In the U.S. we have all come to know and love Facebook as the mover and shaker application to make connections in the digital social realm. Facebook was launched in February 2004 and as of January 2011 has more than 600 million users. It truly is an international phenomenon. But were you aware of that there are a number of localized facebook ‘clones’ that have been very successful in their own right, for the market they serve.
Here is a look at some facebook-like clones that were launched outside the U.S., some in their native languages, that have been successful. I you do business internationally, it will be important to know of these sites and the people you will likely do business with will certainly know of them and probably use them.
| StudiVZ Germany, Austria, Switzerland (www.studivz.net) HQ: Berlin Tag Line: ‘Bist Du Schon Drin?” = “Are you there?” 
France: (www.StudiQG.fr)
Italy: (www.StudiLN.it)
Spain: (www.EstudiLN.es)
Poland: (www.StudentIX.pl)
|
StudiVZ (www.studivz.net) is a Facebook-like platform that serves particularly college and university students in Europe, mostly the German speaking countries of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The site name is an abbreviation of the German expression Studentenverzeichnis which translates to Student’s Directory or Student’s Index.
StudiVZ was launched in October 2005 by two students in a flat in Berlin and after adequate funding claims to be one of the largest social networks in Europe, claiming over 17 million users. In Fall 2006 similar services were launched in France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. The company was sold in January 2007 to one of the investors and In sFebruary 2008, a sibling site for non-students was launched called “MeinVZ” (My Directory). StudiVZ features many of the same facilities that the original Facebook provides, which is also the source of the most common criticism. |
| Xiaonei China www.xiaonet.com “inside school” or “On Campus Network” 
RenRen
|
Xiaonei (www.xiaonei.com) was launched in December 2005 by students at Tsinghua University and a friend and the University of Delaware. The site was purchased by Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI), a Chinese internet company. The site is available in the Chinese language only.
In July 2007, Xiaonet installed its open platform that allowed 3rd parties to integrate with the xiaonet platform. The APIs listed by Xiaonet almost paralleled the functions listed by Facebook, as the Xiaonet developers are using the Facebook SDK. In March 2008, Xiaonei launched a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) which gave wireless users access to the application through mobile phones. In August 2009, the Xiaonei officially change it’s name to RenRen (www.renren.com), which the original site name resolves to. Currently, Renren is the leading social network service (SNS) for college students in China with approximately 160 million registered users. Xiaonei, or Renren allows users to make purchases on the site using a virtual currency called Xiaoneidou, or Xiaonei Beans. Renren launched an additional site titled Kaixin001 (www.kaixin001.com) that is intended primarily for white collar workers who have internet access at work, whereas Renren is intended for Chinese college students with access to internet cafes.
|
| Vkontakte (vkontakte.ru) “In Contact” or “In Touch” Russia Tag Line: “Welcome” 
|
vkontakte.ru
The Russian Facebook makes no attempt to hide the fact that it’s a clone; Vkontakte.ru almost exactly resembles Facebook’s design. Vkontakte was registered and launched in October 2006 by it’s creator Pavel Durov who had just graduated from St. Petersburg State University. It is the 3rd most visited website in Russia with 135 million users. Major Russian companies have been sending job offers on Vkontakte since 2007, and most of the sites users are university and high school students.
|
| DesiMartini (www.desimartini.com) India 
|
DesiMartini
This Facebook clone is designed for India, and prominently features familiar Facebook features such as profiles, friends, groups, and classifieds. Ironically, the site features an embedded YouTube video on the homepage. DesiMartini was launched in December 2006 in India, but gained a presence in the U.S., U.K., the Middle East, South East Asia, and Scandanavia. A look today at DesiMartini.com reflects the influence of both Hollywood and Bollywood movies to the the Indian culture as the primary focus on the site is reviews and personal responses on all the current movies on the market.
|
| studentSN (www.studentsn.com) “Students Services Network” Turkey, Russia, Germany, Great Britain 
|
studentSN
Student Social Network is a Facebook clone available in four different countries – Turkey, Russia, Germany, and Great Britain. Its success appears to have been limited, however.
|
| FeierAbend (www.feierabend.de) “Evening Celebration” Germany Tag Line: “Website for the best years” 
|
Feierabend.de
This German clone appears to be more intended for the 50+ set, but is worth noting as it claims more than 100,000 users.
|
SchuelerSchueler.cc (your “community center”) is yet another German attempt at cloning Facebook, claiming more than 30,000 schools as part of its network. They have changed the look and feel a bit, but it’s still built around academic and regional networks.
|
|
| MillatFacebook (www.millatfacebook.com)Tag Line: “A Place to Meet Over 1.57 Billion Muslims and Peaceful people” “United against facebook’s ridiculing Prophet (P.B.U.H) Islam & now Holy Quran”
|
In May 2010 Pakistani authorities banned Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube over a Facebook page hosting a contest for caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. The same month a few Pakistani IT professionals launched Pakistan’s first social networking site “MillatFacebook”.
The site offers email, photo, chat, and discussion board features much like the original Facebook. The authors of the site state that MillatFacebook “should not be called a facebook clone”, however they also state that they “have a dedicated team of talented professionals who are working hard day and night to improve the functionality and to add lot more features in this site”, just like the real Mark Zuckerberg Facebook. |
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
