Facebook, Google+ and Twitter have grown exponentially over the years and they have become synonymous with the term “social media.” Facebook and Twitter are buzzwords nowadays, to the extent that Facebook has around 1 billion users, and “Twitter,” as an English word, has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary! Google+ is also not that far behind. By the end of May 2013, it had 500 million registered users. The use of mainstream social media networks is very high. Maybe that is a primary reason for people to escape from this buzz. Privacy seekers are now moving towards niche and smaller players/networks. Alternative social media networks are targeting specific demographics by addressing different needs of social media users and have found a sizeable number of users. In this report we have explored lesser known social media sites and have classified them based on their characteristics.

1. Alternative Social Networks
Lesser known social networks
Prepared by: Ankush & Kiran

2. Main Stream Social Networks
Facebook, Google+ and Twitter have
grown exponentially over the years
and they have become synonymous
with the term “social media.”
Facebook and Twitter are buzzwords
nowadays, to the extent that Facebook
has around 1 billion users, and
“Twitter,” as an English word, has been
added to the Oxford English
Dictionary!
Google+ is also not that far behind. By the
end of May 2013, it had 500 million
registered users.
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3. Facebook
Founded in February 2004, Facebook is the world leader in social networking
Web sites, with currently over 1 billion registered users. Users can create
their own personal profile, send messages, share pictures, audio, and
video, and add friends.
Source:- https://www.facebook.com/
Facebook Registered Users over the Years (in
Millions)
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Dec-12
Jun-12
Dec-11
Jun-11
Dec-10
Jun-10
Dec-09
Jun-09
Dec-08
Jun-08
Dec-07
Jun-07
Dec-06
Jun-06
Dec-05
Jun-05
Dec-04
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0

4. Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging site. Twitter lets
users post and read text-based messages of up to 140
characters, known as “tweets.” Launched in July 2006, by May
2013, Twitter had about 550 million registered users.
Source:- https://twitter.com/
Twitter Registered Users over the Years (in
Millions)
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Mar-12
Dec-11
Sep-11
Jun-11
Mar-11
Dec-10
Sep-10
Jun-10
Mar-10
Dec-09
Sep-09
Jun-09
Mar-09
Dec-08
Sep-08
Jun-08
Mar-08
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0

5. Google+
Google+ (Google Plus) is a social networking Web site owned by Google Inc.
Launched in June 2011, till May 2013, it had a total of 500 million
registered users.
Source:- https://www.google.com/intl/en/+/learnmore/index.html
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6. Alternative Social Networks
The use of mainstream social media networks is very high. Maybe that is a
primary reason for people to escape from this buzz. Privacy seekers are
now moving towards niche and smaller players/networks.
Alternative social media networks are targeting specific demographics by
addressing different needs of social media users and have found a
sizeable number of users.
In this report we have explored lesser known social media sites and have
classified them based on their characteristics.
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

7. Overview: Alternative Social Networks
Relationshipbased
Family Leaf
Art-based
Pinterest
Knowledge- &
Entertainmentbased
Tagged
Family Wall
efamily.com
Formspring
Fotolog
Just Family
Rootsy
My Life
Netlog
Ivy Connect
Geni
My Heritage
Bebo
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Pheed
Regional Social
Networks
Hyves
iWiW
Mixi
Line
Cloob
Nexopia
Taringa
Yookos
Renren
Sina Weibo
VK
Odnoklassniki
Sonico
Worldfloat
Wer-kennt-wen
Skyrock
Draugiem
Eksi Sozluk

8. Relationship-based
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9. Family Leaf
Family Leaf offers a simplified, refreshing take on social media, paring its
features down to the absolute necessities. Users can post status updates
and photos to their walls. Users can also host discussions and save their
family's contact information on this private site.
• Year of origin - February 2012
• Target audience - Families
• Area served - Worldwide
Source:- https://familyleaf.com/
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10. Family Wall
Family Wall users can post status updates and photos to their walls. It also features
a calendar and private messaging. The maps in the mobile version help parents
keep track of their wandering teenagers.
• Year of origin – 2011
• Target audience – Families
• Area served - Worldwide
Source:- http://www.familywall.com/welcome.php
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11. efamily.com
efamily.com boasts a family tree and stories section in addition to picture posts
posting pictures or status updates, and also private messaging. efamily.com
stands out for its reminders feature, e.g., create a shared reminder for making
beds, remembering lunch money or picking up milk on the way home from work.
• Year of origin – 2010
• Area served – Worldwide
• Current size - More than 3,00,000 members
Source:- http://efamily.com/
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12. Just Family
Just Family lets you share, save, and organize photos among family members, as well
as include a short message or caption for each. With an iOS app, downloadable
Windows uploader and Web app, JustFamily shares your photos regardless of the
device on which you captured them.
• Year of origin - October 2011
• Target audience - Families
• Area served - Worldwide
Source:- http://justfamily.com/Home/landing?ReturnUrl=%2f
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13. Rootsy
Rootsy helps you organize your family tree, add photos and videos and then share
it with family members. It encourages users to flesh out trees with personal
memories and photos, rather than just the names and old documents of longago deceased relatives. The family tree becomes a living document, through
which users can connect over happy memories or lost loved ones. Text and
photos appear in a virtual scrapbook that anyone in the family can easily access.
• Year of origin: 2012
• Target audience: Families
• Area served: Worldwide
Source:- http://www.rootsy.com/
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14. Geni
Geni lets you upload and store your family photos, videos, records, and
sources. One distinctive feature of Geni is that it helps you find your
ancestors by making it easier to connect family trees. Geni makes it easy
to organize them by person or event and to share them with your relatives.
• Year of origin - January 2007
• Target audience - Families
• Area served - Worldwide
• Current size - 70 million users
Source:- http://www.geni.com/
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15. My Heritage
My Heritage allows members to create family Web sites, share pictures
videos, organize family events, create family trees, and search for
ancestors.
• Year of origin - 2003
• Target audience - Families
• Area served - Worldwide
• Current size - over 72 million users
Source:- http://www.myheritage.com/
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16. Art-based
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17. Pinterest
Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing Web site that allows users to create and
manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies.
Users can browse other pinboards for images, "re-pin" images to their own
pinboards, or "like" photos.
• Year of origin - March 2010
• Target audience - Everyone
• Area served - Worldwide
• Current size - 48.7 million users
Source:- https://pinterest.com/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

18. Fotolog
Fotolog is one of the oldest and largest sites for sharing pictures through online
photo diaries or photo blogs.
• Year of origin - May 2002
• Target audience – Everyone
• Area served – Worldwide
• Current size - Over 32 million users
Source:- http://www.fotolog.com/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

19. Netlog
Netolg is a Belgian social networking website. If you want to create your own Web
page, expand your social network, play games, make your music playlists public, share
videos and post blogs, then Netlog is the place for you. Netlog has recently joined forces
with Twoo. Netlog provides distinct facilities like extensive visitor statistics and advanced
inbox. Advanced Inbox is a chat functionality that acts like a message in a bottle. The
message floats around in the social network until someone opens it. This helps a user
interact with strangers and build their network.
• Year of origin - July 2003
• Target audience – Everyone
• Area served – Worldwide
• Current size - over 103 million users
Source:- http://en.netlog.com/
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20. Bebo
Bebo users receive a personal profile page where they can post
blogs, photographs, music, videos and questions that others may answer.
Additionally, users may add friends and send them messages and notifications
about updates to their personal profiles.
• Year of origin - July 2005
• Target audience – Everyone
• Area Served – Worldwide
• Current Size - Over 117 million
Source:- http://www.bebo.com/
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21. Knowledge- & Entertainment-based
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22. Tagged
Tagged allows members to browse the profiles of other members, play games, share
tags and virtual gifts.
• Year of origin – 2004
• Target audience – Everyone
• Area served – Worldwide
• Current size - Over 330 million users
Source:- http://www.tagged.com/
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23. Formspring
Formspring allows users to follow Q&As threads related to their ideas and opinions
on any topic. Users can set up a profile page, follow others, and ask questions.
The questions and their received responses are then published on the user's
profile page.
• Year of origin - November 2009
• Target audience – Everyone
• Area served – Worldwide
• Current size - Over 29 million users
Source:- http://www.formspring.me/
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24. My Life
My Life offers its members a simple and convenient dashboard to manage
communication across most popular social networks and email accounts
securely. Users can also easily build and monitor one online identity
including many profiles, and can make personal and professional
connections by searching over 700 million profiles, all in one place.
• Year of origin – 2002
• Target audience – Everyone
• Area served – Worldwide
• Current size - 60 million
Source:- http://www.mylife.com/
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25. Ivy Connect
Ivy Connect brings together young urban professional elite for
parties, excursions, and TED style talks. Ivy Connect is planning to build a
dynamic private members community across 50 global cities, with 10,000 handselected members in each location.
• Year of origin – 2013
• Target audience - Urban professional elite
• Area served – Worldwide
• Current Size - 2000
Source:- https://www.ivyconnect.com/
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26. Pheed
Pheed enables users to create, inspire and share
texts, photos, videos, audio tracks, voice-notes and live broadcasts.
• Year of origin - 2012
• Target audience - Everyone
• Area served - Worldwide
• Current size - Over 10 million users
Source:- https://www.pheed.com/
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27. Regional Social Networks
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28. Hyves - Netherlands
Hyves connects Netherlands through sports, news and entertainment. Hyves users
can upload pictures and play games, while staying connected with others.
• Year of origin - October 2004
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 10 million users
Source:- http://www.hyves.nl/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

29. iWiW - Hungary
iWiW users can provide personal information like place, date of birth, workplaces on
the site. One can find friends and upload photos.
• Year of origin - 2002
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 4 million users
Source:- http://iwiw.hu/i/belepes
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30. Mixi - Japan
The focus of Mixi is on community entertainment. Users can send and receive
messages, write a diary, read and comment on others’ diaries, organize and join
communities. Mixi is mainly used by people who want to control their network
depth and want to stay in their comfort zone.
• Year of origin - 2004
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 24 million users
Source:- http://mixi.jp/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

31. Line - Japan
Line is a cross-platform communication service and app. Line allows users to send
text messages and make free calls with other users who have the app installed
on their smartphones.
• Year of origin - June 2011
• Target audience - Regional
• Current size - Over 80 million users
Source:- http://line.naver.jp/en/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

32. Cloob - Iran
Cloob users enjoy features like communities, community discussions, photo
albums, articles’ archives for communities, live messaging and chat rooms, job
and resume database, virtual money, online shops, etc.
• Year of origin - December 2004
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 1 million users
Source:- http://www.cloob.com/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

33. Nexopia - Canada
On Nexopia, users can create their own profiles, friends list, blogs, galleries, articles
and forums.
• Year of origin - February 2003
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 1.6 million users
Source:-http://www.nexopia.com/mag
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

34. Taringa - Argentina
On Taringa, can share funny photos, Web memes and breaking news in the
form of posts.
• Year of origin - January 2004
• Target audience - Regional
• Current size - Over 11 million users
Source:- http://www.taringa.net/
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35. Yookos - Africa
Yookos allows users to meet friends online, play online games and keep up to date
with the latest news from around the globe.
• Year of origin - 2011
• Target audience – Africa
• Current size - Over 10 million users
Source:- www.yookos.com/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

36. Mxit – South Africa
Mxit is a free instant messaging application that runs on multiple mobile and
computing platforms. Along with its own standard protocol, it can connect to
Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, AIM or Windows Live Messenger contacts as well.
Mxit is also the largest mobile social network in Africa.
• Year of Origin - 2007
• Target Audience – Africa
• Current Size - Over 7 million users
Source:- http://site.mxit.com/
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37. 2Go – South Africa
2Go is the fastest growing mobile messenger in South Africa that allows users to
communicate with friends. Users can create profiles, talk to friends, share files
and pictures and meet new people.
• Year of origin - 2007
• Target audience – Africa
• Current size - 1.1 million users
Source:- http://www.2go.im/
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38. Renren - China
On Renren, users can create their own profiles. Applications for blogging,
uploading and sharing photos, and online gaming are available. Renren is
known as the Facebook of China.
• Year of origin - December 2005
• Target audience – Everyone
• Current size - Over 160 million users
Source:- http://www.renren.com/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

39. Sina Weibo - China
Sina Weibo is a microblogging site and its features surpass those of Twitter,
including threaded comments, pictures and videos. Chinese celebrities depend
on Weibo as a way to connect with their fans and drive popularity.
• Year of origin - August 2009
• Target audience – Everyone
• Current size - Over 300 million users
Source:- http://weibo.com/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

40. VK - Europe
VK (Originally VKontakte, Russian: ВКонтакте, literally "in contact") is the second
biggest social network service in Europe after Facebook. It is available in several
languages but is popular among Russian-speaking users around the world,
more so in Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Belarus, and
Israel. VK allows users to message contacts publicly or privately, create groups,
public pages and events, share and tag images, audio and video, and play
browser-based games.
• Year of origin - 2007
• Target audience - Russian speaking users
• Current size - Over 220 million registered accounts
Source:- http://vk.com/
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41. Odnoklassniki - Russia
Odnoklassniki lets users rate other people’s photos, play games online and chat
with other users.
• Year of origin - 2006
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 16.5 million users
Source:- http://www.odnoklassniki.ru/
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42. Sonico - Brazil
Sonico is popular among its users who can search and add friends, update their
own personal profile, manage their privacy, upload photos and YouTube videos,
organize events, and play online games. Users can interact via private
messages, public comments, and photo tags.
• Year of origin - July 2007
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 20 million users
Source:- http://www.sonico.com/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

43. Worldfloat - India
Worldfloat is slowly rising in its popularity. Users can create profiles, share photos
and videos. One most important feature of Worldfloat is virtual gaming and
integration of search engine and social networking.
• Year of origin - June 2012
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 6 million users
Source:- http://worldfloat.com/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

44. Wer-kennt-wen - Germany
Wer-kennt-wen is a popular social media Web site. Users can create profiles,
update status, write blogs and chat with friends.
• Year of origin - October 2006
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 9 million users
Source:- http://www.wer-kennt-wen.de/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

45. Skyrock - France
Skyrock users can create blogs, add profiles, showcase their musical compositions
and exchange messages with other members.
• Year of origin - December 2002
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 21 million users
Source:- http://www.skyrock.com/
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46. Draugiem - Latvia
Draugiem users can send messages, upload pictures, and play online games. It is
frequently used in Latvia as a communication tool instead of e-mail.
• Year of origin - 2004
• Target audience – Regional
• Current size - Over 2.6 million users
Source:- http://www.draugiem.lv/
@2013, ICE, All rights reserved

47. Eksi Sozluk - Turkey
Eksi Sozluk was Turkey’s first social networking site and it means “sour
dictionary.” Founder Sedat Kapanoglu wanted to create a digital, usergenerated base of knowledge and he established a loose structure with
minimal friction to achieve that goal. The site is still popular. Users can
create entries about any topic and write anything about that, even if it is
not correct. In a loose sense, it is a “dictionary” built by users.
• Year of origin - February 1999
• Target audience – Turkey
• Current size - Over 400,000 users
Source:- https://eksisozluk.com/
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/07/t
he-secret-behind-the-turkish-protesterssocial-media-mastery/
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48. Thank You!
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