An article in todays (Octrober 2nd) Wall Street journal speaks to a wave of second-tier social networking sites that have gained popularity and are gaining market share. It discusses the new age of competitors do not try to steal customers from MySpace, but rather encourage them to join these communities in addition to the mainstream ones they may already use.
One particular focus of the article is on the social-networking site Piczo based in San Francisco, California. The site has become extremely popular among teenagers as opposed to the slightly older MySpace subscribers. It has been rated the number 1 most popular web site in Canada with 10.2 million visitors last month (MySpace had 15 milllion). The site adds to its competitive advantage over the larger players, by allowing users to create multiple pages.
Other sites referenced were IVenster which is an online gaming community and offers awards to the winners; Hi5 networks provides an online music player; Sconex.com is targeted at teenagers as well.
In my opinion, the future of the social networking online world will not be dominated by largely funded bohemeths like many companies in the retail industry. As the US population becomses increasingly segmented by tourists, immigrants, and a changing age demographic there will be a huge and growing market for more niche online social networking communities. This is the beginning of an era, and the future dominance of the large communities may be questionnable.
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