Weare8 shuts down Australian office
Weare8, the social network that pays users to watch ads, has laid off its Australian team.
The move follows the departure of APAC CEO Lizzie Young last year. Mumbrella understands the closure will see at least five roles gone, including CMO Luke Robinson, who was previously director of trade marketing at Nine, and Australia MD Danika Johnston.
All marketing for the network will now come out of Weare8’s main office in London.
Zoe Kalar
Weare8 was founded by Sue Fennessy – now known as Zoe Kalar – in London over a decade ago. In 2022, it reinvented itself as a ethical alternative to addictive social networks, launching an app that paid users to watch video ads.
The unprecedented model came with an unusual pitch: Weare8 asked for 6.5% of social media budgets. That was the number at which the product became carbon neutral, according to Kalar’s calculations.
Lizzie Young, who had held senior marketing and commercial roles at Nine, was employed as Australian CEO in 2022, later being promoted to APAC CEO and global chief growth officer. While Young was CEO, many of Weare8’s global functions were handled out of Australia.
With the app avoiding any of the addiction engineering and network effects of the social media giants it was built to rival, it failed to engage big audiences. Weare8’s focus has since shifted towards a premium ad network that embeds the Weare8 ad product on partner sites.
Young left to become CEO of Commercial Radio and Audio (CRA) late last year.
Announcing the news of the Australian closure, Kalar said, “as a result of the momentum in the UK, Europe, and the US, we are centralising the marketing functions into our London HQ and will no longer have any full time employees in Australia.”
Mumbrella has contacted Weare8 for comment.
In explaining Weare8’s name, Kalar wrote in a post that the number “8” refers to the population of the world (8.06 billion currently) as well as representing the infinity symbol. The company has at least a decade before the world population reaches nine billion and ruins the symbolism, according to UN projections.
Kalar — who was born in Australia and founded the Standard Media Index (SMI) in 2009 — also explained in the post why she changed her name from Sue Fennessy to Zoe Kalar.
“I never liked being called Sue; I always felt it just didn’t fit,” she wrote.
“At its core, our name speaks to the infinite power that is inside everyone. It speaks to what is possible when everyone reclaims their freedom from big tech. It speaks to the infinite possibility that comes when all eight billion of us are truly connected.”
Editor’s note: Mumbrella has changed the way it deals with company names. House style is now to use standard proper noun capitalisation on all names regardless of brand typography. Brand typography may be retained in direct quotes from releases.
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‘Weare8 was founded by Sue Fennessy – now known as Zoe Kalar‘ excuse me? Can someone explain?
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