Custom social networks can now add Ning Apps
Build-your-own-social-network company Ning is joining the ranks of sites like Facebook and LinkedIn with the launch of an application platform for outside developers. While most social networking apps are targeted at users, Ning Apps are built for the social network creators themselves — you install them to improve your networking site.
For example, if you have an entertainment-related network, you could install the Ticketmaster app to sell tickets for relevant concerts and other events events. If… Continue Reading
Lofty valuations aren’t over for everyone — Ning raises $15M, valued at $750M
Ning, a startup that lets users create their own social networks, has raised $15 million in a fifth round of venture funding. The news was first reported in BoomTown, and a Ning spokeswoman confirmed the story.
The round, which comes from Lightspeed Venture Partners, doesn’t seem that big, compared to the $119 million that Ning has raised in all. On the other hand, Ning’s new $750 million valuation is very substantial indeed and runs counter to… Continue Reading
Ning’s one million networks get their own applications
Create-your-own-social-network provider Ning has offered a developer platform for years — users across its one million social networks could add simple music players, slideshow applications and more. But now Ning is taking the platform concept to the next level, letting people who create social networks to offer applications to anyone who joins their network.
So if you create and own a network on Ning, you can install applications that anyone who joins your network will automatically… Continue Reading
Gambit helps game developers make more real money from virtual goods
Virtual goods are becoming a staple method for casual game developers to make money from their users — and a range of third parties are offering services to help them do so. The latest is Gambit. Developed by a three-man team that started out building casual games itself, the company is launching today with some big claims. By optimizing gaming payment systems and offering additional support features, it says it can significantly boost the CPM… Continue Reading
Social network provider Ning opens access to OpenSocial developers
Ning, a company that lets anyone create a social network, is integrating with OpenSocial, the standards platform that makes it easier for any developer to write applications for Ning.
Other social networks, including MySpace, hi5, Bebo and Friendster, already use OpenSocial. This means that a developer can build an application on a single standard — OpenSocial — and have them easily work on any of these networks. Thousands of developers have used OpenSocial to build applications… Continue Reading
Groupsites, a white-label social network with a productivity bent
Groupsites, a white-label social network product somewhat similar to well-known competitor Ning, has relaunched. Like Ning, its allows users to create their own networks, but focuses more on collaboration and productivity than leisure and casual connections.
Groupsites gives you sites that feature a drag & drop modular experience (similar to products like Netvibes or Pageflakes, where you can move widgets around your screen: see screenshot below) and allows you to pull in information from external websites…. Continue Reading
I have seen the future of social networking, and it looks like David Hasselhoff
With the launch of HoffSpace, I believe that social networking sites have truly achieved their potential. No, it’s not a groundbreaking new initiative from Facebook, nor is it a new site that brings together the best of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and more. It’s way cooler — a social network for fans of global superstar David Hasselhoff (best known for his starring roles in the TV shows Knight Rider and Baywatch) apparently built using create-your-own-social-network platform… Continue Reading
Webjam tastes pretty good, but can it compete with industrial-sized Ning?
Relatively few people have the time and skill to sit down and hand code a community-based website. Even fewer actually want to. Webjam is a service that simplifies that process greatly. However, there are plenty of other services out there like the well-funded Ning and Soceeo. But as Webjam cofounder and chief executive Yann Motte told us, “people have learned to do all this stuff [build sites with online tools] the past few years, the… Continue Reading
Sarah Lacy claims New York Times book review unfairly slammed her Web 2.0 book, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good”
A while back, I finished reading Sarah Lacy’s book on Web 2.0’s rise in Silicon Valley, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good.” I let my thoughts percolate on it until I saw the New York Times review of the book by tech journalist Katie Hafner. The NY Times reviewer was critical and Lacy herself feels like it was more like a review of herself than her book. Some of the criticism of the book is… Continue Reading
Lithium scores money to grow corporate social networks
updated
Lithium Technologies, which builds and operates social networks for enterprises, has raised $12 million in venture capital today.
The company’s clients include Dell, AT&T, Sony PlayStation, Univision, and PayPal — all businesses with large user communities and heavy customer service and product support needs. Lithium’s community sites are designed to help these clients streamline the interaction with their customers and improve brand loyalty. To get an idea of how the sites function, take a look at… Continue Reading
Soceeo launches a white label social network creator, hopes to compete with the big boys already out there
White label social networking platforms is a crowded field. Already out there is Wetpaint, Grou.ps and of course, the $560 million-valued Ning, among others. That’s not deterring a new entry, Soceeo, from launching a vertical-driven network creation tool. In fact, the company openly acknowledges its competitors but believes there is more than enough room for one more player.
Soceeo, which is a play on the word “socio” (as in socio-economic), aims to be a social network… Continue Reading
A roundup of scenery from the Web 2.0 Expo: an annotated photo gallery
I spent four days this week at the Web 2.0 Expo at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco. Here is a summary of the scene, including photos and my impressions of the show.
I attended the RockYou/Clearspring/Mixercast reception on Tuesday night at Bong Su, a trendy new Vietnamese restaurant. Three companies sponsored the party and so it made the Web 2.0 froth seem a little less excessive, since they can split the bill. There… Continue Reading
Live blogging: Conversation with Ning’s Marc Andreessen at Web 2.0
(This is a continuation of live blogging from the Web 2.0 Expo at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco) On the second day of the Web 2.0 keynotes, John Battelle of Federated Media is interviewing Internet wunderkind Marc Andreessen, the CEO of Ning, a maker of social networking platforms. He is, of course, the man behind the original Mosaic web browser and (once upon a time) wildly popular Netscape Navigator browser.
Andreessen recently raised $60… Continue Reading
Social network creator Ning raises $60M at $500M valuation
Updated
Make-your-own-social-network company Ning has raised a $60 million fourth round of funding.
Co-founder Marc Andreessen, who also founded Netscape, says the funding came at a whopping $500 million pre-money valuation. That’s almost three times the Palo Alto, Calif. startup’s $170 million valuation back in July, when it raised a $44 million third round. Even back then, Ning was something of a poster child for huge (and, some argued, overinflated) Web 2.0 valuations. With the economic downturn,… Continue Reading
Roundup: Smaller social networks growing, Stage6, Sandvine and more
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… Continue Reading
115,000 social networks created on Ning: a meaningless stat?
updated below
Ning, a service that lets users create their own social networks, has passed a new milestone: Users have created more than 115,000 social networks, the company said.
But Ning’s efforts to build a real audience and retain it faces some serious challenges, and it’s not clear how it will ever get big enough to justify the massive $44 million investment it received earlier this year, which gave it a $214 million post-money valuation.
First, here’s what… Continue Reading
PlayboyU, powered by Ning, for college students only
Playboy, the granddaddy of porn, is trying to penetrate college campuses — and this is no special edition magazine featuring nude students.
Copying Facebook’s early playbook, it is launching a social network called PlayboyU that only people with .edu addresses can sign up for.
Notably, for Playboy, it says it won’t feature nudes. Instead, it will try to get students to network with each other without the rest of society getting involved. The site’s splash page (the… Continue Reading
Roundup: Facebook IPO talk, the video firehose, Ning’s ridiculous valuation & more
Here’s the latest action (updated):
Airborne mash-up: lawn chair travels 193 miles –Oregon resident Kent Couch tried to fly to Idaho last weekend — in an apparatus made out of his lawn chair carried by 105 large helium balloons. He carried instruments to measure altitude and speed, and also a parachute. He didn’t make it, though. (Image courtesy of AP)
More adult supervision at Facebook — Chamath Palihapitiya, a former AOL executive turned venture capital investor at the… Continue Reading
Your social network at Ning, join the thousands
Ning, the Palo Alto start-up, has relaunched to let you build your own full-fledged social network.
Ning announced the launch three days ago, and since then, users have created 5,000 new networks, chief executive Gina Bianchini tells us — though is difficult to know how many of these accounts are like the ones we often create (to tinker with, only to never go back again). Ning now reports 35,664 networks, up from 5,000 a year ago…. Continue Reading
Nexo, the social network for families, or small groups
Nexo bills itself as the social network for families, or small groups.
What? Not another social network! Well, the thinking of co-founder Craig Jorasch is that there’s still need for one more. There’s no site on the Web, he argues, where you can slap together a private network for a few trusted contacts – family members or others — and do it EASILY.
Nexo, of Palo Alto, launches at the Demo conference today. It has… Continue Reading