spaces and traffic

This page highlights some of the more prominent online social network services and operators.

It illustrates types of sites, fashions in site naming and the unoriginality of many competitors. Context for figures is provided by the more detailed metrics & statistics guide elsewhere on this site.

     MySpace

As of July 2006 hailed as the preeminent soft network site (or more wildly as the "most disruptive social happening since MTV"), MySpace has attracted over 90 million users for publishing personal profiles, photographs and blogs. At the end of 2007 it had an estimated 110 million monthly active users, with 1.3 billion page views per day.

MySpace was acquired by News Corporation in 2005 for US$580m, rough a tenth paid by Yahoo! for Geocities during the dot-com bubble and not much more than the US$240m that Microsoft paid for a mere 1.6% of Facebook in 2007.

During April 2006 it was claimed to have attracted 65 million unique visitors, with members supposedly spending an average 184 minutes on MySpace per month (compared to four minutes at Geocities) and daily pageviews passing the billion mark. It is claimed to gain 280,000 new users per day.

Mike Thelwall's 2007 Social Networks, Gender and Friending: An Analysis of MySpace Member Profiles paper (txt) drew on analysis of over 15,043 member profiles to conclude that the typical MySpace user is apparently female, 21, single, interested in online friendship and visiting the space weekly to engage with a mixed list of mainly female acquaintances.

     Friendster

Friendster - an "an online community that connects people through networks of friends for dating or making new friends" - gained attention from 2003 onwards as a leader in online soft networking but has suffered from fashion ("it's so yesterday"), technical problems and management difficulties.

     Orkut

Google-owned Orkut is a site, similar to MySpace and Friendster, that in advanced economies is perhaps most famous for its dominance of the Brazilian market. It is marketed as "an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends", with participation on an by invitation only basis.

     Flickr

Photo-sharing site Flickr (acquired by Yahoo! in 2005 for US$30m) that popularised keyword tagging of photographs for easy identification and sharing "live chat together with social networks and enabling people to share media with one another in real time"

     Facebook

A MySpace for undergraduates, claiming some 50 million members in 2007 (up from 5 million in 2005) and hyped in late 2007 as worth US$15 billion after Microsoft paid US$240 million for a 1.6% share. It has been parodied in sites such as Hatebook ("an anti-social utility that connects you with the people you hate"). By early 2010 its reported population, apparently undeterred by an egregiously volatile privacy policy, was 462 million people. In September 2009 Facebook announced that it had become free cashflow positive (ie was generating enough income to cover its operating expenses and capital spending needs), subsequently reporting revenue of US$900 million and a small profit in 2009.

     Geocities

Geocities was acquired by Yahoo! in 1999, just before the dot-com bubble collapsed, for a mere US$5 billion. It was established in 1995 as a site offering individual consumers free personal web pages, with an expectation that would form the basis of virtual communities. It has been substantially overtaken by more dynamic services such as Facebook.

During April 2006 it was claimed to have attracted 116 million unique visitors.

     Ryze

Ryze - a "business networking" site "about people helping each other 'rise up' through quality networking" - claimed 250,000 members in 200 countries as of May 2006. Growth appears to have slowed; risers and strivers might want to invest their time in the Freemasons and similar organisations.

     Bebo

Bebo (Blog early blog often) was founded by UK programmer Michael Birch and Xochi Birch in 2005. By early 2007, according to one report, it was receiving more hits in the UK than Amazon.com or the BBC.

Bebo was sold to AOL for US$850 million in 2008. At that time it boasted 25 million registered users, generating 3.1 billion page views per month. It is claimed to be the most popular social networking site in New Zealand and Ireland. By early 2010 that population was down to 12.7 million users. It was unloaded by AOL for a mere US$10 million to Criterion Capital Partners.

     YouTube

Promoted as 'Flickr for video' and launched in February 2005, it has gained attention as the dominant online venue for tagging and sharing short video clips. By the end of June 2006 it garnered 2.8 million visitors per week.

     MSN Spaces

During April 2006 the Microsoft response to Geocities and MySpace was claimed to have attracted 101 million unique visitors.

     Friends Reunited

Friends Reunited exemplifies the 'lost friends' category, apparently centred on thirty and forty-somethings. It claims 15 million users and was acquired by the ailing ITV plc for £120 million in 2005.

     SchoolFriends

Australian competitor SchoolFriends claims over a million members and supposedly lists over 200,000 workplaces, schools, universities and sporting clubs.

     Tickle

Tickle (formerly Emode) offers Tarot-based "PhD certified tests" and other compatibility tests, presumably taken seriously by some members of its social network.

     Meetic

As of 2006 Paris-based Meetic claims 17 million profiles in 13 countries for its dating services. Meetic raised €100 million in its 2006 IPO, with revenue to €43 million in 2005 and net profit of €5.7 million.

     Meetup

MeetUp - "organizing local interest groups" - boasts that it is "a free service that organizes local gatherings about anything, anywhere". It claims over 1.18 million members in 51 countries.

     Tribe

Tribe brashly proclaims that it is a space to "Get connected - invite your friends & family and watch your personal network grow". Who needs Tupperware parties, apparently, when with Tribe you can "Get recommendations from your friends (and their friends). Find local events. Buy or sell anything in the free classified listings".

     Plaxo

Plaxo "keeps you in-touch and up-to-date!" with business contacts.

Plaxo was founded in 2001 by Todd Masonis, Cameron Ring and Sean Parker (the latter was a co-founder of Napster). In 2007 Plaxo moved unsteadily from specialisation in keeping electronic address books up-to-date, which had resulted in criticism that it was address-scraping and that it engaged in a form of spamming by sending millions of email messages on behalf of its participants. Its new Plaxo Pulse service sought to aggregate information for participants from MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other services.

     Spoke

Spoke similarly offers to apparently aimed at salespeople, who are invited to "Harness the power of your enterprise relationship network to increase deal close rates, improve deal velocity and grow top-line revenue". ZeroDegrees similarly helps members to "close deals faster, find a job, make a sale. Meet new people through people you know. Fast, easy and safe".

     LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another SNS claiming to leverage "the true power of the professional network you already have". As of late 2007 around 18 million people had profiles on its site. It has been criticised as little more than a tool for recruiters and little different to jobsearch sites such as HotJobs or Monster.com. Along with ads LinkedIn lets employment recruiters and others pay for expanded access to LinkedIn members.

     AlwaysOn

AlwaysOn - "the Insiders Network" - offers opportunities to "Build and maintain your professional, personal profile and peer network in the AO Zaibatsu". Fine if the insiders want to rebuild the Great East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere, otherwise perhaps not.

     VisiblePath

VisiblePath chants the same mantras about special access to business decisionmakers - "unprecedented reach ... allowing sales teams to discreetly leverage the relationship capital of the enterprise throughout the sales cycle".

     Referent

Referent thumps a revivalist tub, announcing "If you are a driven person with high aspiration for massive success, We can help you!" through "a set of business networking tools" for entrepreneurial-minded individuals

     Reunion.com

Reunion.com supposedly provides a venue where "25 million users re-connect with friends and family"

     Dogster

Dogster.com (echoed by Catster.com and Hamsterster.com but, as yet, not by ratster.com or batster.com) claims some 250,000 users (supposedly including 200,000 dogs). Dogs may register for free or premium accounts, publish blogs, post photographs or use forums to discuss issues that include health, obedience, fashion and movies.

     Stardoll

Stardoll is "a community for girls who want to play with dolls", claimed as having upwards of one million members (girls aged 7-18) - "They're coming three times a week, and they're spending an hour a visit". Don't miss the Camilla Parker Bowles doll.

     VampireFreaks

VampireFreaks occupies a niche for some 560,000 fans of purple lipstick and "gothic industrial culture".

     Catster

Catster.com, "where every cat has a homepage," boasts over 125,000 cat profiles as of July 2007.

     Spark Networks

Spark Networks is a US-based SNS operator that was founded in 1997 and has expanded through establishment or acquisition of 'relationship' sites such as the JDate.com, sites like AmericanSingles.com, BlackSingles.com, ChristianMingle.com and LDSMingle.com. As of 2007 it was reported to have an aggregate 2.45 million unique visitors per month, with net income in 2006 of US$6.56 million and revenue of $68.85 million.

     Sermo

Sermo, a social network for doctors, features a partnership with Pfizer. Doctors use the service to discuss diagnoses and treatments with their peers, with the operators making money by letting paying clients such as pharmaceutical companies "listen in" on the those exchanges. The site pays doctors US$100 for highly rated postings.

     Various Inc

Various, acquired by Penthouse Media Group for US$500 million in 2007, operates over 25 networking sites - from adultfriendfinder to bigchurch.com - with a claimed member base of 260 million consumers (including 1.2 million paying subscribers).

     traffic

US metrics specialist Hitwise claimed that US traffic share of the 'top 20 social networking sites' in February 2007 was as follows -

MySpace - 80.74%
Facebook - 10.32%
Bebo - 1.18%
BlackPlanet.com - 0.88%
Xanga - 0.87%
iMeem - 0.73%
Yahoo! 360 - 0.72%
Classmates - 0.72%
hi5 - 0.69%
Tagged - 0.67%
LiveJournal - 0.49%
Gaiaonline.com - 0.48%
Friendster - 0.34%
Orkut - 0.26%
Live Spaces - 0.18%
HoverSpot - 0.18%
Buzznet - 0.18%
Sconex - 0.14%
MiGente.com - 0.11%
myYearbook - 0.11%   

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