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May 14, 2007

Clique This: ChosenVIP

Duncan Riley

11 comments »

chosenvip.pngHouston based ChosenVIP is an online community that encompasses what many would consider to be the worst thing about high school, social cliques.

The company pitches itself as giving “the average person” the opportunity to become an “e-celebrity.” Members create their own cliques from friends using the site. Through a ratings system users distinguish themselves from others and earn “VIP status”. Non-VIPs earn status from current VIP members. VIP members decide who will join them as VIPs and who will not.

Sounds like High School? it gets worse.

When VIP Status is obtained, users can work to become the top rated member on the site, head cheerleader gal or jock guy. VIP members receive extra privileges, VIP only chat and forum access, deciding who joins the VIP clique, the ability to rate other VIP members and eligibility to win contests and prizes.

Ratings work on periods with rankings reset at the end of each, giving non-VIP’s some hope, however VIP members remain VIP members and do not have to start again. In an interesting twist, the top male and female VIP’s for each period get a free ChosenVIP party in their hometown, local club or nearby venue, in the winners name.

It’s an innovative business model that seeks to tap the primeval lust of humans to be at the top of the heap. It’s not for everyone, but it will have appeal to those still in high school or the kind of people who look back longingly on those days through rose colored glasses as the best in their lives.

chosenvip1.png

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 3:32 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. Mick Liubinskas

    May 14th, 2007 at 3:49 am

    /shaking of head

    I want to ignore this so that it goes away.

    I’m sure some elite, member only networks will be one way of dealing with the issue of ‘big network/low value’ which is growing now, but this just sucks.

    Hot or Not is super cool. Rate everyone. Low value, but so simple and fun.

    Next…

  2. alex

    May 14th, 2007 at 3:49 am

    An innovative business model? I can’t seem to find any mention of a business model…

  3. Duncan Riley

    May 14th, 2007 at 3:56 am

    Maybe innovative was the wrong word, but it’s certainly different :-)

  4. robert

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:24 am

    hey Duncan,

    you need to fix the link to the site so that we can access it from our feed readers.

    thanks.

  5. anonymouse

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:29 am

    wow, another thoroughly generic social networking site with a lame “twist”, and as an added bonus it has no visual appeal either! my valuation: $80m. google, buy it now if you want a bargain, otherwise get ready to add another digit in 6 months!

  6. Jay

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:46 am

    Hmmm, looks like crap.

  7. pallet jack

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:50 am

    Yeah looks like poo -

    - being on top of the “Online Social” heep …

    - is worthless

  8. Mikey

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:55 am

    I don’t think it’ll work. Popularity hierarchies seem to be formed by masses, not invented by a few. If the desire to be popular isn’t already there, then why bother going.

    Actually, I could see technorati having its own popularity system, based on how many bloggers link to an author’s site.

    As for money….I don’t see any pot of gold at the end of this popularity content.

    I know that I won’t be dreaming of joining this new online clique.

  9. Metagg

    May 14th, 2007 at 7:45 am

    My old roommate used to talk about how bad he hated gym class in Jr. High School because he was always picked last. I see this as a horrible digital equivalent of getting picked last in gym class…-Metagg

  10. patricia

    May 14th, 2007 at 8:22 am

    I think it’s a little late to bring a stand alone social network to market. Even with a quirky concept and features to keep people sticky, I believe it’s going to be a long climb for a lot of these start ups now, its harder than you think to make money, and the market is so full of options,- even if every site is slightly different. There’s only so many networks people are going to be part of. Also, interactivity is changing too - people cut their teeth on interactivity as offered on myspace, but a lot of users are engaging in other ways now - posting to blogs, moving to faster paced message boards, twitter, etc.

    Just my .2

  11. Zed A. Shaw

    May 14th, 2007 at 11:35 am

    Man I need to work harder on Utu and get it out there before people really screw up invite only networks for good.

    –
    http://savingtheinternetwithhate.com/

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