New Competition for Online Social Network Marketing Giant Facebook...Is this Hype or Truth?

In the world of social networking, one name stands above the rest. Facebook. It is the undisputed champion of the social scene, a monolith in the market. That makes it very hard for any newcomer to survive. With 500 million users and a net worth of about 33 billion dollars, the giant is certainly not going out without a fight. Despite all that, one company thinks there may be a few chinks in Facebook’s armor. The David facing off against the Facebook Goliath is called Diaspora.

 Loosely translated, diaspora means the spreading out of people. This new company aims to take advantage of two things, the first is Facebook’s privacy problems. Not long ago, there was a tremendous outcry when Facebook started changing its privacy settings. People were often confused by the new settings and many users felt their information was not being protected. Since then, Facebook has simplified its privacy controls but there is still a fear that the company will try to make more profiles public. That is good news for Diaspora, which describes itself as a “privacy-aware, personally-controlled” social network. Their goal is to give users more control over what information is shared and who can see it. That means users can choose who can see what on an individual basis. For instance, Your boss, won’t be able to see that hilarious picture you took of him at the office christmas party. The second innovation that may help Diaspora succeed is the fact it is open source. That means the company allows people to access the code that runs the programs. In laymen's terms, anyone can see how the program works. That gives apps creators and other software developers more access and means there may be more games and other customizable creations for the individual account. Diaspora is set to be released on September 15th. So far the company has raised more than $200,000 dollars. Among the initial investors was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. With plenty of capital and some luck this new upstart could give Facebook a run for its money.

Do you think this is just hype, or a successful business venture?? Do you feel Diaspora can compete with Facebook? Let us know what you think about this new business and idea!


Blog Posted by: Tyler Griffin, Creative Director - Mindshift Media
Written by: Brad Girtz - Mindshift Media Blogger