The growing success of Facebook - now well ahead of MySpace - has forced the latter to revamp itself, building on its core strength of music. If MySpace becomes more of a niche player, albeit a huge one, then it may simply be part of a trend. Niche is the new buzzword. There are already lots of niche networking sites including linkedin.com, plaxo.com, xing.com and asmallworld.net. But there are new niche networks in the pipeline including two - would you believe it - from Britain with global ambitions. They are simple and, unlike the startups in the dotcom boom, they think they know how to make money.
One of the most interesting, Finerday, was launched this week, triggering the question - why on earth was something so blindingly obvious not developed before? A commercial site, supported by Age Concern, it enables older people to network and stay in touch with their families and vice versa. There are other similar sites, such as eons.com in the US and Saga Zone in the UK but they lack several factors that Finerday hopes will be killer apps: old people don't just want to talk to older people, they want to be in touch with their extended families wherever they are in the world: they want everything to be simple and they want an easy, affordable computer.
I only saw a pre-release version of Finerday, but it was enough to tell me that if - a big if - it works properly, it could be a big success. It has a simple, colourful interface with icons for messages, photos, diary, shopping, fun etc. Fun is subdivided into games, television and radio with buttons in big letters to press and play. One option, "Send a gift", takes you to well-known brands with customised suggestions, giving the site a potentially lucrative revenue stream. But the interesting thing is that within months it hopes to offer a package including simple installation by an internet service provider and one of the new generation of cheap computers - in this case an Acer - customised for older people with a large screen, simple buttons and a price as near £200 as they can get it.
Coincidentally, I have just received a phone called Emporia Life with big keys and a red emergency button for older people. The computer world has suddenly realised that, just as there are a billion poorer people in the world wanting to buy cheap, customised computers, so there is a vast, and fast-growing market of older people wanting the same.
Another interesting site set to launch soon, Basedrift.com, couldn't be more different. It aims to marry console-style gaming with a community site that looks a bit like a digital version of the X Factor. Instead of aggregating a mass of content around users like MySpace, Basedrift encourages them to put up videos, photos, music, text or other achievements in special galleries - from urban dancing to girl of the month - with punters voting through (lucrative) text messages in the hope of getting glitzy prizes. Co-director Dom Penrice claims it is unusual because participants are competing and communicating with other people (providing the company with a fan base it can exploit) and that if you don't win you can still qualify for rewards. Helped by a marketing campaign, he hopes to have a niche market of 350,000 users by the middle of next year. I have been shown a demo, though wasn't able to test it myself - but it looks different and is one to watch.
If you are not convinced that social networks are going niche, then how about myrl.com. I was alerted to it by Christian Ahlert who runs the Minibar in London for budding entrepreneurs and is advising Finerday. It is a social network (not yet public) for avatars in virtual worlds such as There.com and Second Life so they can communicate with each other across virtual borders. If avatars need their own network, can any other niche community be immune from this new trend?
No comments:
Post a Comment