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

hi5 Mobile Launches Internationally

MASHABLE -- Aug 26 -- hi5 mobile has arrived with 26 different languages. Users can update their status, share photos, and add new friends, to name a few features. As hi5 already supports OpenSocial, and has just announced its added support for Widgetbox's OpenSocial applications, it's clear that hi5 is ready to offer more options to both its developer community and user base at large. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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hi5 Opens To Widgetbox Apps

MASHABLE -- Aug 25 -- Widgetbox has teamed up with hi5 to allow access to its App Gallery for an integrated solution that allows apps built on Widgetbox to act as stand-alone applications within the hi5 network. According to hi5, over 2m Widgetbox widgets have been added to hi5 from its existing support, leading to more than 65,000 subscriptions to widgets. Now, any developers that would like to create an application for hi5 now have the option of creating an OpenSocial application that's distributed on Widgetbox and through hi5 and all the other of the other social networks that have launched OpenSocial support. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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OpenSocial Reaches 350 Million Users

TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 21 -- And it will soon reach 500m as four more social networks and services prepare to launch by the end of of September. There are about 4,500 different apps so far, which have been installed more than 150 million times. For Hi5 about 50% of members use an OpenSocial app at least once a day. There are 1,800 OpenSocial apps on hi5 alone, which have been installed 66 million times, so that may be representative of OpenSocial usage in general. In contrast, Facebook, which is open-sourcing its own platform for developers, has nearly 37,000 apps, which have been installed 715 million times. RockYou's apps alone have been installed 124 million times on Facebook. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Hi5: Fast Growing SN

VENTURE BEAT -- Aug 13 -- Hi5 has had a growth spurt over the first half of this year, growing from 31m to 56m monthly active users over the first six months of the year. Hi5 says its growth can be attributed to its long-time focus on markets outside of the U.S. It has offered customized versions of the site in Spanish and other languages for years, currently available in 27 total. FULL ARTICLE @ VENTURE BEAT

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Facebook Is Also The Fastest Growing SN

TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 12 -- Even though Facebook is now the largest social network in the world,—with 132m unique visitors in June—it is also still the fastest growing. According to figures compiled by comScore, Facebook's visitor growth is up 153% on an annual basis. This compares to anemic 3% growth for MySpace. Other social networks showing strong global growth include Hi5 (100 %) and Friendster (50%), Orkut and Bebo fall in at 41% and 32% growth, respectively. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Women Outnumber Men On Most Social Networks

READ WRITE WEB -- July 29 -- Online reputation company Rapleaf has released a new study of 49 million people, revealing gender and age data about social network users. On most of the main social networks - including MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5 - women outnumber men by a considerable amount. On Facebook, the 18-24 age group is largest, with 1,685,029 women in that age group compared to 977,753 men. In MySpace, the same age group dominates, with 7,091,214 women and 5,226,788 men. The only social networks studied that didn't have more women than men in the 18-24 year old group were LinkedIn and Perfspot. FULL ARTICLE @ READ WRITE WEB

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hi5 Acquires PixVerse

MASHABLE -- June 30 -- Social network hi5 has just announced its acquisition of application creator PixVerse for an undisclosed amount. PixVerse, the Flash-based virtual world chat platform, has branched out into social networking applications such as Pix Chat and Pix Wall, both of which have gained some traction on hi5's social network platform, among other places across the Web. Founded last year, PixVerse was funded by Venrock for an undisclosed amount. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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EMI Music Sues Hi5, VideoEgg And Ten Others

TECH CRUNCH -- June 27 -- EMI, which is looking less like a music label and more like a lawsuit label, is at it again. They've  filed a lawsuit alleging "massive and blatant" copyright infringement by Hi5, VideoEgg and ten John Doe defendants to be named later. The core of the suit is over copyrighted EMI content that appears on Hi5, particularly music videos. In the recent past, they've sued or threatened to sue AllofMP3, YouTube, Apple, MP3Tunes, XM Radio, Infospace and even The Beatles. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Facebook Matches MySpace's Data Portability Program

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY -- May 12 -- Close on the heels of MySpace allowing users to share their public profile information, rival Facebook plans to follow suit with its own data portability program. Facebook Connect, a new service, will let members of the social networking site link their identities including basic profile information, photos, friends, groups and events, as well as privacy settings, to any site. Among similar efforts, Microsoft in March announced plans to let users of its Windows Live platform share their contact lists with five of the top social networks: Facebook, Bebo, LinkedIn, Tagged and Hi5. Yahoo maintains a separate data portability arrangement with LinkedIn. FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST PUBLICATIONS

Frengo On MySpace, Facebook, hi5, Orkut And Bebo

BUSINESS WIRE -- May 6 -- Frengo, the provider of social mobile services, announced the availability of a suite of applications that run on top of and across Facebook, MySpace, hi5, Orkut and Bebo. Frengo focuses on social applications that are fun, engaging, entertaining and available anytime and anywhere – from a Web enabled PC or mobile phone. FULL ARTICLE @ THE EARTH TIMES

Hi5 A Victim Of Their Own Success

MASHABLE -- Apr 29 -- In the last month, third-party developers have launched well over 400 OpenSocial apps on hi5's network. These apps have continued to have faster adoption rates than on other social networks, with the hi5 Platform averaging around a million application installs on a daily basis. Around half of hi5's 80m members engaged with three or more installed apps. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

Hi5's Dev Platform Is Rip-Roaring Along

MASHABLE -- Apr 24 -- As of the first week of April (one week into the existence of the platform), the developer platform was fully deployed, 100% OpenSocial compatible, and with over 150 apps developed and deployed. The number of installs on these applications, in many cases, far exceeded the number of installs on the top MySpace applications. This rapid development and rapid adoption is largely due to the multi-national userbase of Hi5. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

hi5 Launches Platform

MASHABLE -- Mar 31 -- Hi5 launched a developer platform with support for OpenSocial. It is the first OpenSocial supporting network to offer a messaging API. According to hi5, more than 7,700 developers have registered to build applications on the site. Additionally, Hi5 has become a founding member of the OpenSocial Foundation, the non-profit organization announced last week between Google, Yahoo, and MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

Friendster Growing Fast

CNET NEWS -- Mar 31 -- According to latest ComScore data, Friendster is the 8th largest Web site on the planet and the 3rd largest social network in terms of traffic. In the last two months, Friendster moved from 12th place to 8th place, passing: Tencent (operator of QQ.com in China), Cyworld, NHN Corporation (operator of Naver, the top Korean Web portal) and Hi5. Over the last three months, Friendster grew a total of 8.7m uniques, or 31% -- more than any other social network. FULL ARTICLE @ C NET ASIA

Microsoft Partners With Five SNS In Data Portability Pact

READ WRITE WEB -- Mar 25 -- Microsoft partners with five social networks on data portability. Starting today, users on Facebook and Bebo will be able to add friends via their Windows Live address book. The functionality will be coming to Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn in the next few months. Microsoft is calling this a "two-way street" and has launched a new site, invite2messenger.net, where users can invite friends from those networks to chat on Live Messenger. FULL ARTICLE @ READ WRITE WEB

Using Social Networks For Hiring

EXPRESS COMPUTER ONLINE -- Mar 14 -- Social networks are a good tool to tap passive candidates who are not actively looking for a job. Today many job seekers and recruiters in India are making use of sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Orkut, Big Adda, Hi5, Brijj, Yaari, Fropper, Ryze, Xing. According to Rajaram Agarwal, MD of TalentAhead India, getting senior and experienced people is quite difficult. "Very few senior employees are using SN; it is mostly accessed by the younger generation." FULL ARTICLE @ EXPRESS COMPUTER ONLINE

Hi5 To Take OpenSocial Global

TECH CRUNCH -- Mar 13 -- hi5 is going to launch its developer platform based on OpenSocial on March 31. The big draw for developers will be to expand their reach globally. Hi5 is the third-largest social network in the world with 38m unique monthly visitors. It is especially strong in Mexico and Latin America, Portugal, and Thailand. As an incentive for Web developers to create apps for hi5, CEO Ramu Yalamanchi says: "For the first 100 apps, we are going to provide free hosting and translate them." FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Compete Delivers February '07 to '08 Social Stats

MASHABLE -- Mar 8 -- Compete has presented the top 20 social sites and their growth. MySpace, despite keeping its #1 spot, has actually diminished in visitor activity by 1%. Facebook's growth measured 77% since February '07. According to Compete, Bebo and Hi5 rose 3% and 1%, respectively. MyYearBook made its way to #4, with 284% growth in visitorship. Twitter and Ning rose a whopping 4,368% and 4,803%. The fastest-growing social site is Fubar. The so-called "first online bar" claims top percentage-based honors with 3,272,217% rise in visitors. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

Mark Brooks: Jangl is live on Fubar.  I wonder if that had anything to do with it.  (Full Disclosure: Jangl is a client of Courtland Brooks)