Social Networking Watch

Orange Opens Up Mobile Social Net Service

GUARDIAN.CO.UK -- July 9 -- Orange has launched a major push for mobile social networking in the UK today, introducing a service which aggregates users' accounts across the major social networks. Launched as a trial in France last month under the name MySocialPlace, Orange has now partnered with the biggest social networks - Facebook, MySpace and Bebo - to introduce the service in the UK under the Orange World branded website. UK users can also access the chat service Flirtomatic and the photo-sharing site Pikeo, while Orange customers in France can use the Skyrock community, DailyMotion video site and dating service Meetic. Data from Nielsen Mobile in May showed that 44% of UK mobile phone users have registered with a social networks, and estimated that 1.7% of users, or 812,000 people, had accessed those services from their mobile. Facebook had been accessed by 9% of all mobile web users, MySpace by 3.4% and Bebo by 2.6%. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

See all posts on Bebo
See all posts on Facebook
See all posts on MySpace
See all posts on DailyMotion
See all posts on Skyrock

This post appears also on OnlinePersonalsWatch

CrunchBase Information

Orange

Bebo

Facebook

MySpace

DailyMotion

Meetic

Information provided by CrunchBase

DailyMotion Offers HD Embeds

MASHABLE -- Feb 18 -- DailyMotion will be now making available High Definition resolution content. The site has, for around a year and a half, offered "High-Quality" video encoding, which offers a higher bitrate, less lossy format for video. So far, the only other major sites currently offering HD quality video are Vimeo and Hulu. YouTube has announced future plans for HD, but so far hasn't announced a release date for those features. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

Online Social Networking New Lifestyle

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

Is French YouTube Rival Losing Its Je Ne Sais Quoi?

PC WORLD -- Aug 31 -- Paris-based video sharing site Dailymotion raised an additional $34 million in funding on Friday. The site still reaches more viewers in France than YouTube, but has a lead that's narrowing since YouTube launched local versions in Europe in June. For the European market, YouTube had 54.7 million unique visitors in February and 72.2 million in July. Dailymotion had 11.8 million in February, 16.3 million in May, and then 14.7 million in July. FULL ARTICLE @ PC WORLD

Web Sites Without Rules

NY TIMES -- Jan 1 -- YouTube and MySpace are cracking down on piracy and depictions of nudity and violence. So where do the young thrill-seekers go? Stickam.com is building a business by going where others fear to tread: into the realm of unfiltered live broadcasts from Web cameras. Dailymotion had 1.3 million visitors in November (ComScore Media Metrix). LiveLeak is based in London and is a source for reality-based fare. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

Mark Brooks: See the fruitcake woman or the Iraqi prime ministers reaction to Saddam's sentence.