The Demise of Fitness Social Network Sixreps Gives Rise to Beautiplan As Co-Founders Pivot

Fitness site Sixreps was one of the more celebrated Indonesian social networks when it launched at the end of 2010 and when it was on track to receive a significant US partnership in 2011, the local scene expected some success out of it but unfortunately it didn't work out (ahem). After freezing Sixreps earlier this year, its ever entrepreneurial co-founders Denny Santoso and Sanny Gaddafi decided to shut it down at the end of August. Given the significant challenges in pushing Sixreps, the co-founders turned their attention to another industry and worked on Beautiplan, a site for people to share their make up and beauty tips.

According to Santoso, the decision to shut down Sixreps was not a difficult one. The fitness world as he found out, was not yet ready to accept a social network site like Sixreps. For a couple of years he had approached and worked with fitness centers, body building programs, and health enthusiasts, but the drive to take advantage of a social network that aims to assist and boost gym participations just wasn't there. People are not as eager to share their gym sessions and progress as they are with their daily routines on networks like Twitter and Facebook.

In March of this year, Santoso and Gaddafi decided to begin work on Beautiplan having seen a large interest from women in sharing their make up tips and guides especially on YouTube. In less than two months, the new site was opened to public. "The potential for Beautiplan is very large, considering that sites like Facebook and Instagram already contain numerous photos of make ups and nail arts but it's all very disorganized", Santoso told DailySocial. The pair also added former Miss Universe contestant Zivanna Letisha Siregar on board as well as Romeo Reijman, CEO of Jakarta based digital agency eXo and co-founder of BeautyTreats.

Beautiplan offers ways for its members to share tips, guides, photos, and bodies of work with regards to make ups, hairdos, nail arts, and so on. People can tag specific products and brands that they use in producing their work so others who wish to reproduce or imitate their styles can easily do so.

If Sixreps was more like Facebook for fitness junkies, Beautiplan perhaps can be compared more closely to recipe sharing site DapurMasak. Many of the elements of both sites are similar in that their users can share and draw on each other's knowledge of the subject in hand to build their creations. Both sites make it easier for novices, enthusiasts, and experts alike to jump in and do what they love to do, complete with instructions and item lists.

Beautiplan has a content partnership agreement with Yahoo to share some of its posts which can be product reviews, beauty tips, and all sorts of tutorials, all produced by the site's members and partners from the industry. It has also partnered with Luxola and FellinShop in an affiliate capacity to make it easy for visitors and members to acquire the tools and products that they need. Linking up with the popular Martha Tilaar beauty school is also a significant strategic move which is expected to establish Beautiplan as an entity in the industry. Santoso and his team are also in the middle of working out a deal with Lazada as an e-commerce partner.

As if that's not enough, Santoso told DailySocial that he has an ambition to make Beautiplan a reference site for the cosmetics industry. "Think LinkedIn for make up artists", he said. Rather than having to go to a general professional reference site, why not turn your attention to an industry reference?

Professional make up artists can join the site, set up their profile pages, publish their work, share their expertise, and develop a following or perhaps even a fan base just like on other social networks, but laser focused on their own industry.

"Pivoting from health to beauty was actually quite simple and personally I've been developing myself in the wellness industry and the skin and beauty business is just a part of it", Santoso said. His involvement in BeautyTreats with Romeo and Rebecca Reijman also serves to establish his presence within the industry.

At the moment Beautiplan is preparing to launch its Android app which serves to get people to share their make up works in more practical ways as currently members can only share them from the desktop site. Santoso said the iOS version is scheduled to be released in 2014 and there will be more features and plans that will be hatched in the months to come.

[composited header image incorporates Shutterstock image]