

Ask YC: What do you think of niche social networks? - ericc

a. What do you guys think of niche social networks?<p>b. What about a niche social network as the only feature of a site?<p>c. What about a niche social network as one of the features among a host of different features on a site?<p>d. Is there any stigma associated with the words "social network" in the VC / Angel community, now that there are thousands of these popping up each day?
======
cstejerean
I would stay away from a couple of things. One is the "social network" label.
Personally I think it's overused and it's meaning is starting to expand (I
think a 1990 BBS would qualify as a social network today).

You might have a hard time with niche social networks. The primary reason
being that the bigger players are building tools to allow folks to roll their
own networks. So the chances are users won't want to get an account for every
single niche network and prefer to stick to something from within the larger
networks they belong to.

Depending on the exact niche market and just how special your site has to be
for that niche market compared to the generic sites you might still have a
good shot at building something useful. I would prefer some label like
"community" over "social network" though.

I think del.icio.us, flickr, last.fm are great examples of community driven
sites that serve a niche market.

Things like "social network for wine lovers" I think are likely to fail.

~~~
altay
_Things like "social network for wine lovers" I think are likely to fail._

Actually, Cork'd was acquired back in May!
<http://hivelogic.com/narrative/articles/corkd-acquired>

~~~
cstejerean
interesting, i was making up the wine lovers part. good to know that I'm
wrong.

------
h34t
Connectedness to the things that matter to me is like oxygen.

I think websites that connect people to ideas and people they care about will
only grow in importance and popularity as more and more hackers get the little
things right (user experience), and implementing these as features of a site
becomes easier and cheaper (less time and money) so that more sites can be
driven by those with the best connections and insight into their community,
rather than by those who happen to have the right tech skills.

At least, I hope this is what happens. It can be a lonely world out here.
There are few things as important (and, for many, as difficult) as finding the
right people and information to surround yourself when you exit "the system"
and are faced with crafting your life experience all on your own.

The internet may already have come a long way, but I think this is just the
beginning.

------
aaroneous
I think the answer really depends on the niche you want to go after. Do
XBox360 fans need another social network login/pass to remember? I'd assume
not, a Facebook community probably would be easier for them.

But, I'd also assume that there are viable opportunities out there that, by
the nature of the niche, would function better as an isolated specialty site.
Things like a social network for elementary school children would make sense
in that context.

------
jamescoops
I think you need to distinguish between a niche social network and a niche
community. Social networking is effectively a specific bundle of features
(profiles, friend/ buddy-lists) but there are a raft of social features that
can be deployed as part of a community that may be more effective. For
example, whilst a social network for sports fans might not work, some kind of
wiki/ digg combination might be killer.

------
carter
I think we don't need just another social network. Do you know about identity
crash problem
([http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=identity+cras...](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=identity+crash&defid=2585949))?

We need some bridge between websites and social networks. some kind of cross-
site copy-paste technology.

------
kashif
One challenge is that niche networks by definition are not going to be as
large as general networks. So they won't generate enough advertising revenue.
And unfortunately, most networking sites are solely dependent on advertising.

