Bright Things Share Discussion Threads

[carl79] 18/4/2010 13:22

Hi UncleB,

Yes, SG getting an awful lot of exposure (for free) lately. The vast majority of articles (that ive read) mention alternatives to Ning when they talk about the recent event and of these, all mention SG. It is positive for sure...

As Norbus says, I hope we see a policy statement soon since becoming one of the main providers of free Create Your Own Social Networks over night will surely have an impact on our demographics if left unchecked. But i've harped on about that enough lately - i think we are all on the same page - or at least know what that page is (for those who quite fancy BGT taking on as many free networks as they can)...

I expect some trading activity this week - maybe not much in terms of movement but i do expect more trading than we are used to...

[uncle_bob] 18/4/2010 11:53

Socialgo is extending it's international presence. This site is from Honduras I believe.

[uncle_bob] 18/4/2010 09:11

Big jump up on Alexa this weekend.

[norbus] 18/4/2010 09:07

The Ning opportunity is for real; Therefore it would be too commercially sensitive for BGT to bare all. we'll know policy soon enough as this is a free marketplace struggle for one to survive on one hand and the second to get ahead at the cost of the other

[carl79] 17/4/2010 19:46

Ning already seeing fall out - title of this blog says it all! Once again SG gettign a it of free publicity.

I made a note of this "Free forever" and they are quite right - it says free forever up on the SG site - ive never noticed - not sure if it was there before...

[uncle_bob] 17/4/2010 13:40

I can't see BGT withdrawing free networks immediately, they will continue to build a critical mass, maybe for another 3 - 6 months. However I expect the free networks will not stay totally free for much longer and that BGT will start to intoduce some sort of toll fee at some point soon.

[the analyst] 17/4/2010 12:09

I agree with uncle_bob - in essence, these are just software companies and the market is big enough for plenty of them, each with their own USPs

When I broke the ning story to these boards yesterday morning my first comment was that they will not want hundreds of thousands of free-loaders coming over and taking up resources. That was immediately obviously to all of us. Of course, BGT will be monitoring the sign-up and conversion rate and will be ready to make adjustments to the business model as and when required.

But, there is more than one way to skin a rabbit.

They don't necessarily need to remove the 'free' service

They could simply reduce the bandwidth and storage of free networks. Along the same lines, they could give the free networks no customer support at all and instead restrict them to a users forum where they can give each-other support (supplemented by official 'how to' videos and tutorials').

If free networks don't take up any bandwidth, storage space or customer service time, then it might not be a problem if we end up with 500,000. As we don;t have the data to hand, we as investors would just be guessing what is right or wrong to do, though

Like we have all been saying, there is a huge opportunity here to get the brand more well know and get enough premium users to bring forward break-even

Exciting times indeed!

[uncle_bob] 17/4/2010 11:44

I can see no reason why Ning and Socialgo cannot coexist and both make a profit.

[carl79] 17/4/2010 09:34

Interesting to see that the creator forum is down! Are Ning feeling the heat...dont want word spreading too quickly and doing what they can to limit people's ability to communicate? Or is the site just undergoing some maintenance?? :-)

[siwel100] 17/4/2010 00:48

It does beg the obvious question, if Ning can not make a go of it financially and turn a big budget,first mover advantage and a major user base into a break even position, then what chance has johny come lately ,teeny BGT.
We could do with an international internet success story, but it doesnt look like BGT will be it....but best of luck to them,at least they have tried, but just chose the wrong sector,one that doesnt seem to lead to a profitable model..

[the analyst] 17/4/2010 00:34

huge amount of exposure for Dominic's "Iron Curtain" response to ning:

[carl79] 16/4/2010 19:59

Yup uncleB...They have a very good shot at turning this in their favour...but i'd suggest they dont want to become the parking ground for another 200,000 free networks - there is a reason Ning are dumping them - not rocket science. As users get the message that the free lunch is over and you need to pay to host social websites just as you do to host normal websites, then they will eventually pay for the one that gives the best bang for buck - bgt needs to be that "one"...i think they should follow in Ning's footsteps and start charging the free networks something - these network owners have little choice if SG charge as well, sure there are other options but they are not as developed as ning or socialgo...

But them im after results and after many years of a declining SP, im salivating at the opportunity to make some good, quick money...the BGT team have all the stats and will do whats right im sure - that may not mean charging free networks just yet so i'll need to live with that if its the case

[uncle_bob] 16/4/2010 19:13

Alot of people on twitter talking about moving from Ning to Socialgo mainly because Socialgo is free. The downside is Socialgo will attract a whole lot of freeloaders, the upside is that Socialgo seem to be getting alot of market exposure out of this, which will hopefully attract more paying customers.

[carl79] 16/4/2010 18:50

This could be the hokey stick moment that we have been waiting for...lets hope we fully capitalise!

nasty man - well, your alias says it all really...good luck to you and yours - now until you grow up please leave your comments to yourself. TIA

[the analyst] 16/4/2010 18:23

It could be time for BGT to raise funds and then let the world know that they are cash rich, are on their way to break-even, are a safe platform for anyone wanting a pro social network etc.

Ideally, they would get the money from high-profile investors (like Vikrant) then these investors could also pump out their own PR saying how SocialGO is the 'only' serious (and safe) platform.

I could even imagine them putting out sound-bites about how ning must be in big financial trouble to be making this sudden move. If premium ning users think that ning may be going bust they will want to move to socialgo before wasting any more time and effort developing their ning sites

[nasty man] 16/4/2010 18:16

All over for you losers, the new guy at Ning means business and will destroy Socialgo within months.

[carl79] 16/4/2010 18:11

LOL -

Got to love Americans!

As a free network creator I'm disappointed to lose my free sites but they're only free to me. Someone is paying for the storage space and bandwidth. Not me. So I'm supposed to feel bad because the guy paying for my free ride decided to quit paying? Obviously the ad revenue from our free sites didn't cover the cost of our "free" sites.

Man the eff up you whinging crybabies. So your welfare checks quit coming. Better get a job.

Remember the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules.

You just know he concocted that whole beginning paragraph so he could say "man the eff up" ha ha

[the analyst] 16/4/2010 17:50

Found the official news on the ning creators site:

[the analyst] 16/4/2010 17:49

"Shutting down free networks may drive some users to firms such as Pligg and Xoops which offer completely free network creation tools, or into the arms of competitor SocialGO, which still offers a free, stripped-down version of its service. However, Ning is unlikely to make it easy for networks to transition over to its competitors. This means many Ning network creators may opt for the lowest paid options on the site which cost as little as USD4.95 a month.

However, any restrictions on how sites move away from Ning is likely to prompt an angry response from Ning's developer community, and may make it easier for competitors such as SocialGO to paint themselves as the more friendly alternative to Ning."

[the analyst] 16/4/2010 17:38

Ning premium service pricing:

[the analyst] 16/4/2010 17:29

It might be relevant that the ning free offering gave their users 10GB storage and 100GB bandwidth, yet SocialGO's gives users only 1GB storage and 10GB bandwidth.

but, despite that, ning say that 75% of the bandwidth used is from premium users.

So, why are they dumping the free networks, if they take up such a small percentage of the bandwidth? It must be that they are hoping that many of them convert to premium and improve the revenue immediately before they run out of cash.

They claim to have 'tens of thousands' of premium users, so it might well be that the move (along with reducing staff) takes them to break-even very quickly

There seems to be more to this story than meets the eye - I wonder if they are in big financial trouble and this is a last ditch effort to save the company...

[carl79] 16/4/2010 15:51

No, not beyond reason at all. I think we have every opportunity of capitalising on this...however, this is not a business as usual shift in the market. It is fundamental! I think we need a company response to what they are doing to capitalise...the last time Ning made a major change WL were all over it and i mean all over it! There were posts everywhere and widgets creating in near no time at all to migrate people over...this time we are not getting that so it leaves us wondering what they are going to do where as last time it was clear...the message was "we are going to near break our backs (and the platform as it turned out lol) trying to give ex - ningers a home...I'm not saying BGT should make any rash decisions but they will need to carefully evaluate what nings decision will do to the dynamics of the create your own social network market and react accordingly. We dont want to be the home for all free networks for obvious reasons but "doing nothing" can make us exactly that very quickly...all imo of course, i am no industry expert!