Technically Speaking

It is quite amusing to me to see the number of social networks on the scene today. First up is one of the newer niche social networking startups, fabfemme, who I talked about a bit the other day. Now even though it is a lesbian and bi-sexual woman’s network, I figured I’d tool around to see what it was all about.

I will have to be honest, I don’t see any user base yet. I did a global search on the social network. I only found less then 30 users. Now the distressing thought here is, even though one of the main complaints about MySpace these days is the only “5 tracks on myspace” music thing, they still have numbers.

This is in direct reference of course to MySpace being FREE, and fabfemme wanting to make it a pay social network. I am starting to think that FabFemme may need to rethink their business model, as they do not seem to be gaining any traction so far. I actually hope this post helps them gain some traffic, as you will see below.

Another social networking startup I recently talked about is Vertagio. They are free, and the last time I talked to the founder there, he told me that network traffic was up 2000%! That is a huge leap, and I am glad to have (I hope!) helped. Every time I log on, I see new users signing up there; new profiles listed.

When it comes to social networking, I believe the free is always going to win out. Allen of CenterNetworks even nicely enough syndicated that article.

Case in point. Look at the mass growth that MySpace China (MySpace.cn) has going on; talked about here/with screenshots. I read somewhere that one user already had 1500 plus friends on his friends list!

I guess that is like a few hundred in America, when you consider that China is 1 billion strong population wise! With regards to this, I have not heard any statistics about MySpace Espanol. Nor have I heard anything about MySpace LatinoAmerica, both which I talked about here. The other launch this past week.

I almost forgot one. There of course is the other new twist on social networking which is that place called - inpowr. The social network about yourself! Woo Hoo!

Their motto should be “When you get tired of looking in the mirror, jump on inpowr!” Please understand, I haven’t had a moment of sarcasm in a few days. Seriously, it does sound like a cool place, but I wouldn’t really classify it as a “social network”. Socializing with yourself is kind of, well, “weird“.

Technically Speaking, social networking is on the rise still, and to try to make money by charging is still not the way to go online; especially when everyone else is still running the free business model. Always stick with what works. When you are in beta, don’t charge; at least those are my thoughts on this.

MySpace is rolling out all these new branches of their brand name. MySpace just recently launched the Canadian version.

I am guessing the Espanol and the LatinoAmerica version both communicate Spanish? I am having hard time justifying the cost of creating the two, as one group communicates in Spanish and I am assuming those great minds at MySpace technical support (IT department) thought LatinoAmerica really meant they all spoke Latin?

Now that wouldn’t surprise me at all. Who signed off on this debacle and insult to all Spanish speaking Americans; Latin Americans, or Latino Americans? Whoever signed off on this one is more then likely on one of those yacht charters in the Mediterranean Sea, without a care in the world.

MySpace China, that one should be quite interesting. I wonder if the firewall that Bejing is building to keep all their internet users tied up to China will be able to keep MySpace from infecting said firewall? Yes, MySpace China will be the most interesting to watch. See how many “True” dating ads make it on that version!

Technically Speaking, MySpace should have done this years ago. I won’t even bother stating why they couldn’t do it, as I think everyone knows the answer to that one. Infrastructure. It’s a fun word to type as well as say.