MySpace Isn't Alone Anymore (Or Why Niche Social Networks Are Becoming More Popular)

With tens of millions of active users, MySpace and Facebook.com have been sweeping the Internet by storm over the past few years.  But a new trend is emerging that looks like it will become increasingly important over the coming years: in addition to their current memberships, users are turning to niche-focused social networks that meet their specific needs such as regionalism, increased privacy protections, or features that relate to a particular topic of interest.

In today's Wall Street Journal article, MySpace Has Large Circle of Friends,
But Rivals' Cliques Are Growing Too,Vauhini Vara writes: "The rise of these [new] social-networking sites is another sign of the shifting tastes on the Internet, as niche audiences flock to new alternatives to MySpace and Facebook."

Newcomers like Piczo.com and Bebo.com are finding new audiences overseas and in Canada. In addition, users are now demanding increased privacy protections and new features more relevant to their needs.  We've written in the past about the rise of the niche-focused social network and it is becoming clear a one-size-fits-all approach to communities isn't the only option anymore. Bigger is not necessarily better.

As an example, spend a little time in the health groups section of MySpace.com and you will quickly see what we mean.  While MySpace has thousands of legitimate health related groups that are helping a lot of people, there are hundreds of off-topic, spoof-related, or sexually-oriented groups cluttering up the system.  This can make it difficult (or worse - dangerous!) for people who really need health information they can trust.  The new weight loss community, Traineo.com is a great example of a community serving the needs of a specific group.  Because of their mission to help people lose weight, they focus only on the needs of this community.  At OrganizedWisdom.com, we're focusing on health issues like diseases, treatments, medications, health insurance, and so on, not because people don't need "community wisdom" on many different topics, but because it is our focus on Health that enables us to develop specific features and better content for our members. 

This trend should be welcome news to many.  With more of these focused communities growing over the coming years, we will see more people getting what they really need out of social-networks.