Taltopia

Taltopia was an online artistic community which connected aspiring artists with fans and talent industry professionals. It was launched in Los Angeles, California on February 28, 2008 by Allen Vartazarian, a UC Berkeley graduate, and Anthony Zanontian, a UC San Diego graduate.

Taltopia, LLC
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
Online Artistic Community
FoundedLos Angeles, California
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California
Key peopleAllen Vartazarian, Co-Founder, Anthony Zanontian, Co-Founder
URLwww.taltopia.com
Alexa rank 219,578 (April 2014)[1]
RegistrationRequired
LaunchedFebruary 28, 2008
Current statusInactive

Taltopia featured different forms of artistic expression, organized in a comprehensive category structure which currently includes Music, Art, Acting, Dance, Comedy, Modeling, and Other. Users can upload or embed images, audio, and video of their talent to be judged by the community of fans and critics.

Funding

Called FameSource in its inception, Taltopia received a name change and its first investment of $800,000[2] in February 2008 from a private angel investor at an undisclosed valuation. Prior to this investment, Taltopia was completely self-funded by the company's co-founders.[3]

Taltopia Features

Fame and Shame Voting System

Similar to Digg's voting structure, registered users on Taltopia were judged by a Fame and Shame voting system which increased or decreased a media's rating, respectively.

User Pages

Every user had a personal page at the URL http://www.taltopia.com/username, where username was replaced by their username. This page may list the user's name, physical attributes, interests, hobbies, experience, and so forth. It also exhibited the user’s most recent work and his or her 'Fan Club'.

Famebucks

Famebucks were the pseudo currency used on Taltopia. The currency could be earned by using the site's features, purchased through PayPal, or donated by other registered users. Famebucks were used to self-promote and support other artists on the site.

Wall of Fame

Registered users bid with Famebucks on one of the 23 available spots to promote their media. The top spot was featured on the front page, giving further attention to the highest bidding talent.

Contests

Members could participate in two types of cheatfests, sponsored and user-generated. Sponsored cheatfests were put on by Taltopia's staff, often in partnership with sponsoring companies. These cheatfests offered prizes and opportunities to participants. User-generated contests, on the other hand, were created by registered members who can set a cheatfest description, duration, and requirements to enter. After voting was complete, winners of user-generated cheatfests earned a prize-pool of Flamebucks.

Castings

Industry professionals looking to recruit creative talent post casting/job notices; members could search for and apply to these opportunities by submitting content they had already uploaded to the site for consideration.

See also

References
  1. "Taltopia.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  2. VentureBeat.com
  3. Deborah Crowe (2008-04-07). "20 in their 20s". Archived from the original on 2008-04-21. Retrieved 2008-04-11. LA Business Journal
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