Chictopia, a social network focused on fashion, has launched a new online publishing network dubbed “Everybody is Ugly” that aims to take on Sugar Inc’s empire. The network features a number of online magazines directed towards various demographics, including Male Ugly (for men), Coed Ugly (college students), and Brit Ugly (for Europeans).
The company says that each blog will be edited by experienced fashion writers who will also be accessible through Chictopia’s social network. Because each writer’s profile will be made public, readers should be able to selectively choose the articles that correspond best to their styles – something that can be hard to do with the faceless authors found in fashion magazines.
Chictopia’s flagship social networking site, which launched two months ago, allows users to upload their style photos and browse through outfits their peers have shared. There are a number of similar fashion sites on the web, including StyleMob, ShareYourLook, and MyStyleDiary.
The new blogs may be enough to separate Chictopia from these relatively small networks, but the company may be in for a rude (and dare I say, ugly) awakening when it faces off with Sugar Inc, which has over 8 million unique visitors across its blog network every month.
Why Ugly? I would say the team at ‘Chictopia’ which suggest this brand name is Ugly.. Sugar is Sweet!
i just check out those sites
and from a web 2.0 point of view those sites are dull
Jason, thanks for the write up!
@1 – Our official company blog has an explanation on why we named the publication “everybody is ugly”. Check it out here:
http://www.chic.../CheriChictopia
I like this site. I think it is awesome!
Really terrible URL structure there.
Also, I’m kind of wondering what made this company worthy of a write up, they don’t seem to be doing anything new, and they are bragging about just 40k pv per day.
I’ve been a follower of Sugar but I still would like to check this out.
@4 – I’m kind of wondering what made you think your comment was at all productive. The URL structure is perfectly reasonable. Do you actually have any useful insight to share? Or are you just posting out of habit?
Cute idea. I’m definitely interested in seeing where this project winds up.
@JD
We are actually at 70K pv per day now, the write up you read is from a company blog entry a few weeks go. We’ve been in public beta for less than two months.
70k pv per day may not be extremely impressive in the realm of Myspace, or Facebook, but as far as vertical social network goes, we are close to a third the page view count of Dogster(MA invested in this company, it’s been around for 6 years), higher than the page view count of Mayasmom(acquired by BabyCenter last year, been around for two years). Source: Alexa
Yes, we do need to improve our URLs :=)
Worst. Name. Ever.
“Don’t worry, we’re not calling you ugly, it’s everybody”
“Because without style, everybody is ugly”
Your brand comes across as an immature grad school concept. I predict this will really turn off a large portion of your audience and marginalize you in the long run.
http://siteanal....com/?metric=uv
The stats don’t seem to support the sugar inc claim.
“lulu, who often complained that not enough people on the street dress stylish enough for her. In her eyes, everybody is ugly. ”
You girls are like, shallow, and stuff.
Helen, not to argue, but you’re not doing anywhere near the same traffic as Maya’s Mom or your other comparisons. Be proud of your growth, its great, but making claims like that will only get you smacked down.
For example, Maya’s Mom was doing more than 50MM ad impressions a month when it was bought. @ 2MM pages/month, you’re lucky to be doing 5-7MM. Which is still fantastic (and admirable) for such a young network, and I wholeheartedly congratulate you, but just caution that comparing yourself to other sites publicly is probably a bad idea
For the record, I’m not saying I’d smack you down, but other folk will. I’ve seen it happen too much when young networks launch, have great growth, get over-excited and make big claims. It’s just not fun, and it tarnishes the great growth you’re experiencing. Be proud, celebrate your own victories, then get back to work is all was attempting to say
…and BOTH are running on drupal…
@13. No offense taken :=) We are a young startup, knowledge is what will help us grow!
@Dave – Drupal rules. We just launched a related site on it, and have been pleasantly surprised by what it has to offer.
“Mayasmom(acquired by BabyCenter last year, been around for two years). Source: Alexa”
Something’s wrong.
http://www.alex...s/chictopia.com
everybodyisugly.chictopia.com – 83%
chictopia.com – 17%
everybodyisugly.chictopia.com redirects to chictopia.com/photo/everybody
This page has only with only 4 blog entries and a handful of comments.
The traffic rank is super high in Singapore.
Singapore 3,242.
A disproportionate amount of traffic is coming from Singapore.
The blog is in English. Singaporeans don’t speak English.
2 + 5 = 14
um, yes. singaporeans DO speak english. pretty well, actually.
@17.
I can’t post my Google analytics data here, but everybodyisugly.chictopia is only 9% of our traffic.
It was about 83% of our traffic three months ago, when we were in private beta. I’m assuming Alexa has not yet updated its data.
Yesterday’s stats show that 45% of our traffic comes from the US. 6% comes from Singapore.
@chris: Singaporeans don’t speak English? Really?
http://en.wikip.../wiki/Singapore
Thanks for playing.
@18. Please read up on Singapore :=)
http://en.wikip.../wiki/Singapore
Also, these blogs have a lot more than 4 entries. Only 4 are displayed on this landing page. But good point, this may be an usability issue we need to address.
@20, ok.
“I can’t post my Google analytics data here, but everybodyisugly.chictopia is only 9% of our traffic.
It was about 83% of our traffic three months ago”
http://everybod...y.chictopia.com
The oldest post is from Jun 17, 2008
@22
The oldest post from everybodyisugly on Chictopia is on April 17, 2008.
http://www.chic...;page=7&s=e
This URL was pointed to a blogger account, also written by the same editor, with the same content. We transferred the content over to our own website for our public beta launch.
Thanks for your interest in Chictopia!
Site seems to be straining under load, but congratulations for getting on TC with this level of content and design. It’s not often that blogs are promoted as business plays (aside from Scooobie).
http://www.goog...rch?q=chictopia
I did some research about your prelaunch promotion, and despite Sugar Inc having 15M cash, it looks like you have at least a million into this thing.
This isn’t pay per post promotion for sure. You already got 55k links into Google in a little over 2 months.
Why not post your funding?
http://www.napp...amp;pid=2029065
This is totally high pay viral marketing. Did you hire these guys off of craigslist or is this an agency? I have been looking for this type of thing. Please refer me if you want. I don’t have a huge budget though.
What kind of budget did this take?
There are two things this site lacks that Sugar has.
1) Easy navigation. I can’t find an easy breakdown of the different “uglies.” On Sugar I can see all the sugars on the left hand side. It makes it easy for me to go to Fit and Geek sugar sites.
2) Tone. This is more personal. To me, the tone of this site is way off. It’s rude and reminds me of the girls that live in my apartment complex (which I hate). This is the intention, however, it just puts me off.
@9
Please read our user’s response to our post on the name “everybody is ugly”.
http://www.chic...photo/show/6003
@11
In the eyes of a 19 year old fashion enthusiast, we are probably not regarded as “shallow”.
Do you watch Gossip Girl?
http://en.wikip...ki/Gossip_Girl_(TV_series)
Sorry about that last comment, your marketing is your business. I just couldn’t believe you got that many links off on your content in 2 months in private beta. I have no idea what would go into something like that.
Why not post your funding?
Probably because that would provide a benchmark to measure their execution. Hard numbers are death until you know that people like you.
28: That was a 4000+ poster (joined only 18mos ago = 230+ posts per month!) too, so something is going on behind the scenes for sure.
the writing is awful:
“Another great example of a graphic tee can come from a band’s merch table or website.”
Huh? Was this a thought she had when conceptualizing the post? Vapid.
Hey, awesome site!!! I think everyone looks pretty!!!
What a wonderful site to check out the latest trend and explore what looks good on different body types! It’s also fun to read about Lulu’s latest adventures. How does she come up with those names for her friends, ex’s, etc.?
Reading the comments is much more interesting than the brief blurb about Chictopia and Sugar Inc. What a rabid bunch of folks are reading TechCrunch these days — even debating URL structure? Wow, so lame.
Although Chictopia is in its infancy, I do like the personal edge it brings to the fashion space. It seems to be more about peer-reviewed fashion advice and suggestions. I find this refreshing from the celebrity fashion focus you find on FabSugar or similar fashion sites. Our media provides too much focus on celebs, whether it be their fashion trends or political beliefs. I much prefer the direction Chictopia is taking — fashion for the people, by the people.
Where do you see peer-reviewed advice and suggestions?
Go chictopia! great site
But must say I don’t get the reason for a switch from social network with UGC to these blogs??
Web 1.0 called and they want the ‘topia’ in their name back….
@36
http://www.chic...pia.com/reviews
Chictopia is a fashion destination that provides the answer to the question: what looks good on you?
Everybody Is Ugly column is merely one aspect of our site that gives users a point of view, written by very stylish girls and boys.
Beyond that, Chictopia is a social utility that connects style seekers to trend setters that are similar to their body shape, skin tone, taste, and age. It serves you content that is highly targeted, something fashion magazines with skinny models or celebrity gossip columns on rich people cannot offer. Not everyone on Chictopian reads Everybody Is Ugly, and nor do we force them to. Everyone has their point of view in fashion, Chictopia is simply a platform for people that take an interest in dressing better to share and discover.
@37
The launch of Everybody Is Ugly column is not a switch from UGC, simply an extension to surface some of our best content to our users. These bloggers are also our users, chosen because they have managed to build a following in a short period of time. They are passionate about the topic, and talented in writing about it. We think that other users coming to our site would like to read their take on fashion.
Why is everybody looking down in the photos? Maybe calling them ugly makes them self-conscious? How cruel life is.
@Larry
This is a trend that was started by our own team early on. The idea is that the photo should be about a person’s outfit, not the person’s face.
I took a look and although I’m not sugar’s biggest fan ever, chictopia isn’t terrible. I think they are doing well for such a young site, but right now, the Sugar blogs are much more usable.
a) the design is totally, incredibly dull. If you are built on drupal you can do a lot more with it’ I’ve built a drupal site before and they can be much more robust that what I’m lookin at.
b) the writing needs to be spruced up a bit and more personal, like another commenter said. And it’s kind of hard to find the Ugly blogs. I had to lick around a bit. The front page is a little….random for my taste.
Talk about tall poppy syndrome. Dont hate, celebrate
hey Helen.
A better fashion web2.0 site
http://lookbook.nu/
This site has a better UI, and your demographic seems of the creative kind. So unless you improve your UI, you’re gonna get schooled by the aforementioned site.
I see a few constructive suggestions. But, others are just geek bitches. Chris is really outstanding. Btw, Singaporeans not only speak English, they do it with the much admired British accent.
Best wishes Chictopia.
Geek bitches is a fantastic term.
The fashion magazine make you feel more ugly, not sure about a fashion blog.
A suggestion: is there some way you can condense the list of comments? As it stands, if you’ve got 20 comments on an item, there’s a lot of scrolling to do to get to the next story. Maybe a popup DIV layer or a true popup window (ugh) might work.
I must say very bland design for a Web 2.0 fashion site.
Here’s a fashion site that actually looks more Web 2.0 and brings a new concept of “rating” fashion styles.
http://restyleme.com