We’ve confirmed that hi5, the third largest social network in the world, is laying off employees today. hi5’s VP of Marketing, Mike Trigg, wouldn’t say how many employees were being let go but we’ve received multiple independent tips that the social network laid off 50% of its staff. Previous to this round of layoffs, hi5 employed around 100 people. Trigg said the layoffs were due to a “realignment of the company” and that it was also a cost-cutting measure. Obviously, revenues were not keeping up with costs.
The social network recently went through a previous round of layoffs last October, letting go 10 to 15% of its staff due to another “restructuring.” hi5 gets about 63 million monthly unique visits worldwide but only 3.7 million of those are from the U.S., according to ComScore’s February stats. The site boasts close to 80 million registered users but apparently many of these users are just not in markets that advertisers find particularly appealing.
Hi5 is the third largest social network in the world. Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide with 275.6 million unique visitors, with MySpace is coming in second with 125.8 million unique visitors. Orkut is No. 4 with 51.7 million.
We’ve added the layoffs to the TechCrunch layoff tracker.
This is a complete BS company imho. They do have some good engineers. I feel sorry for them because this puppy cannot be successful.
Hi5 is a dubious site. Looks like a scam site that steals your data.
Bueno.com lets stop crying and look were all the layoffs went its the next generation of social networks
more layoffs also mean more users moving away from hi5 to other social networks?
no bebo
I kind of like there site, but you only can be only so many social sites.
wow i was going to accept a job offer from them. good decision not to. They have good engineers. Anyone know how many engginers got laid off
Glad I didn’t chase down any of the zillions (or repeated-same) sysadmin jobs they were advertising on Craigslist a year ago.
Are we starting to see, the demise of social networking sites? I wouldn’t be surprised if this signals the beginning of the downfall of social networkings.
One thing is very clear from social networkings that is being overlooked by analysts. The application is only important as long as the crowd sticks around. The fact is the crowd can change behavior over time. They will jump ship , when the new fads arise and this is exactly what psychologists labeled herding. Herding behavior is just following or going with the flow of the majority which was initiated by a small disturbance to the dynamic of the system (crowd networkings), where the value of the service is really not that important, but clustering is the important factor. When a group (even a single member) left, and the tendency for one or 2 more to follow, then this will trigger herding in massive numbers. MySpace members is being reported to abandon ship and jump to Facebook. Also it is being discussed here at TC that Tweeter is the new cool thing.
To the professor above:
Hi5 is facing a funding problem, not directly caused by losing users for other social networking site.
go back to chile you wack job!
Seriously? Tweeter? Where do I sign up?
no bebo sorry. restart.
@Falafulu Fisi
Social Networking 2.0 is dead.
People want to be heard, be found and communicate with friends. That will always be true. It was true in the when most households got a phone 1960’s, you got one to talk with friends, and then most poeple got voicemail to avoid the ex.
Love live Social Networking 3.0 what ever that is.
how is there going to be social networking 3.0, if social networking 2.0 was unsustainable? It’d be like designing a pentagon shaped wheel, for a triangled-wheel design.
[And yes, I realize the more sides you add, the closer it approximates a circle. But still, I like this metaphor]
hi-5 is gross. worst designed social network site. seems like they are constantly playing catch up as well. no innovation. just treading water…
soon they will be no more.
Amen.
Social networking just seems to be so unbelievably popular with users, but not the most profitable business to be in. If I was running those companies… I would be selling super bowl priced ads. Look at the numbers the super bowl has compared to what these sites have… they just need to create the right product mix.
Really???? My daughter loved the show when we lived in SE Asia.
Hi 5
A friend invited me to hi5 in 2005. I signed up with a unique email address which was kept private. I poked around the site. Didn’t see much to do or like. Three days later, I was flooded with spam to and from that email address. hi5 can rot.
WOW. That is the single-most scathing reply i think i’ve ever seen here. Ouch…
Ouch. Looks like the expected funding isn’t coming through. Unfortunate for hi5 and its employees, but I’m sure they could see the writing on the wall. Social networking is quickly consolidating around the top few “winners” (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, perhaps MySpace, and a few others internationally). The second-tier networks have to find their niche within the ecosystems of the larger players or risk becoming completely irrelevant.
Good luck to hi5.
i bet they launch a virtual world soon. seeing they are always behind the curve.. only makes sense…
I had an offer from them in August. I’m glad I didn’t take it.
The real problem was the EC at hi5 made some poor choices in the later half of 2008, namely hiring far too many engineers, and especially folks with the following titles: “VP”, and “Chief”. Essentially tried to expand the company from within without a commensurate level of user growth. I imagine their burn rate outpaced monthly revenue streams, and the VC’s coming in wanted to invest their money in a company that isn’t hemorrhaging capitol. I’ve also heard that most of the cuts were in the engineering and operations area. Where as, the user interface team, marketing, and of course most of the executive team remains intact. So what remains is an even more top heavy group then before these recent slashing of jobs at hi5. Only time will tell what happens to hi5, but I suspect it will die a slow death, and then be bought up for it’s assets.
i hope the layoffs end, i work at hi5 costumer support.
Bueno.com forget HI5 its old and useless
Hi5 still rocks, but so does Tagged, Frienfinder, Twitter and Facebook
Hi5 still is pretty cool….It’s not Twitter or Facebook, but they are big in the international soical space….
very good have nice day
Serves them right. During the high times, they thought they were too good to respond to partnership inquiries. Now, they are SOL
SOCIAL NETWORKS BEWARE: BUENO.COM LAUNCHES ITS TELECOM-RICH SOCIAL NETWORK – YOUR COMPUTER MAY BE THE NEW PHONE AND IT’S FREE.
MAY 1ST, MIAMI, FLORIDA
Bueno.com may be the newest entry into the social network scene but it’s got something everyone is talking about – a free virtual phone empowering site users to make free calls to their friends as long as they have a microphone and speakers and both parties are members of the BUENO network (which is also free of course).
I realize the more sides you add, the closer it approximates a circle. But still, I like this metaphor
very good have nice day