems fairly robust.

On the other hand, a widget I tested for the Detroit Pistons only had one comment so far. “Of course, it will take time to build up each team’s community,” noted Eisenberg, “but if what happened with CelebSpleak (launched in November last year) is any indication, they will fill up soon.” I also downloaded the widget for Barack Obama from the VoteSpleak, and it seems to be gaining traction already.

Spleak’s content strategy is interesting. It juxtaposes user-generated content (UGC) with professional media content, plus a dash of its own original content generated internally. “We have a full-time sports writer,” explains Eisenberg, “He helps seed the community.”

Some of us have long argued that for any content service to succeed, at least a small dose of original content creation must be part of the business plan, and Spleak is one of the new breed of startups currently testing this thesis.

Meanwhile, among some of the early UGC on VoteSpleak the past 24 hours were these:

“Going Green: A wise man (I think it was Edmund Burke) once said, all that is needed for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. I’m not saying that global warming or the destruction of the environment is evil, but it negligent. ” (by: scary kid - 1 Star)

“Whaling Problem: Ok so people are complaining about the whaling problem in Japan ( Princess of Darkness) but we are just as bad. We don’t kill whales for research.. We kill them for lipstick and other products.” (by: Zashley<3 - 1 Star)

Early posters on SportSpleak included these:

“Boston Celtics: Boston Celtics are the team to beat this season’s playoffs! Big 3 KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, are not Celtics lifelines but this is a real team effort! Celtics for the NBA championship!“(by: Mayur - 1 Star)

“Wayne Rooney: Best player in the world. Soccer needs him. He won’t complain when he goes down, he won’t waves his hands at the ref when he dosen’t get a call. He is proof that all soccer players don’t dive and cry. A true English footballer, with a mug to show it.” (by: oakland yankee - 1 Star)

Another element that sets Spleak apart from potential competitors is its major focus on IM, not websites, as the main delivery vehicle for its content. The majority of its users access and generate Spleak content via AIM, MSN Messenger, and Google Chat.

One glaring omission from this list is Yahoo Messenger. “If you know anybody at Yahoo I can talk to,” says Eisenberg, earnestly, “Please let me know.

Privately-held Spleak Media Network backed by venture capitalists Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Sunstone Capital.