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

What They Know

WSJ - Oct 24 - A company called RapLeaf is building databases on people by tapping voter-registration files, shopping histories, social-networking activities and real estate records. RapLeaf ties people's email address to a profile about them. It uses that profile to target ads. However RapLeaf says it never discloses people's names to clients for online advertising. It has 1 billion e-mail addresses in its database and segments people into ~400 categories. Co-founded in 2006 by Mr. Hoffman, RapLeaf began as an online service letting people rate each other based on their business transactions. The company raised $1M in funding from investors including PayPal co-founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel. The company closed a $15M fund-raising round this month. FULL ARTICLE @ WSJ

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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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CrunchBase Information

Rapleaf

MySpace

Facebook

Bebo

hi5

LinkedIn

PerfSpot

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RapLeaf: More Men Are Uber Connectors

BIZ REPORT -- May 5 -- When it comes to social networking, women are far more likely to be at it than men according to recent findings published by Rapleaf. The fastest growing demographic on social networks are moms between 35 and 45 years old. Women have slightly less friends in their networks yet spend more time on them. The study finds that men were the dominant gender on LinkedIn. FULL ARTICLE @ BIZ REPORT

Mark Brooks: Rapleaf is great for checking up on what social networks friends and business acquaintances are on...and potential new hires. 

62% Of Facebook Users Also On MySpace, 22% On Hi5

READ/WRITE WEB -- Nov 12 -- Rapleaf, an online reputation company, released detailed stats about users of Facebook and 5 other members of Google's "OpenSocial" platform including, MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster, Plaxo and Hi5. The stats include: 52% of Facebook users are 18-25, whereas 40% of OpenSocial users are in that group. Of all Facebook users, 62% are also on MySpace, 22% are on Hi5, 10% are on Plaxo, 9% are on Friendster and 5% are on LinkedIn. 63% of Facebook users are female, compared with 61% of OpenSocial users. FULL ARTICLE @ READ/WRITE WEB

See What SNS Your Friends Are On

C NET NEWS -- Sep 4 -- Following recent press backlash, Rapleaf has amended its privacy policy to disclose its relationship with TrustFuse, a business that sells personally identifiable data obtained from various social networks and sites; redirected the TrustFuse website to Rapleaf; and instituted an opt-out. Experts still believe, though, the company may be breaching social network privacy policies. FULL ARTICLE @ C NET NEWS

Mark Brooks: Go to Rapleaf.com and type in your, or a friends email address and check out the results.  Very cool? Or very concerning, depending on how you like your privacy being violated. You can also try Upscoop.com to check up on all your friends in your you email account on Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail or Gmail, if you're crazy enough to want to enter your username and password.

Rapleaf: Where Even Your Amazon Wish List Is On Display

C NET NEWS -- Aug 31 -- With just an email address, people search engine Rapleaf can provide that person's social networking and e-commerce affiliations. Although not illegal, Rapleaf's practice of coalescing personally-identifiable data (like names, email addresses, and habits) and its close nature with sister site, TrustFuse (which sells consumer data to marketers), has some clamoring for privacy standards. FULL ARTICLE@ C NET NEWS