Living in startup-land and working for a company that’s known for its fondness for incubating (read: absorbing and funding) startups, I’ve heard plenty of startup ideas recently. I recently had a conversation with a coworker about the startup idea of an acquaintance of his – a social networking site for golfers.
I’m of the opinion that “long tail” social networking – social networking for niche groups of people – is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Most online startups are designed with one thing in mind – giving users something they don’t know they need yet and making money off of it. The social networking demographic knows they need social networking. Facebook has rendered many social networking startup ideas stillborn with the recent release of its API. In the post-Facebook-API world, saying “I’m going to make a social networking site for golfers to compete with Facebook” is like saying “I’m going to make a blog engine for golfers to compete with WordPress”. Facebook isn’t just a social networking site anymore, it’s becoming a social networking platform. Making another social networking platform targeted at a specific audience is reinventing the wheel – and it’s tackling entirely the wrong problem. Companies like iLike have gained massive amounts of exposure by leveraging Facebook’s API to augment their existing service. Other groups have developed systems that operate purely in Facebook and have done quite well.
If you’re looking to reinvent the social networking site, that’s one thing. If you’re making a Facebook knockoff because that other twenty-something guy was successful at it, that’s quite another.
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