August 22, 2007

New Playboy Social Network Built On Ning

Michael Arrington

40 comments »

Well, this is a big win for build-your-own-social-network Ning, which just raised a massive round of funding. The new Playboy social network we covered earlier today is actually built on Ning, not self-built code or one of the many other white label social networking options available.

Once you actually sign up for the site it becomes clear it’s Ning, since their pervasive toolbar remains at the top of the site. Users actually use their Ning address to log in. You must have a .edu address to get an invitation, but you can then sign up using any Ning account.

Whether or not this network is successful, it’s great validation for Ning.

Sphere It

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Comments

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Satish

August 22nd, 2007 at 6:48 pm

Good win - congrats to Ning!
Jeff Vick

August 22nd, 2007 at 7:03 pm

ENOUGH with the f’ing crunchbase links Michael. I want to go to Ning, not your aboutus directory. This is your attempt to build inbounds but enough is enough. How many people go to CB on error.
Rob Walters

August 22nd, 2007 at 7:10 pm

Still a fan of KickApps.com over Ning. We have built a great golf community with it.

http://www.BunkerShot.com/community
Wayt

August 22nd, 2007 at 7:32 pm

Good win for Ning, but it’s hard to figure how Playboy is going to get critical mass here. Seems to me a much better strategy would be to build a Playboy “private club” app on top of Facebook Platform, where the social graph is already in place (especially .edu). Pity the poor old-line media companies, trying desperately to keep their heads above water, in the final throes of death. Playboy still has a great brand, at least for old farts like me (anybody over 25), but methinks even the iconic brand is fading fast. Pity. Sniffle.
The Buxr Widget

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:16 pm

Good for Ning, but I agree it’s a little sad for playboy. Flipping through the channels I saw the Playboy manse on TV, and even that seems to be losing it’s luster.

The real question here is who is doing the social networking here? Playboy readers who want to meet other Playboy readers.. Not sure.. I guess I don’t get it.
trainwack

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:18 pm

That’s too bad. Only richest oil country like Dubai… Internet access is strictly blocked.

Very smart move for Government, oil billionaires & crown prince. They don’t want to see families daughters expose or commit adultry sex or spread illegal prositution.

I don’t think PlayboyU will ever become the next google. LOL. nice try…
Andrew

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:21 pm

why lock yourself into ning? Doesn’t this make the site worthless.
Srinu

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:22 pm

Kickapps is much better.
http://us.socify.com - built on Kickapps platform.
lawrence

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:28 pm

sex is for superficial ditz bimbos and shallow males.

good for ning, i guess…but it’s playboy - why piggyback on some social net template…they should build their own, better one
Dominic

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:29 pm

I see this as a negative for Ning. Think about it !
startupflames.com

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:36 pm

that seems like a failure and a half.
Common Sense

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:41 pm

What if Kids say “Hey, look…. Mommy is cover!! Daddy who’s that guy?”

lol.
Jimmy Huen

August 22nd, 2007 at 8:49 pm

A brand like playboy building on the Ning platform immediately lose credibility. Hef with all his money can’t afford its own platform, or is this proof of Hef’s daughter (the CEO) being a social media novice?
Saumil

August 22nd, 2007 at 9:26 pm

KickApps’ API isn’t (as of right now) as comprehensive as Ning’s. They can expose some functionality through APIs but not nearly as much as Ning can. Also, Ning’s REST APIs are pretty strong and this is something where every private label social network (including Kickapps) falls short. This is clearly because Ning got themselves a head start in this space by starting two years ago and hiring some pretty sharp people along the way.
Saumil

August 22nd, 2007 at 9:27 pm

KickApps’ API isn’t (as of right now) as comprehensive as Ning’s. They can expose some functionality through APIs but not nearly as much as Ning can. Also, Ning’s REST APIs are pretty strong and this is something where every private label social network (including Kickapps) falls short. This is clearly because Ning got themselves a head start in this space by starting two years ago and hiring some pretty sharp people along the way.
David

August 22nd, 2007 at 9:27 pm

Playboy would have done better investing in creating a good Facebook app. Then again, I guess “my mom” and “old dudes” could join and find out what I’m doing…
Nik Cubrilovic

August 22nd, 2007 at 9:33 pm

Jimmy: why build yourself when Ning has both the technology and the network?

It probably took them days or weeks to setup on Ning as opposed to months of managing a software dev project (and with an end result that probably would have sucked)

I can’t imagine that any of the bunnies moonlight as web app ninja’s
Fabricio Zuardi

August 22nd, 2007 at 9:36 pm

@Andrew

Maybe because it is not a lock…

Speaking as a Ning user, developer and fan (not as the Ning crew member that I happen to also be, and not in Ning’s behalf whatsoever) I can tell you that Ning is a quite open and flexible platform to build a social web application on top of (in this particular case, a social network for the college market), the default social-network-code-base installation is pretty complete and the extensibility is huge (you have full control down to the application source code).

More important than that, the data of a network on Ning is not locked, to move all your contents and user data from the Ning platform to another solution is pretty easy in fact, even your own contributed custom code as well as the social network application code itself(which last time I checked was licensed under an open license) can be taken with you (the network owner) to a different home in case this become necessary in the future.

The way I see it, what motivates people and even companies to build their social networks (or any other web application for that matter) on top of Ning’s platform is the fact that: 1- the basic feature set is good, 2- the hosting service is reliable, 3- you can use your own ads or whatever other subscription or revenue model you have in mind (by purchasing a relatively cheap premium service)
DAMN

August 22nd, 2007 at 10:16 pm

DAMN!!!!

This Techcrunch board is full of sexual pervert.
Grow up, you jerky … And… And… Stop play yourself and Horny 2.0.
Alaska Miller

August 22nd, 2007 at 10:38 pm

@jimmy

Hi retard: company a has a service for sale, company b wants to launch something fast. company a and company b partner to do something. I can build a search routine, but why bother when I have google? I can milk a cow, but why bother when I can just go to safeway?
Alaska Miller

August 22nd, 2007 at 10:38 pm

I have a grotto full of barely 18 platinum blonde girls desperate to do anything to be famous, why bother coding?
Tradervic

August 22nd, 2007 at 10:41 pm

I must say this is a good win for Ning. For Playboy on the other hand though, they have the resources and time to build their own site. Lets see if this site feasts or famines.
Mark Hendrickson

August 22nd, 2007 at 10:55 pm

I agree with Nik that Playboy was wise not to try coding their own social network, but they could have picked a better company than Ning to do it for them.

Despite the extensive API Ning has developed, I have yet to see a Ning-hosted site that looks convincingly white labeled, and I knew immediately when signing into Playboy’s social network that it was built on Ning. Playboy would have done better to have hired a company to provide a more made-to-order solution for them. The final product could have been much more exciting.
Ross Parker

August 23rd, 2007 at 1:24 am

Does anyone have a Greasemonkey script that takes links to CrunchBase and skips to the site we want to see when clicking a link? I’d be interested.
Eduard

August 23rd, 2007 at 2:39 am

Ross, you read my mind

http://e.duard.cn/stopcrunchbase.php
Benjamin G

August 23rd, 2007 at 2:48 am

looks like crap; very bad move from pb, can’t understand why they’d use ning.

nothing short of stupid
danny

August 23rd, 2007 at 3:15 am

Any knows how they went about removing the “Ning ID” ?
Connnector

August 23rd, 2007 at 5:21 am

Users joining the playboy site don’t care if it’s Ning, Nang, API or Kickme. Honestly they don’t care. The grand majority of users will not be techies so the technical details will be secondary. What’s important to users in general, not just Playboy users, is that the application is useful, solves an immediate need and provides some value to their lives.

Focusing on the technical implementation misses the point completely.
Jimmy Huen

August 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 am

@Nik - Using Ning is a “half-assed” attempt in throwing up just another vanilla SN site among the gazillion other Ning sites. If Playboy is serious about building their network out, you are trying to tell me they can’t afford to hire a firm to built their own semi-customized platform in a few weeks? Gimme a break.

Even if they go the white label route, it would still make a lot more sense to have one of the platforms to specially customize it with its own home. Like 99.9% of the SN sites on Ning, it’s nothing more than a curiosity.

@Alaska Miller - Any fool can hide behind non-linked comments. Get a life!
Emil

August 23rd, 2007 at 11:55 am

Not bad at all. If indeed Ning got $44mil in funding (and their Alexa is 2000), our company (Forumer) with a Alexa of #370 should be getting much more. Mmmm I’ll take $300mil, thank you.
Ben

August 23rd, 2007 at 3:21 pm

well, they might have a hard time restricting users to college-age. Many (most?) schools now let you keep your .edu email as a forwarding address after you graduate
JustinB

August 23rd, 2007 at 3:46 pm

My agency prefers KickApps over Ning because in most cases they offer a more robust way to incorporate functionality on our client sites. Flexible APIs, feeds and single-sign on services are usually necessary. The other reason we tend to use KickApps is because they are in a sense a complete media toolset in that they allow us to quickly program and deploy video players and Flash widgets. Some sites require the social/UGC components, others do not.
P. Lake

August 23rd, 2007 at 4:53 pm

Ning 1 Playboy 0

Bottom of the ninth!
cenourinha

August 23rd, 2007 at 7:01 pm

Now the pervects will waste more time in Internet…
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August 26th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Looks like it’s been customized with a new playboy look and feel. That’s the one issue that I’ve always had with Ning, very uncustomizable. Love the platform, though.