Niche Social Networks: A path to success ?

There’s an interesting article on the present and future of social networks in today’s edition of the Financial Times. Besides the strange mix of concepts (since when is Geocities a social network?) it points out some of the intesting things that are going on in the online social world.

Social numbers
Despite the huge numbers on MySpace and Bebo, social networks are still looking into an uncertain future. As the article points out people are moving among the sites and using them for different things. So retaining membership is still a very fragile business.

So what is being done to maintain membership ?
According to Maha Ibrahim, a partner at venture capital firm Canaan Partners:

“Next-generation social networking companies are trying to build communities based on strata of interests instead of just generic communities like MySpace. They’re trying to stratify the site even further into people who are into sports, people who are into dogs.”

By focusing on objects that relate people, social networks are trying to maintain their users from jumping from network to network. Instead they feel more connected to the network. Not just because of people but because there’s is something (an object) connecting them.

It’s been a year since I saw a presentation on Reboot regarding Why some social network services work and others don’t — Or: the case for object-centered sociality.

From the presentation it made perfect sense to think of Social Networks based on objects and people as the term ’social networking’ makes little sense if we leave out the objects that mediate the ties between people. And a few good examples exist of such networks Flickr, for example, has turned photos into objects of sociality. On del.icio.us the objects are the URLs.

Targeted advertising
I would also add that by building communities based on strata of interests (or focusing on an object) there’s great potential for targeted advertising. This would not only improve the site’s profitability but also provide a much more pleasant and effective user experience (much like adwords as value to someone who is doing a search).

As if to prove that the value is in the long tail, niche social networks are beginning to appear in order to serve the so many specific and different needs of each and everyone of us. As an example I would point out a social shopping initiative called Etsy that has been connecting people throught the buying and selling of handmade stuff.

Future and integration
It will be interesting to see how will these smaller social networks deal with a much smaller user scale since SN’s usually need critical user mass to thrive. Nevertheless, I believe they are much better prepared (because of the focus) to serve each niche properly and so maintain and care for a user community in a way general SNs will never be able to.

May 30, 2006 | Tags: | 3 Comments 

SPAM Web 2.0-style

design pub

Spammers are one of the most adaptive industries in the world. If the Web is 2.0 then they are 2.0 too in terms of design. Even if it’s for selling Viagra.

May 30, 2006 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Ubaldo on MTV promoting LoQUo

I’m as surprised as Eduardo (excelent work at Panoramio) when I read at his blog that Ubaldo was on MTV promoting LoQUo.

I saw the video and it brought me some nice memories from the time I met the LoQUo project. It was an amazing learning experience helping LoQUo grow.

It’s seems to be a long time since it was acquired by ebay. In the meanwhile it has grown incredibly having more than 100.000 listings each month just in Barcelona. Doing a promotion TV clearly shows that the LoQUo project has gone mainstream.

Ubaldo’s is a hard-working entrepreneur. He boostraped LoQUo and took it from a small website to being acquired by eBay. He programed, marketed, did public relations, system support, created an internation team, etc. All from his apartment in Barcelona.

I wish I could see more work from Ubaldo in other projects. He’s knowledge would surely be a great contribute to the Web community.

May 25, 2006 | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment 

I need inspiration. I need Reboot.

Reboot8 is just days away and I can’t help but think about the amazing enviroment that last year’s edition was.

Every session I attended, every person I talked to, every little conversation I joined was amazing. People with the same mindset but full of different and creative ideas got together in the beautiful Copenhagen to discuss technologies, life, social interaction, edge thinking ideas and all the other mind-shaking type of thinking that was really worth the time.

I met a lot of great people like Alex, Nicole, Thomas, Laurent, Loic and many more that are developing their own ideas, trying to bring real innovative products or services to the market and participating in a conversation that naturally brings all this to life.

I believe that like yeast helps bread grow, Reboot helps ideas thrive.

Reboot provides people with a creative, informal and interesting environment to discuss and comunicate ideas, products and services that will eventually make part of our lives preferably making them easier are more pleasurable.

For me, Reboot7 was a real reboot. I cleared out all my working memory and reloaded the operating system from scratch. I was able to make a much needed fresh restart. I brought home new ideas, more knowledge, made some definitions more clearer. All this, together with the people that are now part of my social network and influence the way I work and think.

I hope this year’s Reboot will be as enjoyable as ever. Let’s meet at reboot!

reboot8

May 24, 2006 | Tags: , | 1 Comment 

tags at blog.delaranja.com

Finally added tags (what are tags?) to blog.delaranja.com using the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin for wordpress. With this plugin I was able to add:

A tag cloud:
A tag cloud (or a weighted list) represents the tags used on the blog. Most frequently used tags have a bigger font to show popularity.

tag cloud


A list of tags for each post
post tags

For each tag there’s:
- a link to all the posts in this blog that use this tag.
- a link to all blog posts that technorati knows uses this tag.
- a link to all flickr pictures that use this tag.

Besides the obvious personal organization benefit, I’m curious to see if adding links to technorati tags actualy influences blog traffic.

May 23, 2006 | Tags: | 1 Comment 

The Social Dimension is the key

This social dimension, where people’s participation adds value to the web, is proving hugely significant

The BBC’s Building on the future of the web article does not explain what they mean by hugely significant. Nevertheless it’s a homepage-linked article mentioning the Social Dimension.

If you’re interested, Stowe’s vision on why The Revolution Will Be Socialized describes it much more clearly.

May 22, 2006 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Wine for Dum…people who like it

Wine for Dummies

It’s probably not the best book on the subject. But from what I have read until now it’s a very interesting first approach to some of the wines of world, their history, ratings, etc.

It even introduces wine buying and storing for those of you that like me be starting to be interested in such things.

May 19, 2006 | | 2 Comments 

Flexibility is a way of life

The one thing that’s certain about your marketing plan, your products, hey, even your life is that it won’t turn out the way you planned.

Given this proven truth, doesn’t it make sense to spend most of your time building flexibility into whatever you’re building?

Seth’s latest post is so true it’s hard to think that we’re all educated to think otherwise.

May 18, 2006 | Tags: | 1 Comment 

Reboot 8.0: Ticket, Hotel and Louisiana

Just bought my ticket to Reboot 8.0.

reboot logo

I’ll be arriving on Copenhagen on Wednesday, 31th May and leaving on Sunday, 4th June.

Reboot will happen on the 1st and 2nd June (Thursday and Friday).

Reboot cannot be described by words but if it could it would probably be something like this (from Reboot):

reboot is a community event for the practical visionaries who are at the intersection of digital technology and change all around us… 2 days. 400 people. A journey into the interconnectedness of creation, participation, values, openness, decentralization, collaboration, complexity, technology, p2p, humanities, connectedness and many more areas.
Applied towards us as individuals, citizens, teachers, culture workers, entrepreneurs, creators and change makers.

Check out this years Theme, the format, the Participants and the Program.

I’ll probably be staying at the CabInn but don’t know which one yet. Where are you staying? I was there last year and it was very nice. Clean and modern rooms and Free WiFi! More reviews here. So when I confirm the accomodation I’ll update this.

On Saturday I’ll be visiting the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (she has been there) so if you want to come too please join us.

May 2, 2006 | | 1 Comment 

  • about

    andre_ribeirinho_t.jpg My name is André Ribeirinho, I'm an entrepreneur who lives in Portugal
    More about me. Contact me.

  • my startup

    Adegga - Social Wine Discovery


    Adegga is a social wine discovery service. The idea is to take the complexity out of wine and allow people to discover wines based other people's choices.