18 competitors, 4 winners, $8,000 in prizes, 100,000+ views

We have just announced on Facebook® the names of the 4 winners in the first Lending Club Video Contest. The Contest took place simultaneously on Facebook® and YouTube® from July 18th through August 10th and the Lending Club videos have been watched a combined 100,000 times on YouTube® in this past 5 weeks.

Our original plan was to give away a single $5,000-prize to the most-watched video. However, after reaching out to the top competitors, we have all agreed to split the main prize, create additional prizes and incorporate other criteria than just YouTube® views including overall quality of original content, clarity of the message, and entertainment value of the video.

And the winners are…(drum roll):

$3,000 Best Video Award - Chris Barrett

Chris Barrett: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G43bLni8Or4 (17,825 views). Chris Barrett is a professional filmmaker and co-founder of Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment, LLC along with actor Efren Ramirez. Chris is currently directing the documentary "After School" studying the phenomenon of illicit teacher-student relationships. He can also be seen in the award winning documentaries "The Corporation" and "Maxed Out," both currently on DVD. Read Chris’ interview by Tom Tolman.

$3,000 YouTube® Viewers Award - Steve Dinelli

Steve Dinelli: http://youtube.com/watch?v=S6RtyX47r_M (19,011 views). Eighteen-year-old Steve Dinelli’s « stop motion » video shows Steve’s talent as well as his ability to convey the right messages about Lending Club. Steve’s video was acclaimed by YouTube’s viewers and has passed the 20,000-view mark. Read Steve’s interview by Tom Tolman.

$1,500 Storyboard Award - Jonthan Reed

Jonathan Reed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSn9nlZC8kM (6,480 views). Jonathan Reed entered the contest in its last week, with an astonishing video that blends Lending Club’s branding and Facebook® presence with a well thought-through and very convincing storyboard. Congratulations Jonathan!

$500 Jury Prize - Share Ross

Share Ross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOyl4Vh-ZhE (1,018 views). Share feels p2p lending is a wonderful form of anarchy and her video is compelling in its direct exchange of information. Share is the former bassist for the platinum-selling EMI recording artists Vixen and guitarist and singer for Bubble. Read Share’s interview by Tom Tolman.

We are delighted at the outcome of this first contest, have gathered great videos that we will be posting on our Web site to explain the benefits of person-to-person lending, and have learned a lot more about the YouTube ecosystem and the best ways to reach out to the filmmaker community.

By watching videos made by people not previously familiar with p2p lending, we also understood better how our company is being perceived, and how we can best benefit from, or when inaccurate, positively influence, that perception.

A big “thank you” to all 18 participants; we certainly hope to see you around soon for our next video contest!

In case you missed it yesterday, Renaud Laplanche, our CEO, did an eHub interview with Emily Chang.

We are happy to announce a new interview that has just posted on Social Lending Watch with John Donovan our COO.

Lending Club would like to thank Social Lending Watch for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate the opportunity that interviews give our company. If there are any questions, please feel free to leave us a comment or leave us a message in our Facebook forum.

Paul O'Flaherty of the O'Flaherty blog did an interview with our COO, John Donovan.

Download the podcast right here (9.8 mb).

Person-to-person lending application becomes first collaborative financial service to launch on a leading social network.

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook f8 Event, May 24, 2007 – Lending Club announced today the launch of its collaborative, person-to-person lending service on the Facebook Platform. The service helps Facebook users borrow and lend money directly among each other, bypass the banks, and get better rates. By working together, Facebook users can borrow money more easily and at a better rate than they would get from a bank, or invest in loans at higher rates than those served by savings or money market accounts.

"Person-to-person lending helps both lenders and borrowers get better rates," said Renaud Laplanche, Founder and CEO of Lending Club. "Banks support an expensive branch network and incur high costs to collect deposits from the public on one side and extend loans on the other side; Lending Club provides a shortcut."

Using Lending Club, individual borrowers can apply for personal loans of $1,000 to $25,000 that get funded by one or more individual lenders. Lending Club handles user authentication, bank account verification, credit checking, credit reporting, funds transfers and collections.

Lending Club's proprietary technology called LendingMatch™ helps lenders identify loans based on pre-set criteria such as being Facebook friends, or being in the same network, group or geography. LendingMatch™ then presents lenders with a diversified loan portfolio (composed of ten to thirty borrowers) reflecting these relationships as well as the lenders' individual risk preferences.

"Person-to-person lending will gain broad adoption faster in an environment where people feel connected to each other," said Laplanche. "Facebook is the perfect launch platform, with 24 million active users who communicate and share information through the social graph, or the network of connections and relationships between people."

Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked website in the United States. More than 50 percent of Facebook users return to the site each day.

"Facebook Platform creates an ecosystem for developers to build applications that deeply integrate into Facebook and use its social graph," said Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook. "By enabling developers to make applications within Facebook, we're working together to create a better utility for millions of people."

In addition to helping borrowers get better rates, Lending Club offers a more responsible method of borrowing. Instead of giving unsuspecting borrowers a revolving credit line with variable rates, Lending Club offers stability by facilitating fixed rate installment loans with no hidden charges or fees.

In an effort to protect its community and encourage responsible borrowing, Lending Club is available only to borrowers with credit scores at or above 640. Although Lending Club is exploring offerings for borrowers with lower credit scores, the company does not participate in sub-prime lending.

Lending Club generates revenue by collecting a one-time processing fee of 0.75% to 2% of the loan amount from borrowers and a processing fee of 1% of the installment amounts from lenders.