True Internetentrepreneurs behind Netlog, knew what to do….find a new business: TWOO.Com ! A new succes?!

They had a dream….building the largest social network in the world….but they didn’t cound on Mark Zuckerberg to have the same idea, so Netlog (Belgian social network) founders had a bit of a downturn the last years when Facebook concurred the world of social networks and Netlog didn’t….BUT as good entrepreneurs they knew what to do! Find a new and better product to concur the world, and so TWOO.com was founded, and is on his way to concur the world, maybe not in social media but in dating, although they call it “social discovery).

Youngsters are aware of social media

A research done by University of Antwerp says youngsters a very aware of social media and are far more critical then we thought.

Teens are intensive users of social network sites as Facebook, Netlog, …but they don’t accept everybody to be their friend, and are aware of the information they are sharing.  Off course in the early days it was a popularity contest….who has the most facebook friends was the more popular guy – even the geek was popular in those days (but with doubtful friends????)! Since the early days we’ve come along way….and teens as well are more aware of the fact that everybody can’t be your friend. They even are afraid of what’s happening with their privacy and security, but that doesn’t stop them from sharing a lot of information. 

Some quick numbers:

• 90% of the teens has 1 or more profile pages on the net
• more than 50% logs on every day to check his profile
• 17% post every day
• 90% use their profile to keep in touch with old friends, new friends, daily friends, ….
• 46% is in search of new contacts

Most youngsters are still sharing a lot of private information over their profile, but have tightened their privacy set since the opened their profile. Only 27% of the teens think the social network is safe, and 23% says their privacy is accurately secure.

I think these results show a normal evolution in behaviour, which will set the future for the social media. We are aware, and will use it, but with more care. If you go into socialnomics part…this means those (closed) networks are becoming more and more important,, since the value of your friend is rising is this social network.

Groupon – already the hype of 2011?

As always….a young and entrepreneurial spirit, Andrew Mason, comes up with an idea to create added value for customers and suppliers. A basic idea, group leveraged discounts, transferred to the flat world.

We all know group discounts….it’s an easy principle: a large group can negotiate small prices because of the size of the order. Mason transferred this system to the flat world and into the social media with Groupon. It’s already the fastest growing company in the US, and now wants to concur the world.  You register and log-on through the groupon of your town. Groupon will each day sell a product or service with a huge (up to 50%) discount. The only condition is that enough people by the offer. In the US they’re already working with major companies, but in Europe for instance they’re offering small local initiatives (at a very good price!)…..Once they can open the box with the big deals from the major companies they’re bound to get huge!  To get word aroudn Groupon uses social media channels, every Groupon-member who tells about the deals through Facebook, Twitter, Netlog, … gets a 6 EUR in his account everytime an interested member steps into a Groupon deal.

Google already saw a huge opportunity and offered up to  6 billion Dollar for Groupon but Mason keeps the company under his own wings.  Will he be able to maintain his market share since there are a lot of new initiatives starting up with the same idea, f.i. Living Social (which is a Amazon.com partner and sold a value of 1,3 mio EUR in Amazon.com-coupons in only 24h time, with every coupon was paid 10 EUR but had a value of 20 EUR), Groupprice, Localdealsites, vente-exclusive, ….

Future will tell, but this will get huge in 2011!
You can share your hot deals and remarks through the comment section.

[Update: january, 26 2011: Today Google announces Google Offers a site where discounted offers will be posted for a limited time frame.  When Google offers will be operational was not yet announced! - As I predicted....this is going to the hype of 2011!]