Ning is going to be reaching a big milestone this week, when it sees its one millionth social network created on its self-serve platform. Ning, which had its initial beta launch in 2005 and ‘full’ launch in 2007, makes it easy for people to create niche social networks focused on the topics they care about.
Ning continues to grow steadily despite the fact that it banned ‘adult’ social networks late last year (some had suggested that the site relied on these adult networks to drive a significant amount of traffic, which isn’t the case). Ning now reports 22 million registered users overall, 700,000 of whom have created their own networks. Of the 1 million networks created, 200,000 remain active, across which 2.5 million new pieces of content (including comments and photos, and other media) are added per day.
Recently the site has been adding a number of new features that help its network creators spruce up their networks, including a persistent chat feature similar to Facebook Chat. The site also recently revamped its homepage at Ning.com to make it easier for users to manage their activity on multiple social networks and to discover new ones. Network Creators can also access a new directory of OpenSocial applications which run the gamut from games and Ecards to enhanced messaging services.
Because many of its users (particularly network creators) tend to be quite passionate about the sites they’ve built, Ning hasn’t been without its share of controversy, but its continued growth seems to indicate that most users are satisfied.
Wow.. that was fast.. 1 million networks in 1 year is super cool!
It launched in Beta in 2005 and had its ‘full’ launch in 2007.
Which country it has users?? i hear about it only in TC
Where is that Locator spammer? He should be happy.
thanks for keeping me in your thoughts. ning is nice.
another company that has been in business since 2004 and still not a drop of revenue to speak of…
@lilywhite: perhaps you mean not a drop of profit? Ning sells ads on its networks and, I believe, charges for premium services/white label treatment. Those certainly count as revenues.
Ummm. Excuse me – 1 million Social Networks Strong, then you say 700,000 have created their own networks, then you say but only 200,000 r active.
Don’t tell me. New Math right?
“Ning now reports 22 million registered users overall, 700,000 of whom have created their own networks. Of the 1 million networks created, 200,000 remain active”
-> 700K users created 1M networks (1.42 on average)
Of the 1M, 200K are active, 800K are dead wood
No
A user can create multiple networks.
Because it’s free, some are just testing it out.
very successful network. how about facebook?
I set up more than 5 Nings but never really used them. In fact I found their platform limiting. If 200k users (probably half that) that is worth a high valuation than someone needs a lesson in internet history…
How much revenue do they make?
So that makes 1 million social networks with bad search functionality. Awesome!
Not a drop of revenue? I happen to be only one of those 1M networks, and they get me for $25/month, so I’m fairly confident there’s some revenue coming in.
They are phoney numbers. I bet the active numbers are a tiny fraction of the overall totals. And, the ad inventory value has to be extremely low. My guess is that aren’t doing more than a couple million (max/year) in revenue, which is absolutely terrible.
ning should add locality into the system to compete with meetup
We have been using Ning since Feb. of this year and have great success using them as our vendor. We would like to see a bit more in house widget features though.
All about Ning @ http://search.m...p;sa=Search#994
Ning is such total pooh!!
1. Where is the money?
2. I have never met anyone anwywhere who has even heard of Ning–even in San Francisco
3. Social Networks are over—at least in terms of monetization – ask Myspace and the Book they will tell you the same.
4. Absolutley no one cares about Ning–except for the VC’s who have sunken $100mm in this albatross
5. Gina Bianchini is hot.
Marc Andreessen is the master at selling future failures for big money. So Ning might be a success for him.
I run http://www.aiki.se using Ning, paying $25/month as well. 250 users there love the site but don’t have a clue about what Ning is. They don’t need to. And 250 users can be a very valuable community for each and everyone of them.
@Martin Kallstrom I think that is great and I am glad it works for you, I am just saying that they probably could have built this with $10mm instead of $104mm dollars.
Do you have any idea how much money that is?
Also, call my math crazy but according to Crunchbase Ning has 8mm uniques and 1mm social networks that means an avg of 8 people per social network—that does not sound very social to me.
Ning doesn’t make money? Says who? I pay them $30 every month for my network http://yosamosa.com. The only reason I’m not switching to group.us is because Ning has $100 million funding and a revenue model.
Ning: where social networks born to die.
Still not a MENTION of the outrage of Ning network creators? Not a mention of the privacy breach? The stealing of member data? Not a word huh?
http://www.char...ms-its-clients/
I agree that the closing of the Ning Network Creators site and the privacy breach of Ning sending emails to all of our members needs its own TechCrunch story.
I think they are doing something with their app platform this month as well
A really active Ning network is TwitFitter…Members there have told us how much they like Ning’s ease of use/navigation.
Seems a summary of a CNet article. Left out an important quote from Ms. B:
“I believe that no one is doing and thinking about graphing interests and passions, and thinking about people as their interests and passions, except us,” Bianchini told CNET News.
There is a lot of merit to that statement IMHO — depends on how Ning plans to apply this information.
Web 2.0 is fucked, no money
Ning should copy twitter
and yet oddly, I honestly don’t know anyone who runs a Ning social network except for one teacher’s group (NCTE)
I think they should stop trying to chase Facebook, which the re-design of Ning.com is a blatant attempt to do (plus abruptly getting rid of their Facebook promotion/integration tools), and concentrate on the value they can add for their paying customers. They recently rolled out premium support plans, but I have no idea who they think is going to pay for it. Companies are the only ones who can afford it, but what company is going to pay for their service when they profess themselves ‘a consumer based’ product and have no plans to offer any kind of SLA. Not to mention shutting off FTP and WebDAV access and closing down their APIs and locking people’s content into their platform, more than a bit disengenuous.
I managed http://www.RandomPage.com community and paid Ning for $32/month. I know they making good revenue of course.
Our user base is growing … they like the service.
Regards,
EM
I wonder when that tool from widgetlavatory will drop in with one of his alter-ego’s and pitch how great SG is.
Ning is a joke, and Gina is a joke of a CEO. They really need to bring in a seasoned leader, like CMC
I think ning is for small time networks and people who have very little knowledge in tech…….
For a ral network you would never use ning.simple
“Because many of its users (particularly network creators) tend to be quite passionate about the sites they’ve built, Ning hasn’t been without its share of controversy, ” If the NCs would not have been passionate about their sites, NING would not have become such a success, and the reason why these guys are passionate because NING sold them a Dream That they own their site.. and NING recently crushed that dream by telling them all those members on different social networks belong to NING and NING has simply used its Network creators… Breach of trust at NING… ! Why didn’t TC report it despite numerous complaints..?
Ning is cool but the value of a user of facebook, or twitter is probably much higher than the personal value of owning a ning community. Social communities are great, but their utility and functionality not to mention an unlimited app and 3rd party bank makes em even sweeter. Many people may be better served with just a personal blog, a twitter profile and a bunch of friends. Unless I missed some sorta revolution…
Create your own social network on ning, and have them steal all of your members and put it on their competitive Ning.com site. (And charge you for it).
Ning is a scam
Because that’s all about money and that’s how they shutdown the adult networks.
Nings last remaining 3rd party developer has released a system that allows Ning networks to run Joomla modules.
This is serious. Its the best real news to come out of Ning in a long time. I’m running it on my own network and it has opened my cheesy ning network up to the usage of over 4,600 Joomla features.
Now my shit is solid.
http://www.sitesuites.com