San Francisco based social networking site Hi5 has raised $20 million in a new round of funding led by Mohr Davidow Ventures.
Hi5 doesn’t get a lot of coverage (we last covered it in January), however whilst Facebook has been getting all the press, Hi5 has become a global success story.
According to Alexa, Hi5 is now ranked as the 11th most popular site online above Facebook at 13th. If you’ve never heard of the site though, there is a reason; most of Hi5’s traffic doesn’t come from the United States. Hi5 is the No. 1 ranking site online in Portugal, Ecuador, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala, and ranks at No 2 in Jamaica, Honduras and The Dominican Republic. 16.2% of visitors to Hi5 come from Peru and 7.7% from Portugal, by comparison visitors to Hi5 from the Unites States make up only 2% of the sites traffic.
As of December 2006, Hi5 claimed to have 50 million registered users.
(via Gigaom)
Well I feel like a tool. When saw the headline I thought, “How do these hack startups fool VC into handing over 20 Million? This bubble’s going to burst again.” Then I read the story.
Hi5 (and other networks) have definitely gotten lost in all the noise about Facebook recently – their success is a good example of how big a market social networking really is. We may not hear a lot about some of them, but they still do well internationally – just take Orkut in South America and Friendster in Asia.
But I have heard Hi5 is getting really “spammy” lately, which is why a few of my friends stopped using it. “Spam friends” are probably going to become more and more of an issue as social networks grow
With all the attention Facebook is getting a spotlight on this type of community could easily been predicted, next time I’ll be watching anything associated with new stars in the web looking for those special surprises. I never even heard of Hi5!
If FaceBook loses its upcoming court battle, Hi5 will have an opportunity to gain significant U.S. readership.
Three of Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s former Harvard buddies are alleging that Zuckerberg stole the idea, source code and the business plan for Facebook in 2003 while working as a programmer for them. The suit alleges copyright infringement, stealing trade secrets, fraud and breach of contract.
On Wednesday, the claimants will be asking a federal judge to give them control of Facebook and its assets, as well as grant them damages. If this happens…and mind you I say if, Hi5 will be giving Hi5’s.
Hi5 has always been powerful in spanish speaking countries for some reason. It has always tried to keep up with competition and it does a good job at it too. If one fals or slips, Hi5 might rise.
Duncan – I am hoping you can get more details on this deal. I believe this is their first institutional round. Also, they sustain the same traffic as Facebook with only 40 people. Wow!
Though, they seem to have lost their lead in their original market, India, to Orkut. Havent really used them much as I am definitely a Facebook addict but my Spanish friends are hooked on hi5.
Neal
I’ve been looking for it, hopefully we can get some more details. Certainly it’s the first major funding announcement I could find, but having said that they must have been operating on something so far.
Thank you for the tip on where to try to meet the Spanish-speaking femininas. God bless you Duncan Riley– you were even were able to camouflage it as news.
Congratulations on your growth Hi5!
If Mukund is on your team, you must be headed for global success . . .
Keep up the good work. I’m going to get my cousins in Mexico and Japan to start using Hi5!
Another cheezy social network. Is the whole net about attracting the most users for advertising? Really..it’s getting old.
I live in South Africa and Facebook is taking this country by storm. According to Alexa it is the second most popular site in the country at the moment.
In Indonesia it’s still Friendster, Friendster, and Friendster.
I get a Hi5 invitation now and then though. Reminds me of the spammy way that sms.ac gained a lot of members.
In some ways, this reminds me of when Photobucket’s traffic started really getting noticed after all the tech bloggers had been so focused on Flickr. There’s another similar example that wowed me awhile ago – I love stories like this.
yeah, Hi5 is very famouse in India too.
Ah the Global Web! We often forget to look past the companies right here in Silicon Valley.
Any clues on if the company is profitable, or when it will happen?
There’s a list of many other social networks (in this case white label) that VCs can look at:
http://www.web-...king-platforms/
I live in Portugal and Hi5 is indeed very big here.
Can somebody please indicate how is it possible to get in touch with Hi5 business development team ?
@16 – Hi5’s Corporate site is at http://www.hi5networks.com/ or try sales@hi5.com.
@Jeremiah, quit spamming that same crap on multiple posts.
Whenever someone says “is taking the country by storm” that means that some other social network will do it later and replace the incumbent. There is very little staying power to social networks. People may not delete their accounts, but usage can certainly drop off. Everyone who used to be a huge Facebook user back when it was just an Ivy League thing is cutting back on their usage.
Hi5 is a good site for Spanish people.
How about some credibility in reporting. Citing Alexa?hi5 and tagged.com are #28 and #29 according to comScore. Nowhere near the top. Wordpress.com has more visitors for Pete’s sake.
Sorry, it’s over. Time to cash out.
One side social networking is growing drastically and other side one guy blogs on the mails he receives. He calls his blog as “Mails I Read” http://www.mailsiread.com . People come up with simple idea and people like it.
Sweet deal for Hi5. I would consider joining Hi5 just to network from others around the world.
Well, I’m in in Portugal and hi5 is really huge over here. But the quality of the site is very low, I think facebook is too hyped, but it does have some nice web2.0 apps.
Well, I’m in in Ecuador and hi5 is really huge over here. But the quality of the site is very low, I think facebook is too hyped, but it does have some very nice website
mygoodebook.com is a new social networking site that has all the standard features (blogs, photos, etc.), with one unique feature – you can upload and share files (Word, Powerpoint, etc.)
funny, http://www.hyves.net is a straight copy of hi5.com in the netherlands and allready hollands 2nd biggest site after google….
I wonder if the hi5 people would like that if they find out…
pless i want og open
Don’t join go elsewhere
Hi 5 started out ok but it seemed they just grew to fast. This site has a lot of applications(games, puzzles, music and etc) and most of them DO NOT work for very long. They may be up and running for a couple of days and then oops they crashed again. The site used to be fun now it is getting just boring.
hola todos mis amigos y amigas
hi i am aj i will think about it
hi duncan riley nice job doing hi5 great work men
Have any one heard about frompo.com? This site is vey useful and exciting network.
H3Y PEOPLE JUST CHILLIN IN HI5 B3ST TH!NG 3V@
Interesante, quiero tener muchos amigos en mi hi5, agreguenme : paka_jhb_x100pre[arroba]hotmail.com
Gracias y dejen comentarios hi5
hola prosti
hola memo tengo ganas de q me la mames
y hector tmbn