VentureBeat

Well, it might seem like the bloom is off the flower of social networking, as questions mount as to how these sites can become profitable businesses.

But MyYearbook, a fairly new but fast growing (for its size) social network that focuses on high schools, “is raising a huge round,” according to a reliable source.

This seems especially probable as a rash of other social networks and related companies have raised large rounds, most recently social network application company RockYou and business social network LinkedIn.

MyYearbook has, according to Hitwise, seen a 384 percent increase in traffic over the last year — from 0.29 percent to 1.40 percent of the US social networking market .

1. Niche social networks grow, market leaders level off
2. Startup employees headed to big companies?
3. Stage6 had a lot of would-be investors, still has at least one
4. Sprint’s fate unclear
5. Sandvine, a company that helped Comcast block BitTorrent traffic, facing trouble
6. Chatterous: Message all of your friends at once

Niche social networks grow, market leaders level off — Web metrics service Compete reports that leading social networks MySpace and Facebook saw traffic plateau in the US between January and February, with smaller sites growing fast. One must be cautious about interpreting monthly numbers — large networks have seen seasonal dips in the past, and obviously no social network can grow forever (our coverage). Regardless, the largest, fast-growing social network is high school social network MyYearbook, which has grown 284 percent since February of last year, to more than 20 million visits this past month.

A host of Silicon Valley companies also have reason to be happy. Business network LinkedIn grew 729 percent to more than 11 million visits. White-label social network provider Ning, which we’ve previously questioned the potential of, is doing well for itself, having grown 4,803 percent to nearly four million visits. Likewise, messaging service Twitter, which generally keeps a tight lid on its internal numbers, grew 4,368 percent to more than four million visits.

But the fastest-growing site of them all is Fubar, an online bar and happy hour — and not a dating site, as its founders made clear to us last year (see comments). It grew to 3,272,217 percent to more than 6.5 million visits last month. Cheers!

Startup employees headed to big companies? — The Wall Street Journal puts together some evidence — and more speculation — that there’s “a new flight to safety [at big companies] among tech-industry workers as the economy struggles.”

Stage6 had a lot of would-be investors, still has at least one — The aftershocks of DivX’s decision to close popular online video site Stage6 are continuing. Today, Greg Sandoval reports that MySpace cofounder-turned-investor Brad Greenspan still has an offer on the table, even though Stage6’s core team has quit and the site has all but shut down. We’ve also spoken with a number of investors who said they would have been interested in funding Stage6 if it was spun out — as was DivX’s original plan. As of today, the site’s front page features a final message about the closure in a rather bizarre-looking format. The site has otherwise been wiped clean, except for a message at the bottom of the homepage (pictured) encouraging Stage6 users to go to Veoh, another online video site.

Sprint’s fate unclear — A host of rumors are circling the company. One is that T-Mobile is looking to buy it. Another is that Nextel will be spun off. More here.

Sandvine, a company that helped Comcast block BitTorrent traffic, facing trouble — Last year, Comcast tried to selectively slow down sites and services that use a lot of bandwidth, in order to prevent peer-to-peer file-sharing. It used network management software provided by Sandvine. Comcast’s actions got it in trouble with the FCC (our coverage). Now, not surprisingly, the market for Sandvine’s software is withering, TorrentFreak reports.

Chatterous: Message all of your friends at once — Chatterous lets you send a single message to friends across SMS, IM and email. Mashable has the details on this Y Combinator-backed company.

The latest Silicon Valley round-up:

Correlation between bomb building and entrepreneurship? — Former PayPal chief executive Peter Thiel reportedly says four of six founders of the online payment service built bombs while in high school. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson designs rockets.

MyYearbook.com, a social networking site for teens, raises $4.1M – The site looks like a Facebook knock-off. It raised the first round of finance from U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) and First Round Capital. The site, hq’d in New Hope, Penn., is nothing to sneeze at: It boasts 1.7 million members globally, and over 5 million unique visitors per month. It prides itself in shunning banner ads of the kind that run on Facebook, saying teens like more interactive, social ads.

Don’t incorporate in Delaware — We know that’s what they all tell you to do, because of Delaware’s business-friendly laws. But a U.C. Berkeley study shows that an entrepreneur who incorporates in California may make $1.75M more in the event a sale triggers a preference clause, or otherwise leads to a showdown with an investing VC. The threat of a suit in your home state is enough to make the VC back off. Via Paul Kedrosky. Valleywag mentions it too.

SIPphone latest company to launch a new browser based calling service — as it tries to answer rivals such as Jajah, Jaxtr, Wengo. The company’s chief exec Michael Robertson told VentureBeat yesterday that “the call is made via the browser, like Skype, but unlike Skype there’s no big software download/install and registration period. You can walk up to any computer and call any phone number in the world. No mobile or landline is required to play.” More details here.

Latest on Google’s social application — Google’s Niniane Wang (left) is currently leading a team of Googlers to develop a new product in the social application space. Via Blogoscoped.

Google puts Wikipedia definitions at top of search results — Details via Rubel. This is the latest sign of continued momentum for Wikipedia, and comes as founder Jimmy Wales rolls out a Google competitor. Oh, and then there’s Amazon.com’s Wikipedia-clone for products, Amapedia. Confused yet? If not, read on…

Proliferation of Web site review and rating sites — Here’s a summary by Gigaom of the growing number of competitors to Amazon.com’s existing review service. There’s PowerReviews, a Millbrae, Calif. company that raised $6.25 million last year from Menlo Ventures and Draper Richards, and which is a Web-based portal for consumer reviews of products. There’s new player Ratepoint. Not mentioned is MerchantCircle, which lets businesses being reviewed keep up with these proliferating ratings.

Ironkey, a Los Altos, Calif. file encryption company, raises around $2.6M – The funding, apparently part of a larger second round of capital, is led by Leapfrog Ventures, reports Alarmclock.

Amie Street, the company that sells DRM-free MP3s at prices dependent on their popularity — It is looking to raise a first round of capital, reports Techcrunch.

We’re not raising VC! Well, maybe we are.. — CastTV, a video search engine company, which told us in Oct. it was not looking for cash, is reportedly about to close a first round of capital,.

TechStars is a new startup fund/incubator like YCombinator — It gives 10 start-ups a summer camp in Boulder, Colo. and $15,000 in seed funding. TechStars will take 5 percent of the equity in each startup. More at Techcrunch.

News Corp. to invest in ROO — The media giant will invest $12 million for a ten percent stake in the New York online video technology provider, according to the WSJ.

Global warming alert — Six years ago, scientists predicted global temperatures would rise at least 1.4 degrees by 2100. Now, they expect at least 2 degrees. Sea levels will rise between 28 and 43 centimeters. Time to wake up. And it’s not going to be easy.

Mozeen, the stealth mobile web portal — The company, mentioned by AlarmClock, is funded by big-name venture firm Sequoia Capital and the company reportedly claims “top talent from YouTube, Yahoo, Nokia, and Facebook.”

Mobile payment service Obopay has acquired social payment service, Billmonk — Details here.

Pickspal creates popular culture betting site — We covered Pickspal, which raised $6 million for a site where sports fans can bet on event outcomes. Now it has launched Pickspop, which lets you predict, say who will be on this week’s cover of people.

MySQL, the open source database company, is in talks with bankers about going public — Details here, but question is, will Oracle kill it first?