For the benefit of TechCrunch’s American readers, let’s first set a basic ground rule for this post: Football = Soccer. You know, the game played 90 minutes that can end in a 0-0 draw but can still be regarded as an excellent match. With that out of the way…
Second to the iPhone 2.0 announcement (and maybe the Yahoo-Google deal), what was the most important event of last week? The start of Euro 2008 tournament of course! So if you’re going to soft-launch a football oriented social network like Footbo.com, this is the month to do it (the tournament runs throughout June).
Footbo is the type of niche-oriented social network we have grown accustomed to. From a feature perspective there’s no attempt to reinvent the social network experience—in fact, the current interface doesn’t offer any Ajax/DHTML/CSS pizzazz. The idea of “less is more” rings true in Footbo’s case, which focuses on offering an information and interaction hub for everyday football fans, as opposed to cutting-edge functionality and interface design. Even so, the design is at times rough around the edges with tables running amuck and such.
Footbo provides football-related content in the form of live feeds, line-ups, game schedules and tables from about 70 leagues around the world. A Predictions section allows users to predict the final scores of games. These can be submitted/edited until the kick-off of each match. Users can also grade player performance, thereby electing the “Top 11″ of each league or round. Integrated wiki functionality lets users add and edit content about teams and players. There are already tens of thousands of existing profiles with basic info on teams and players. Game pages feature fan boards and live discussions. The Euro 2008 section leverages these features on a single page for a “one-stop” experience.
Footbo is predominantly a European play targeting individual fans, fan clubs, and amateur teams. For the sake of context, Footbo estimates there are 170,000 amateur football teams in Germany alone. Properly executed, there could be plenty of business servicing this niche alone. However, Footbo’s scope is wider as is evident by the fact that the site is available in English, German and Spanish.
Footbo will launch its official Beta in August with a host of new features. It’s up against some serious competition from ESPN’s Soccernet and less serious competition from Joga.com (a soccer social network that was created as a joint venture between Nike and Google’s Orkut which is now seemingly defunct—all that is on the site is a splash page promising that something called JogaTV will be “coming soon”).
North American readers: You can now revert back to the term “Football” referring to a game with far too many rules played with an egg-shaped ball.
Nice to see you writing here Roi! And being the most popular sport in the world this space can more than have Footbo competing.
goallllllllllllllllllllllll telemundo
Not enough of Bebo… thus, Footbo…
Yep, very large niche indeed.
My Social Networking software (16 months dev) is almost ready and we wil be launching in the Work At Home Niche first, but the software is such that it scales very well and can be used for other niches which we have already planned.
Social Networking is the future for sure
Hi I was wondering if your software is for sale and can be used for a sports social network like footbo
Joga.com is no more as a social network methinks…
why do this? : “played 90 minutes that can end in a 0-0 draw but can still be regarded as an excellent match. With that out of the way…”
.. 0-0 baseball game can be viewed as excellent by some but boring by others, and would probably last three hours..
.. a 14-7 american football game would last about three hours, but is in fact a 2-1 scoreline.
no i will not revert back to football being the game with far too many rules, i will continue to equate football to the beautiful sport in which a ball is played by the foot.
According to most any historic account I’ve ever read, football and soccer are both “real” football. They both are derived from two associations that split in 1863. Both associations had “football” in their title. The main reasons for the split were due to the differences in their respective views on contact.
I’d liken this to, “the real tomato – bigboy or betterboy”?
The more and more these niche social networks pop their heads up offering more value to ones passions in life, the faster you’ll see people spending less time on FB.
FB = Netscape 1995
Niche = Google
FB offers a nice value to it’s customers, but not the best. The best is yet to come and FB better blow that fog away from their eyes, known as pride, and get their feet back down on the ground. At least MySpace has kind of a music Niche, what does FB have?
Tick toc Tick toc Tick toc Tick toc Tick toc BOOM! People find a social network that offers more value than just “connecting with friends”.
Tick toc Tick toc Tick toc Tick toc Tick toc BOOM! Investors realize their are social networks they can invest in that offer more than one type of revenue, advertising.
FB makes me giggle when they posture.
Roi, you are such a hack…
Thanks for the tip. After having explored the site quickly, I think its safe to say that even though its still a relatively new site, it seems to show quite a lot of promise and potential, but also needs some fine tweaking.
As a mad english football fan, I am sure that I will spend quite some time on this site, and the predicitions section looks very good.
@John Giles: Well said about American Football scores.
Sarcastic with sports? Come on. The most popular sport, played with foot and played internationally has no comparison with American football.
Also, 0-0 logic about the games’ score is not always true. Penalty shoot outs and golden goal is one of most popular and exciting ways to break a tie. But they are implemented only when required.
@wolfsbayne: sure, but which one is actually played with feet for 90 minutes?
footbo will be a hit… IMHO
I’m not a huge football fan but I really like 2 things about this site:
1. The name Footbo – easy to remember, kinda funny to say, with a web 2.0 flavor (without forcing it)
2. The layout – nice and clean
The only thing wrong with this site is that the sport is actually called “soccer”. Silly Europeans.
You can follow Euro 2008 via Twitter @ http://www.twit...om/eurofoot2008
I really don’t like soccer – I know that’s unusual for a German. Unconfirmed sources claim that’s why I got ‘kicked out’ of Germany
For those who want to jog the links of this post a bear in one hand and a packet of chips on their lap… simply jog this track:
http://www.jogt...php?trackId=100
Thanks Roi for reminding what Football (er… Soccer) is all about
yeah…..your description of football is almost offensive for a football fan..like me
you could have redirected your readers to a wikipedia page(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer)….your description is blatant blasphemy…it seems that you dont care about your non-american readers!
I love it! Social networks meets the beautiful game! w00t!
Nice!!! Huge global market opportunity
Why do the Americans call the game Soccer when the rest of the world calls it Football? Wierd ain’t it?
Shameless plug for
http://cleverfootball.com
It’s a Ning network at heart, but I coded a Twitter-type microblogging tool which we call Banter (not Bantr, surprisingly).
It’s small-time, but the 200 or so users on there have a good chat using the tool
Everyone is welcome to drop by…
For the benefit of TechCrunch readers, TechCrunch (allegedly) used to be a non-biased site about startups and web technology but has spiraled into yet another useless and boring soapbox-site for nerds to elucidate their increasingly banal and irrelevant viewpoints on all things non-technology related.
Go Croatia Go
Cheeku
http://eurocup2...ooglepages.com/
great!
Hi Folks,
No disrespect meant to “American Football” fans–it’s a fun game, albeit not as elegant as “real” football
I don’t usually add personal humor to my posts, but isn’t blogging all about our personal voice…?
R.
Soccer is for pussies. Real men play american football.
Football is without a doubt the beautiful game. It can’t be compared to American sports…what other sport rivals football in global popularity? It appeals to people of all ages from all different cultures and economic statuses. There’s a book that explains this perfectly- you can get it in ebook form online. It’s a must for any football fan, and absolutely recommended to anyone who wants to know more.
I may be wrong, but I thought ‘JogaTV’ was really just a Nike marketing initiative (basically a series of ads — you can watch a lot of them on YouTube). I hardly think it qualifies as ‘competition’ for the sort of thing discussed here.
Does anybody know who developed and designed this web site?
I would like to see http://es.youtu...h?v=hMBn0cO862U on this
I’m not sure that I agree with number 9 (rbk). Many of us have a number of different interests, and I’m not all that eager to join a dozen different services to indulge in a dozen different pastimes. Why not join a single service that offers ways to indulge in all of your passions? For some, that single service may be Facebook, for others AOL. In my case, it’s FriendFeed, which offers rooms for the NBA Finals and for the egg-shaped professional football in the country south of Canada. (Haven’t found a football/soccer, EPL, or MLS room yet.) Perhaps, though, round football fans will be passionate enough to join the first-rate network devoted to the love of their lives.
Thats an awesome niche social network. Why can’t your larger social networks specialize in niche areas (Ning for example) and have as much media coverage at a site like footbo.com? Do any tech gurus or internet, business owners, or entrepreneurs know the asnwer? Here: http://www.read...ex.php?rta=blog
A bit off topic but I think soccer is potentially a huge market in the United States, what with Beckham coming over to the MLS and the improvement of the U.S. team. But there’s nothing like the Euro 2008 tournament. Take a look at the comeback by Turkey against the Czech Republic: http://www.socc...sh_comeback.asp
Roi – nice coverage of site devoted to a much overlooked global sport. Football is probably the biggest “niche” topic in the world – more than a billion fans.
You missed the launch of OleOle.com last month. More than social networking – it’s social media and bloggin for football fans in 10 languages across more than 300 leauges, 5,500 professional teams, all driven by fans. And for the EURO tournament, there’s live blogging (by users) for each match. http://www.oleole.com
@32 Ontario Emperor
I am sorry you don’t get it. Your pitch about FB and friendfeed offer the same value… connecting you with friends or those who have your same likes.(trust me, there is more, you just don’t see it yet)
The concept most people can’t get past, is so social network 1.0. And I am not talking about 12 different pass times. I’m talking about the 1 passion a person has. And meeting up in rooms or super poking friend who like golf like you do, for example, is..again… so social networking 1.0.
I think that people who are passionate about soccer, not a past time, might join a niche social network like this one. Will they leave FB all together? I doubt it, will they start to spend less time on FB? Yeah.
But it’s cool if you disagree with me, I remember the flame wars back in the late 90s when I said Google will be the number one search engine and if Netscape didn’t get their crap in gear, they’d be out of business. A lot laughed at me. – So laugh at me when i say FB better get their crap together or Niches will slowly chip away at their base.
To this social network: Here’s a clue on how you take your site to the next phase of social networking. First create an incentive program where people can earn “points” for their site involvement. Set up a system where the members can bet their points on games, make it so they get points automatically when their fav team wins, write on their blog, get a friend to sign up, etc…
Now create an online e commerce solution in which you get soccer businesses to be apart of. Allow the businesses to sell things and if they have an over stock on balls, give the power to sell 1 ball and get the second ball for 50 points. Allow those points to go into that businesses account so they can use it to advertise on your site.
Set up chat sessions with known players and charge people 500 points to be in the same room with one of their heroes. For 1500, they get to go to their favorite team’s practice next fall and talk to the players.
The above are just a few cool ideas that I have for the social networks of the future.
@32 Ontario Emperor, see the evolution and value I am talking about? These 1.0 social networks need to evolve and offer more than just, super pokes and connecting with friends, cause it’s a no brainer that someone passionate about soccer, or golf, or rock climbing, motorcycles, skateboarding, extreme sports, etc…. will not stick around at FB for much longer when they have a site like the one above.
Also, the next gen of social networks will offer more than one type of revenue stream, advertising, and more than one type of value, connecting with friends. Want a clue to the future about online social networks that is outside the box? They’re off-line.
Enjoy your day.
@rbk: You are so right. You know what site has already integrated most of the great ideas that you are talking about? OleOle.com
That’s the social media site for football that you are talking about, rbk! It’s all user-generated content on a truly interactive platform with a great point system! And it’s available in 10 languages – truly the biggest social media platform around football/soccer. Check it out at http://www.oleole.com
Hi –
Someone mentioned oleole to me the other day and implied it is a New Zealand company but my research suggest not?
Does anyone know _ whats the connection with New Zealand with http://www.oleole.com ???????????
(I see Alexa has it as 17,000)
Seems kinda strange they have offices down here in NZ
Simon
http://www.anycircle.com
http://www.nananap.com
@37 Andrea – Thanks
I am not a fan and never heard of the sight, but I wish any niche social network the best, especially if they have cracked the code 99% of the other social networks can’t seem to figure out!
More value than: CONNECTING FRIENDS AND EXPRESSING YOURSELF. /yawn That is so…FB.
Woooohooooo!!!
Pickup soccer site – mainly game listings, with some meetup-style organizing:
http://www.socster.com/
and a recent Facebook app.
Strangely, I had heard of a similar cricket social network to be launched called ‘Cricko’….. Wonder if that is connected with the Footbo guys.
I was already a user of oleole but have to say, it lacks the community feel that i feel footbo.com provides.
but it certainly looks like someone is working hard to plug it
Just signed up for the site, and its a nice enough one. Where it lags though is the focus on just the clubs from a few countries. It would be great if there was a feature for users to build up professional club listings from their own countries. Otherwise its simply not much use to a huge group of people, particularly from asia because of its euro centricity. Other than Japan, didn’t find any asian club countries, not even korea.
As for ‘the texan’ above @27, if being real men means you have to have an affinity for a pastime where sweaty muscled men have to wrestle and grind against each other as much as they can, egged on by drunken idiots who wish they were the ones being wrestled; no thanks. I’d rather be a “lesser” man and stick to football (its dumb to call it soccer).
@34. People have been trying shove football down our throats here in the US since the mid 70’s. They brought Pele to play in NYC. Rejected!. They tried professional indoor soccer…rejected. They tried playing up the success of the US Women’s Olympic team and that fact that the US made it out to the knockout round in ‘94, and the fact that beating Colombia was some sort of major upset. Every 4 years, if the US qualifies for the Cup, interest lasts about 3 months after the Cup is over. then American Football season starts and things are back to normal.
Football will never take off in the U.S. The games are, for the most part, boring (as is baseball, so let’s end that argument right now). Kids coming up through high school and college are not going to try to “go pro” in soccer if they have equal skill in either football, basketball, or baseball because the salaries don’t even begin to compare. There is no incentive for kids to play soccer beyond high school (if that).
On top of that, Major League Soccer in America is awful. Even the best MLS team couldn’t make it as the worst team in the lowest league in the UK. They brought Beckham over (past his prime) and it didn’t help. Moreover, nobody cared.
No, I don’t understand soccer. And when people tell me that a 0-0 is great and that I don’t understand the “beauty” of soccer; it’s much like being set on a blind date with an girl with a nice personality. Frankly on a blind date, I want something nice to look at. And a 0-0 match is not it.
The true explanation for American disinterest, though, is the fact soccer only rarely rewards the efforts of its players. A soccer game is basically a 90 minute volley, peppered with occasional goals that are as much a product of luck as they are of skill. Hell, I can recall being in London during the soccer season and trying to watch some matches while relaxing in my hotel. What I found hilarious was the half time reporting. I don’t know how many times the commentators praised and reveled in the fact that a player ALMOST made a goal. They seemed to consider that a success and something to be proud of. That would be like showing how many foul balls that could have been homer runs. Showing dropped touchdown passes and missed field goals and praising the team for at least making the attempt.
Such a concept of working for little or no reward is apparently acceptable to citizens of socialist and near-socialist nations. But, it will never fly in the USA, where we place great value on hard work and expect to achieve benefits proportionate to our efforts.
Again, the bottom line is that Americans do not care about this game of European and third world countries. They do not care about how many other human beings love the game.
“But, it will never fly in the USA, where we place great value on hard work and expect to achieve benefits proportionate to our efforts.”
Your whole commentary was laughable in its blissful ignorance, but this last part just takes the cake. What are you, 12 and running for president of the republican toddlers’ club?
“the bottom line is that Americans do not care about this game of European and third world countries”
At least you now recognize there are other people in the planet outside americans. maybe there’s hope yet. No, the bottom line is its precisely this kind of condescending tirade is why the rest of the world does not care about your particular brand of americana any more.
‘the game played 90 minutes that can end in a 0-0 draw but can still be regarded as an excellent match’ – sometimes it’s the journey not the destination…
Also, shameless plug for Euro 2008 Desktop Channel on Zebtab… http://www.euro08.zebtab.com/
Rich
Ajax not offered? On a football site? Tsk!
ajax is there… dont know which site you are on my friend, but it clearly isnt footbo
and just in case you are having difficulties,
http://www.foot....com/Teams/Ajax
Hasn’t http://www.bigsoccer.com been around longer doing something similar?