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HERALDSUN -- Dec 31 -- About two million Australians are signed up to Facebook and three million to MySpace. More than 42 % of Australian children have Facebook and MySpace accounts, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority. The media also rapidly learned to use social networks to communicate and show the human side of events. FULL ARTICLE @ HERALD SUN
VENTURE BEAT -- Dec 30 -- Going.com is all about "what's happening?" and "who's going?" in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Miami will be added shortly. Events range from band tours to nightlife, restaurant openings, rock climbing, marathon training and lots in between. According to comScore, the website had 424,000 unique visitors in November. Going.com has also expanded into ticket sales. Other players include Zvents, Eventful, Upcoming.org and Down2Night. MingleNow, Judysbook and Attendio have fallen away. FULL ARTICLE @ WRAL
MARKETING PILGRIM -- Dec 30 -- Travel search engine Kayak.com acquired SideStep.com for $196 million. Both sites are search engines to help travelers find the best prices on airfare, hotels, and car rentals. They do plan to keep both sites separate in style and branding but combine some of their technology. Kayak has some plugins and widgets while SideStep has a review site and social network for travelers. Kayak reached about $50 million in revenue this year, while SideStep is at about $35 million. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING PILGRIM
KOAM TV -- Dec 28 -- Personalized lending has taken off as the phenomenon of microfinance has grown in scope and stature. With microfinance, a funding organization teams up with local partners to capitalize tiny businesses, often with just a few or no employees. For Ms. Reese, an IBM engineer, the revenue stream from loans she's made at 0% interest through Kiva isn't as important as what the payments represent. They mean her hand-picked business partners -- a barber in Uganda, a fish saleswoman in Vietnam, a school principal in Kenya. In February, Prosper debuted with a claim to be America's "first people-to-people lending marketplace." In May, LendingClub launched a direct lending site that uses a social-networking database to link lenders with suitable borrowers on the basis of a lender's preferences and risk tolerance. Zopa is a for-profit firm that's been pairing lenders with borrowers in Britain since 2005 and launched its service in the United States earlier this month. Virgin Money in October acquired CircleLending, a six-year-old manager of loans among friends and families. It plans to add more types of loans next year. FULL ARTICLE @ KOAM TV
CHINA DAILY -- Dec 27 -- Google's freshly released "Zeitgeist 2007" reveals that 7 of the 10 hottest topics involved social networking. The Top Ten list includes Badoo, Hi5, and Facebook. Video-sharing websites YouTube and Dailymotion are on the list, along with the Club Penguin. Second Life is the final social network in the Zeitgeist Top Ten. Industry statistics show Facebook membership more than doubled in the past year to about 55 million, MySpace grew 30% to top 110 million. One in every four US residents uses MySpace, while in Britain it is as common to have a profile page on the website as it is to own a dog. FULL ARTICLE @ CHINA DAILY
RED HERRING -- Dec 26 -- Fuser, the email aggregator service, launched a Facebook application that allows users to view their MySpace messages, comments, and bulletins all from within their Facebook page. Although MySpace and Facebook are two unique platforms, a lot of people have a profile on MySpace and Facebook as well. About 20% of Facebook visitors navigated to MySpace after visiting Facebook in October, according to Hitwise, up from 10 % a year ago. FULL ARTICLE @ RED HERRING
COLUMBIA NEWS SERVICE -- Dec 26 -- Kupple.com is geared to couples looking to befriend other couples. Its competitors are Couplesworldwide.com and Couplets.com. The three sites, which started in 2006, cater to couples of all kinds, from teenagers to retirees, straight and gay, religious and secular. They are about building friendships, not helping couples who are interested in swinging. Despite the large number of couples in the United States, some experts doubt whether the sites will catch on. "I see, for couples, this being more of a fad because couples are even more limited in their interactions," says James Houran (former Chief Psychology Officer at TRUE.com). FULL ARTICLE @ THE STAR
AFP -- Dec 26 -- aSmallWorld.net is an exclusive social networking website for the wealthy and glamorous. To join, user need to be invited by a trusted member. aSmallWorld was created in 2004 and has 265,000 members. aSmallWorld groups also exist on Facebook, suggesting exclusiveness is a matter of interpretation. FULL ARTICLE @ AFP
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK -- Dec 26 -- Travellers' logs and "microblogging" are tipped to be the online hits of 2008. Dopplr.com is a website for frequent travellers. Users type in their travel schedules and link to their friends and colleagues. It allows them to keep track of where they are and enables them to meet up in unexpected places. Another site expected to boom next year is Twitter.com, which lets users text-message large groups of people simultaneously for free. The text is limited to a few sentences, leading Twitter's creators to call it "microblogging". A third site tipped for success is Seesmic.com, a serious version of YouTube focused on "conversation" between individuals posting video diaries. FULL ARTICLE @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
E FLUX MEDIA -- Dec 25 -- HarperCollins partners with MySpace to launch a teen web site HarperTeen. The Web site features author blogs and book news, forums and message boards, contests and online polls. HarperTeen authors that are already featured on the web site include "Wicked Lovely" from Melissa Marr, "The Luxe" from Anna Godbersen, as well as Jenna Bush, George W. Bush's daughter, whose "Ana's Story" was published by HarperCollins in September. FULL ARTICLE @ E FLUX MEDIA
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