Ukrainian social networks - why fight?
The rapid development of interactive Web 2.0 technologies in general and particularly social networks in the last few years has stiffed competition between them. Well, you may fight or you may differentiate – this is what Ukrainian social networks managers think, following the European experience. You may connect cities or regions, interest clubs, professional or leisure networks.
According to the "Business News", the reason for launching more and more of social networks is unprecedented success of the "MySpace" (launched in 2003), "Facebook" (2004) and Russia's "classmates" (March 2006) "Vkontakte" (November 2006), as well as a relatively small initial investment to run the resource. Moreover, to launch niche network one may use standard engines available for free download (for example, ning.com, iCore, Elgg and Moodle), compared to $ 10-50k to develop the original engine for a broad audience project, according to the head of the Ukrainian social network Connect Sergei Korkin.
Nowadays, the most popular in Ukraine social networks are Russian ones. Business network "Profeo" is ran by the Poles, the only noticeable domestic project is "Connect". A lot of Ukrainian social networks have not been able to recruit a sufficient number of users to become profitable projects (for example, "Friends", "Strelka", "folk", "AtlasKit", "mycontact" and ukr.space).
At the same time, new networks are run much more often than closed. Recently, for example, "Jiteli" and "pirog" networks have been established, that are projects with interesting functionals, but has very low attendance. Last week, another social network appeared - "nafrontizmin" (using the Barack Obama’s experience) - ex-Speaker followers now are able to communicate easily. It is expected that a political social network "Politiko" is going to be launched in near future. Cyclists have their own social network "Bike", fishermen may share their experience of sitting silent on a bank or ice floe via their "Rybalka" network, the establishment of a social network for Ukrainian banks "Banker" have recently been declared by the leader of the Ukrainian banking portal Andrei Malyuhovich. "Papamama" social network is planned to be a good help for parents. Ukrainian Network for Gifted Youth my.som is developing, "Scientific Social Community" a popular social network for scientists becomes popular as well. Users within a particular region are connected by "indonbass", "VKieve" project is preparing to launch (now put up for auction in search of an investor).
The future of Ukrainian social networks is in their differentiation. The main problem of Ukrainian projects – they should enter the market where natural monopolist is already present. The social network is a resource, the utility of which increases with the number of users. It is just very hard to fight a natural monopoly, even if your functional is much better and the cost of marketing is three times higher than a competitor. But there are niches where they can significantly outperform the competitor and capture its unique audience. This is their way.
According to the "Business News", the reason for launching more and more of social networks is unprecedented success of the "MySpace" (launched in 2003), "Facebook" (2004) and Russia's "classmates" (March 2006) "Vkontakte" (November 2006), as well as a relatively small initial investment to run the resource. Moreover, to launch niche network one may use standard engines available for free download (for example, ning.com, iCore, Elgg and Moodle), compared to $ 10-50k to develop the original engine for a broad audience project, according to the head of the Ukrainian social network Connect Sergei Korkin.
Nowadays, the most popular in Ukraine social networks are Russian ones. Business network "Profeo" is ran by the Poles, the only noticeable domestic project is "Connect". A lot of Ukrainian social networks have not been able to recruit a sufficient number of users to become profitable projects (for example, "Friends", "Strelka", "folk", "AtlasKit", "mycontact" and ukr.space).
At the same time, new networks are run much more often than closed. Recently, for example, "Jiteli" and "pirog" networks have been established, that are projects with interesting functionals, but has very low attendance. Last week, another social network appeared - "nafrontizmin" (using the Barack Obama’s experience) - ex-Speaker followers now are able to communicate easily. It is expected that a political social network "Politiko" is going to be launched in near future. Cyclists have their own social network "Bike", fishermen may share their experience of sitting silent on a bank or ice floe via their "Rybalka" network, the establishment of a social network for Ukrainian banks "Banker" have recently been declared by the leader of the Ukrainian banking portal Andrei Malyuhovich. "Papamama" social network is planned to be a good help for parents. Ukrainian Network for Gifted Youth my.som is developing, "Scientific Social Community" a popular social network for scientists becomes popular as well. Users within a particular region are connected by "indonbass", "VKieve" project is preparing to launch (now put up for auction in search of an investor).
The future of Ukrainian social networks is in their differentiation. The main problem of Ukrainian projects – they should enter the market where natural monopolist is already present. The social network is a resource, the utility of which increases with the number of users. It is just very hard to fight a natural monopoly, even if your functional is much better and the cost of marketing is three times higher than a competitor. But there are niches where they can significantly outperform the competitor and capture its unique audience. This is their way.
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