Polly Gowers: Everyclick.com, Sky News Online

Friday, January 25, 2008

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Why 'Wugging' Is Web's Next Big Thing, By James Silver, Sky News media reporter

Buzz-words abound in the brave new world of Web 2.0, but even the web-geeks among us may not have heard the term 'wugging' before.

While it may sound a touch seedy, 'wugging' is actually an acronym for 'web-user giving' or the process of generating money for charity by day-to-day internet use.

What's more, according to one British internet entrepreneur - who looks set to become a leading 'new media' personality in 2008 - this form of instant philanthropy for the iPod generation is the web's Next Big Thing.

"Why wouldn't you do it?" asks Polly Gowers, the jolly hockey-sticks founder and CEO of 'ethical' search engine Everyclick.com which donates 50% of its search-generated revenue to any of the UK's 170,000 charities chosen by the user.

"It's a complete no-brainer. This is a way to give to charity, for free, every day by doing something you are already doing, namely searching the web."

To date Everyclick - a 'social enterprise' which is registered as a private limited company and is powered by Ask.com - has raised almost £400,000 for charity since its 'soft launch' in 2005.

But with an estimated average of 22.8 million web searches a day in the UK, Ms Gowers is convinced that she has identified a vast untapped market and that she can turn the web's "best kept secret" into a 'wugging' revolution.

"Search is a phenomenal industry - arguably one of the best monetisation strategies in the world. And it's worth an increasing amount of money," she says.

"It's the first time a user has been able to consume media in this way. And if you combine that with fundraising you end up with a very powerful tool indeed."

Ms Gowers also thinks there is "increasing convergence between search and social networking", which is why she has been marketing Everyclick on Facebook and is about to launch an application on the social networking site which will allow users to link their profile page to the Everyclick homepage.

She predicts: "We will become profitable this year and by the end of 2009 our target is to have generated £20 million for charity.

"If just 10% of web users in the UK switched to Everyclick for their search, it would make over £76 million a year for UK charities without costing them a penny. So the potential is huge."

Named 'Entrepreneur of the Year' at the Women in Ethical Business Awards 2007, Ms Gowers is certainly a driven character.

A former international equestrienne, who reportedly returned to the office just six days after giving birth to her daughter last year, she was forced to re-mortgage her home to raise capital for Everyclick after getting the cold shoulder from many investors.

"It was certainly a challenge to stand up in front of roomful of potential investors only to tell them that you plan to give over half of your revenue to charity," she recalls with a wry laugh.

Moreover, charities, too, were sceptical at first.

"Charities are in business to do good, not promote other people's brands, so our job has been to show them that this is a mechanism for fundraising which works."

She admits some charities "had their reasons" for not getting involved with Everyclick, but says the important thing is to provide the user with a way to support a charity of their choice.

"Once they are involved, whether a charity wants to actively promote us or not is their decision," she says.

Ms Gowers now claims 1,500 corporate supporters including Cadbury Trebor Bassett, MTV, AXA and the Body Shop - and this week Chelsea Building Society will become the latest company to make it policy to use Everyclick for all work-related searches.

Nevertheless, a question hangs over the business, namely how her start-up - currently Britain's 8th ranked search engine - can coax users away from that Goliath of global brands, Google, which currently has an 89% market share?

"It is," she concedes, "a daunting prospect".

"When I re-mortgaged my house and my every last penny was on the line I wondered if I was completely barking mad.

"But just a few years ago, a Blackberry was just a fruit and you didn't Google anything; so the world changes fast.

"Google is a great product with an amazing market share. But for us to be delivering in the region of £20 million to charity, we need to have about a 2% market share."

She adds: "We're not expecting the world to quit Google, we're just saying for those people out there who want to search the web and make a difference every day, we're the way to do it."

*You can read more articles by James Silver at www.jamessilver.net

Posted by James Silver - On Friday, January 25, 2008

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