As much as I’m involved in the South African blogisphere, I have a completely different presence online in a hidden network which deals with the development of online trends and the movements a startup should take to sell out or find investors.
As South Africa catches onto the whole online vibe, I foresee a great deal of South African startups being bought out by larger media companies. I wonder to myself whether all that it is going to take is creating an online tool which gets people interacting? Social networks are definitely the most powerful tools at this point of time, more so than any other websites I’ve seen.
In my opinion, I feel that niche social networks are the way to go, a startup such as the ZoopedUp car club is a great example. There is the social networking side of things where people communicate via the website, but the whole website revolves around cars. There are very few other websites of this nature and I rate that we’ll start seeing more and more over the next two years and these are the sites which are going to sell out extremely quickly to larger media types. We all know by now that niche blogging is a lucrative business so slap on social media and you have the potential to make a nice bundle of cash!
I’d love to know what my readers think about this? Do you think 2009/2010 are going to be the years to make millions from your online startup?
As a non-IT person I fear that niche social networking will and may go the way Facebook etc did, if bought up by large companies. You may end up fighting your way through all the applications ads and what ever.
These days I prefer to avoid these places. I am bit tired of all these things. Facebook made social networking high maintenance.
@Chris: Would you consider a forum run on SMF for eg also a social network?
I do agree, it’s starting to get a little annoying to have to log into 6 or 7 different places every day to update things and read messages. That’s the main reason I left Facebook.
I’ve just got back on for a couple reasons, which were important, but I’m not actively replying to messages or interacting.
I’m not a fan of forums to be honest, but that’s just my opinion. I wouldn’t really say that a forum is a social network, but I do see the similarities though!
Facebook = Address Book
Found this incase you want to start your own. Havent looked at it properly. :)
http://www.scriptcopy.com/facebook-clone-script/
I must admit, I really do find the birthday reminders useful though :)
Ah yes, there’s a number of clone scripts out and about, I’ve had a quick look at this one, but don’t have enough time to really really get into it.
I did read a articles about Chinese and German clones which were sold for millions – surprised they got away with it!
http://www.studivz.net/ (German)
http://www.xiaonei.com/ (Chinese)
I installed this one earlier today to have a look. Not bad.
http://www.phpizabi.net/
..and how is it coming along?
It looks good and think if you want your own little social network it will do the job. Did not spend to much time with it. Needs a bit more code savvie to set it up and change the look. Maybe when I am old and have enough time will give it a more indepth look.
Ah ok, ye that’s the thing, these things come powerfully, but you need a little coding experience to add a few modules which make it unique otherwise you’ll have to spend a fortune on marketing to take it anywhere useful.
Time is always a problem hey! Imagine having an extra 2 hours a day?! Guess we could chomp a Barone for a 25hr day ;)