KickApps, a white label social networking software service, launched publicly today. Think of it as a way for any web site to add functionality similar to MySpace or YouTube.
After looking at the way that the system works, I can say that KickApps looks strong on a technology level. While major media companies seem excited these days about buying social networking sites, this is a way they can quickly leverage that type of technology without the monster price tags. Will users go for it? That depends on whether the huge market share of MySpace is due to a lack of options or it’s there because people only want to belong to one social network online.
KickApps was founded by Eric Alterman, a serial entrepreneur who has in the past specialized on commercializing technology licensed from the military. KickApps is the end result of a vision Alterman has had for years, he told me, only recently becoming viable with the increased visibility of social networking and media sharing technologies.
The company announced $6 million in series A funding from Spark Capital and Prism Venture Partners last month. There are two service levels available, free and white label subscriptions will be accompanied by advertising that KickApps will take some or all of the revenue from.
The basic idea behind this service is relatively simple but the end result is a highly customizable social networking site for admins and a relatively compelling experience for users. Fields available for users to populate are customized by the KickApps customer, as well as a wide variety of permission options, ten nice widgets available for posting media off-site and detailed data reports on traffic and use.
Companies employing KickApps will like the content moderation tools and ability to drive traffic back to their own websites. Users will likely appreciate the familiarity with the media sharing methods. Setting up an account is free, so readers can check out the system for themselves as well.
I asked about Open ID and the company told me only that multiple implementations by a single white lable customer would support porting of user identity. That’s unsurprising but dissapointing, as it’s questionable how many niche social networking sites users will sign up for before becoming exhausted.
It should a value-added service for publishers and help them retain visitors. The question is how KickApps will distribute and get publishers using it.
Why is it that the only post Michael wrote in the past few days was about the porno browser:)
Is any site using this anywhere so we can see it in action?
This reminds me a lot of a site called Sparta (http://www.spar...alnetworks.com/). Might be a good play for micro networks around long tail interests. I don’t see a major player with an established audience opting for something this. Not without extensive customization.
What does it run on? I couldn’t find any info on their site.
I could be jumping to conclusions… but this looks like a good idea hindered by a couple serious road blocks, most of which coming from the stereo instruction like manual on installation. Social Networks are the new buzz … we know this, but those that really have a buzz didn’t get there by making users jump through hoops.
Will be interesting to see which approach makes brands AND customers happiest. I love the idea though
This is a nice way to capitalize on the short term demand, but given the priority on covergence and interoperability amongst service providers, I agree with the author that this is rather narrow-sighted when offered to the masses. Personally, there’s no way I would consider maintaining more than one or two engaging social networking identities, it’s too much work. You lose the history of your identity when changing providers (for now atleast). As tolerance fades and feature demands grow, I’m expecting a unified profile to surface, as mentioned. This offering would, however, have potential in a controlled corporate environment, say, with an intranet or organic collaboration space, versus a consumer based tool where there’s hesitation to make the leap into a new profile. You won’t have such a claim if its part of your job.
I love this if it works. I agree with cuneyt though.
Something interesting to consider: http://peopleaggregator.com/
Nothing too groundbreaking but I’ll give it a try. It reminds me of ning.com
I’m using CommonGate’s beta: http://commongate.com/
Del.icio.us + Flickr + Digg + MySpace = Custom Social Networks
Many folks would prefer to participate in a focused online community rather than the mass aggregators like MySpace and YouTube. Businesses that want to add UGC and social networking to support their community of interest also want assistance with the business and revenue models. I suggest they check out the media services ASP from http://www.realitydigital.com .
Glad to see folks exploring the connection of community and user-generated content. Dabble is doing good work in this area as well, and VideoBomb has a Digg centric approach. We’re big fans of aggregating collective experience, and empowering communities to both make and organize media for peers. Take a look at Magnify.net – we think the web 2.0 future of video is to integrate with lots of partners (sources, tools, sites) and help community provide context…
This does feel a lot like ning, which is a great place to test out your ideas. Crowd Factory takes a different approach – to bring social media to brands on their own terms, completely customizable, extensible, and scalable.
Have a look:
http://www.crowdfactory.com
Interesting to see some of the next generation apps building from the early social networks … flickr, friendster, etc. As choice expands, people will be more interested in their own communities of interest … not generic ones without cohesion. Some good stuff happending … check out Filemoible which offers the ability to enable organizations to enable online social networking for existing communities … community in a box.
Towards this end, you should really check out vSocial’s vConnect Service:
http://www.vsoc...l.com/vconnect/
Relative to the above, the company already has a popular consumer-oriented community portion that users can see-touch-feel to validate the viralness and scaleability of the architecture (and upsell themselves to paying customers), it already has white label customers that validate the model and is addressing the video content lifecycle in a manner that addresses prosumers, B-to-little-B and B-to-big-B.
The model is heavily inspired by Craigslist, which engaged consumers looking for apartments and events, who ultimately put their business hats on and used it for paid career listings.
Regards,
Mark
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Visit the network garden: http://www.then...tworkgarden.com
my blog on active investing, digital media and daily nuggets of interest
We will have to see how this approach works. It would be nice to see some directional communities being formed, communities that are focused on a topic rather than focusing on an entire sector. However, mypace was founded to give the unsigned artists an outlet and we all know what it looks like today (and its subsequent price tag!).
White Labeling is a nice spin if you have already developed an app or a piece of one at least.
It looks like this “long tail” niche approach to social networking could be what social networking has been missing. I’m a long-time forum poster and moderator at http://www.newbeetle.org, and while it isn’t a huge site, it has become a fairly tight community built around a common thread. This is something that mainstream social networking sites like Myspace lack. I think users could make more meaningful contacts using many different niche social networking sites than one popular site.
Seems like a good idea. Personally, I wold rather have a site like Ning do this or if they are going to have these widgets, they should make games too. I think that would work better.
Love the idea, hopefully this will work with http://www.friendsnest.com
another hot social network site i found personally better than myspace
The KickApps platform suites of hosted web services to surface powerful web tools that allow publishers of all skill levels the ability to access the entire platform on a self-serve basis. The success and market acceptance of KickApps 2.x proved that these fundamental approaches are exactly what web publishers need.
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Tanyaa
Social Bookmarking
What about ROI analysis of a communities usingsocial network software? Harvest Reporting Server is the only on I know of that can help track user conversations and user metrics.
Im looking to buy a SN software, what do others think, I’ve also been looking at a new one called SNScripter. Anyone tried the demo for this yet? I was quite impressed with it to be honest. Try it at snscripter.com.
Thanks
http://www.snscripter.com/
Try our application in social networking software development , Ndot social framework.
Thanks for post. It’s really imformative stuff.
I really like to read.Hope to learn a lot and have a nice experience here! my best regards guys!
may be me try
rockymeet
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seo jaipur–seo jaipur