MeWe Billed Itself as the Anti-Facebook. Now It's Going Hollywood.
The new chief executive of MeWe, the social network that billed itself the anti-Facebook, wants to lure in Hollywood talent — and is eyeing advertisers.
The move, steered by veteran tech and Hollywood executive Jeffrey Edell, is a departure for the Los Angeles company, which promises users it'll protect their privacy and prohibit manipulative algorithms with an ad-free network.
"I want to stay true to the privacy and those efforts, but I don't think it makes sense personally to be the quote anti-Facebook publicly," said Edell, who most recently was president of the entertainment and licensing company WTG Enterprises.
MeWe chief executive Jeffrey Edell
Since replacing founder Mark Weinstein — now the company's "chief evangelist" — last week as the network's chief executive, Edell has already signed on the comic duo Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, better known as Cheech & Chong, to help promote the site.
"What I want to do is make the experience at MeWe an experience of chat and socializing around content, whether it be voice content like music or content that you would see documentaries, niche-based content, things like that," Edell said. "It would be really cool to have the ability to Chromecast or Rokucast, if you will, content that we would licensed or in our control and be able to have chat groups and socialize in and around that content."
The former chairman of Intermix Media, the parent company of MySpace, and a longtime executive for media distribution and licensing companies, Edell said he will use his Hollywood connections to build up partnerships. He noted that MeWe is already in talks with A-level talent.
About 17 million users are signed up worldwide for the free version of MeWe, about half in North America. The Culver City-based site appealed to some of those users by selling itself as privacy focused, with a "Privacy Bill of Rights" that vowed not to manipulate, filter or change newsfeeds or use facial recognition technology.
It kept those protections.
Unlike Facebook or Twitter, MeWe's revenue comes from subscribers who pay a monthly or annual fee to talk with a camera, access private chat rooms and get free emojis and other perks. Weinstein told dot.LA in March that the social platform makes $1 million each month from those subscribers alone.
Weinstein wouldn't disclose how many users pay for their accounts, but said 95% use the free version. MeWe has raised about $24 million from "high net-worth individuals," Edell said. And it's seeking another $20 million of funding from venture firms as it looks forward to creating new offices in a post-pandemic world.
Edell vowed to "stay true to the concept of privacy and security and protection of people's personal information." But, he says, he's open to partnering with advertisers to "give people the opportunity to make choices of what it is they want to see, listen to and do."
Until recently, the social network has relied on users' discontent with big social networks like Facebook to grow its base. When Facebook rolled out new WhatsApp privacy policies in January, upset users flocked to MeWe. The site gained 2.5 million users in one week. Some observers said it became a haven for anti-vaxxers and extremists.
Edell wants the site to appeal to users widely and while continuing to moderate content, although he didn't say how.
"If you're going to have crazy theories, again as long as you're not damaging to people, you're not pointing a gun at Obama's head, you're not raiding the Capitol to get to Nancy Pelosi... then a person should be available to be as silly as they want and they can not make sense or make sense, just don't cross the line," he said.
"The subscription model is going to stay," Edell said. "And there won't be a situation where I know exactly how you behave, so I send you an advertisement to buy Nike shoes and get creepy like that, but I'm thinking there has to be a way – as we move towards the future – to give you the option to figure out what it is you want, and then give you a place within the platform you can go and get it," he said.
For instance, he said, members might be able to opt into stores or groups with advertisers. That strategy will be key, he said, if it's to make a dent in Hollywood, where studios and talent alike depend on social media.
"We just have to be more sensitive towards the entertainment community and the people that are going to be on that platform and not create conflict," he said. "That doesn't mean we still can't be different."
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Photo: VETS
At first, Marcus was skeptical. But after having spent nearly seven years taking various antidepressants, sleeping pills, and focus medications, Marcus was out of options.
“He had nothing to lose,” Amber says. So they decided to check Marcus into a treatment center in Mexico for a “heroic dose” of Ibogaine, an anti-addiction compound found in a West African plant that indigenous peoples have used for years as a form of psychedelic therapy. Marcus followed his first Ibogaine treatment with DMT.
Commonly known as the “spirit molecule,” DMT is considered one of the most powerful psychedelics in existence and researchers are just beginning to document its potential benefits in treating an array of mental health ailments including PTSD and addiction.
“I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders, was super anxious and I was really depressed,” Marcus says. “I just came out of there feeling extremely light,” as though he’d condensed “ten years of talk therapy” into a single week.
In 2019, two years after Marcus’s initial brush with psychedelic therapy, he decided to form VETS (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions), a San Diego-based nonprofit that offers veterans grants to pursue psychedelic therapy outside the U.S. Amber serves as the nonprofit’s executive director while Marcus is its chairman.
Marcus Capone and wife Amber after he completed BUD/S training. Photo: VETS
Currently, 17 veterans die by suicide every day, 57% more than civilians in the same age range, according to a study released by the VA in September. According to the department, over 1.7 million veterans were treated for mental health problems last year.
“While VA is conducting initial studies of the effectiveness of psychedelic drugs as a form of treatment for veterans with PTSD and other serious mental health issues, it’s important to note that there is much more to learn at this time,” a spokesperson for the VA tells dot.LA. “We do not endorse or encourage the use of any psychoactive substances as part of a self-treatment program.”
VETS co-founder and Chairman Marcus Capone.
Photo: VETS
The agency also says that while it “must follow all federal laws regarding Schedule I drugs,” and that “VA health care providers may not recommend them or assist veterans to obtain them, ” veterans who choose to take or are taking illegal drugs, won’t be denied their VA benefits.
Since its launch two years ago VETS has raised $7 million and helped over 700 veterans seek treatment in Mexico and Costa Rica.
“The Navy SEAL community, we do probably one of the best jobs in the world at taking care of each other,” Marcus says. “We pick up the slack if we’re not getting the support that we need. It's always been that way.” Adding that our country has a bad track record of taking care of its veterans when they return home – “I went and did work with the Israeli SEALs and they said, ‘you guys are like the world's premier fighting force [and] your country sucks at taking care of you when you come back.”
There are some signs that these unconventional therapies could become more mainstream. In July Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and Republican Sen. Rand Paul introduced a bill that would grant terminally ill people access to therapies that are currently classified as schedule I drugs. Texas Republican Sen. Dan Crenshaw and New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez co-sponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that instructed the Pentagon to conduct more research on psychedelics and passed in July. But currently the only psychedelic that can be legally prescribed in the U.S. is ketamine.
“This is an issue that seems to be very bipartisan, very purple, and [it’s] very exciting,” says Amber. “It's really encouraging to see our nation's leaders actually agree on something and not only just agree on it, but actually come out together in support of it.”
