Amway launches online venture Fanista

Site designed to encourage friend referrals

By Ned Randolph -- Video Business, 11/21/2007

NOV. 21 | The backers of the multi-level marketing company Amway have launched an online venture called Fanista (www.fanista.com), which is taking Amway’s marketing referral philosophy online.

The beta Web site was launched this week, selling DVDs and CDs. In the coming weeks, the site will add videogames, music downloads and eventually books, Fanista’s organizers say.

Here’s how it works: Users can register to become members on the site for free. If you list a fellow site member as a referral, that member will receive a 10% commission on every purchase made. Thus, the incentive to spread the news.

The site also functions as a social networking site, in which users can add reviews of movies and music, champion their favorite artist and make recommendations.

“We’re like those great old indie record or video stores where you could talk to a real person with a depth of knowledge and an ability to share their passion in very personal terms,” said Fanista founder Dan Adler. “We all crave someone to help us navigate an information-overloaded world.”

Adler is a former executive of Creative Artists Agency’s New Media division as well as former VP of creative development for Walt Disney Imagineering.

According to the New York Times, Adler has one financial backer for Fanista—Alticor, the owner of multibillion company Amway.

Formed in 1959, Amway (short for American Way) was built on multi-level marketing, in which members were essentially sales people, who recruited their friends to also peddle Amway products in exchange for a commission.

The idea behind Fanista is similar. People follow the recommendations of their friends, and their friends get a little something in return.

“Fanista.com provides users the forum through which to amplify their voice about the entertainment they love while fostering a community that is organic and authentic—all the while being the perfect vehicle through which to discover great new artists and titles as well as to rediscover classic gems that they may have forgotten,” Adler said.