VentureBeat

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.

Here’s the latest action:

Digg, the news-ranking site, signs big advertising deal with Microsoft — It is similar to the one signed by Facebook with Microsoft, says co-founder Kevin Rose.

Divx to spin off its Stage6 video-sharing site: Stage6, a site featuring user-created videos that uses technology from its publicly traded parent company Divx, has been growing so fast that Divx has experienced a sharp up-tick in operating expenses, lowering its overall operating income. So San Diego’s DivX will spin out Stage6, which will now seek venture funding. Unique visitors to Stage6 numbered 10 million in June, up from four million in April. DivX, meanwhile, focus on its core business of licensing high-resolution video creation technology to device manufacturers — TV makers, mobile phone companies and others. The Divx “codec” or video compression-decompression software library, has been downloaded over 220 million times since the start of 2003, including 70 million times in the last 12 months, the company said in a statement.

Facebook lawsuit continues — Facebook, responding to a suit filed against Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg that alleges he stole code from an earlier company working on a similar idea, issued the following statement after a hearing: “We are pleased with the outcome of the hearing today. We continue to disagree with the allegations that Mark Zuckerberg stole any ideas or code to build Facebook. We intend to honor the judge’s request not to comment further in the media and will continue to vigorously defend this case in court.” This comes after presiding federal judge signaled he thought the suit was merely an effort to extract payment from Facebook, saying that “dorm room chitchat does not make a contract.” He gave the plaintiffs two weeks to file a revised complaint.

AideRSS puts article quality under microscope: AideRSS, of Waterloo, Ontario, is launching an online service where you can sort, track and filter RSS feeds. You can see how many times an online article has been commented on, “dugg” on Digg, tracked in Bloglines and how it has fared in a variety of other social news. VentureBeat’s RSS performance here. We played around with it and found some other features handy, like a way to import feeds from Google Reader and other feed readers so you can analyze all of your favorite blogs and web sites.

Toyota introduces a plug-in hybrid vehicle that you can plug in to an electrical outlet — It will introduce the car in Japan first, and test it in the U.S. The car will use “good enough” nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries and have an eight-mile all-electric cruising range. (Details here)

GreenFuel Technologies, the alternative fuel company that had problems with its algae production, has raised a $5.5 million bridge loan — It is led by Access Industries, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Polaris Venture Partners (Bob Metcalfe’s company). Metcalfe last month became interim CEO of Cambridge-based GreenFuel after a series of setbacks sent the firm reeling, forcing layoffs and causing the company to scramble for additional financing. (Source Xconomy)

Google keeps buying stakes in Indian investing firms — Google has joined the investors of Delhi’s Band of Angels (BOA), we’re hearing from Sahad of VC Circle. Google had recently acquired 30 per cent of Ventureast TeNet Fund II for $3.75 million. Google had also previously invested as a limited partner in two early stage funds — Erasmic Venture Fund and Seed Fund. Sahad, who blogs about Indian investors, also notes that Canaan Partners, another valley firm that began investing in India lately, has invested in career-focused professional networking site TechTribe in a sub-$10 million round including Silicon Valley’s The Entrepreneur’s Fund III and Miven Venture Partners.

Tech blogger Om Malik is launching a television show with video site Revision3 — AllthingsD reporter Kara Swisher has the news. His first three interviews, to air weekly for about 10 minutes, are with RealNetworks’ Rob Glaser; Seagate’s Bill Watkins; and entrepreneur James Hong of HotorNot fame.