Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry

Radio One Creates Largest Online African-American Community

PR WEB -- Aug 4 -- Interactive One, LLC the new digital division of Radio One, Inc., the largest African-American multimedia company, launches three new content-driven websites: NewsOne, TheUrbanDaily and HelloBeautiful. The three sites join BlackPlanet, the premiere social networking site for African-Americans, making it the largest online media entity for African-Americans reaching more than 6 million unique visitors monthly.  NewsOne.com provides up to the minute, comprehensive coverage of newsworthy events. UrbanDaily covers entertainment news.  HelloBeautiful is targeted at African-American women. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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Radio One Buys Community Connect

WASHINGTON POST -- Apr 11 -- Radio One, the Lanham-based owner of stations primarily serving black listeners, acquired Community Connect for $38m.  Community Connect operates social networks including BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com and AsianAve.com. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

 Mark Brooks: I'm stunned that it went for such a low price. Last time I visited Community Connect they had 100+ people in their swank NY offices, had just partnered with Monster.com, and were working on a new dating platform on which they planned to launch many more niche dating sites. They launched their new platform, but I've not seen the new spectrum of sites quite yet. BlackPlanet is the black segment leader, see Compete graph. 

BlackPlanet A Hit Among Social Networks

MEDIA POST -- Jan 21 -- African-American social networking site BlackPlanet.com has been named fourth-largest social networking site in 2007, according to research firm Hitwise. With over 17 million members, BlackPlanet.com came just behind MySpace and Facebook. BlackPlanet.com retained 89% of traffic from the previous month, showing that members who use the site return on a regular basis. FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

Soldiers Lose MySpace, YouTube Privileges

TECH NEWS WORLD -- May 14 -- Citing security and bandwidth concerns, the military has blocked its computers from accessing many popular social networking Web sites. Military personnel are still allowed to access the sites; they just won't be able to log on using the government's network. However, for many stationed overseas, that's the only network they have access to. The directive bars Defense Department computers from accessing MySpace.com, YouTube.com, Metacafe, iFilm, StupidVideos, FileCabi, BlackPlanet, Hi5, Pandora, MTV.com, 1.fm, Live365 and Photobucket. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH NEWS WORLD

3 Uses Intercasting for Social Network Mobile Access

3G NEWSROOM -- Feb 22 -- 3 UK partners with with social networking gateway provider Intercasting to allow users simple access to access social networking sites including LiveJournal, Xanga, Vox and BlackPlanet. FULL ARTICLE @ 3GNEWSROOM

Mark Brooks: I have a completely different experience accessing the net from a Sidekick vs Blackberry vs LG Chocolate. I'm looking forward to the iPhone introduction. Hopefully they will get it right.