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10 Caribbean social networks, who’ll be No. 1 ?

May 16, 2008

The race to become the dominant Caribbean social network has become hot and heavy with players. From the pioneers, the new kids to the niche players, we’re now wondering which ones are the real contenders in becoming the facebook.com,myspace.com or classmates.com of the Caribbean?

We’ve been tracking the development of Caribbean social networks for the past five years and there have been some exciting developments. What has influenced the rise of social networks is the easier access to white label open source solutions and generally a hunger to connect with other in the region and to our friends and family in the Caribbean Diaspora in US, Canada and European. Consequently- social media in the Caribbean is blossoming.

The Pioneers: There are the ones who got in the game before social networks were popular generally and particularly so in the Caribbean region. These sites competed with the mindshare dominance of the American based sites such as hi5.com and blackplanet.com. First there is vibesconnect.com, which was started by a Jamaican waiter turned tech entrepreneur Delroy Frazer. 

Vibesconnect.com started out focused on snagging the Jamaican market, but evolved to challenge blackplanet.com for the general Caribbean and US-based African American online market. Then there is caribbeanmassive.com started by a tech entrepreneur Rodney Browne based in St Kitts. This site made a direct bid for the Caribbean regional and Diaspora market from the start. We also have ackee.com, which started in 1997 and pitched the classmates alma mater angle, where Jamaicans at home and overseas could reconnect with their friends from high school and college. They have since extended the reach to the Caribbean. These pioneers have been around a minimum of five years.

The Newbies: This group of social networking sites threw their hats into the ring less than two years ago, a couple as little as 6 months ago. We have caribfriends.com the newest entrant, started less than 4 months ago by seasoned Jamaican tech entrepreneur Chad Cunningham. Caribfriends.com focuses on being a general social network but have also added the classmates angle. Also in this group we have caribgonewild.com, which targets the Spanish, English and French speaking Caribbean giving them with their own distinct sections, partially in their own languages all under a single site. Caribgonewild.com was started less than a year ago by a Haitian American entrepreneur living in New York who calls himself Shaft.

Then we have caribplanet.com and then easily one of the most visible Caribbean social networking site idletribes.com, started under a year ago by another seasoned Jamaican tech entrepreneur Jamie Ranston. Of all the entrepreneurs who’ve started a Caribbean social network, Ranston is the only one with previous online community/social networking experience-having worked with what was the very first online community/social networking site that catered to a Caribbean audience at home and abroad via country named and focused sites – HomeViewJamaica.com. All this leads us to think about which sites are the real contenders in the Caribbean Social Network Space.


THE REAL CONTENDERS

Based on business models, marketing muscle and membership base, we believe we can cherry pick the top3 real contenders that will likely to become dominant in the market, enjoy strong brand affinity, profitability and longevity.

Business Model

Vibesconnect.com – Google adsense and affiliate marketing.

Caribbeanmassive.com- Google adsense, Caribclix online ad network, local direct ad placements.

Ackee.com – Google adsense

Caribfriends.com- Google adsense and Caribclix online ad network.

Caribgonewild.com-direct ad placements, percentage from member music sales.

Idletribes.com – Google adsense ads, direct ad placements and Caribclix online ad network.

 

Marketing

Vibesconnect.com – They’ve had membership drive type of contests with hip gadgets as winning gifts. Word of mouth and some spend on PPC campaigns - Google Ad words.

Caribbeanmassive.com-they do a lot of local radio advertising in St Kitts. They have also had short Google pay per click ad campaigns

Ackee.com – Word of mouth.

Caribfriends.com – Cross linking with high traffic sites such as Caribsingles.com and Jamdeal.com. In addition to Google PPC Adwords campaign.

Caribgonewild.com-offline sponsorships and word of mouth.

Idletribes.com-cross linking with high traffic sites, a healthy daily spend of Google adwords pay per click campaign. Partnerships with powerful radio, TV and entertainment brands.

Memberships

Vibesconnect.com - unknown

Caribbeanmassive.com - Has just over 7,000 registered users

Ackee.com – Has just over 15,000 registered users

Caribfriends.com – Has just over 3,8000 registered users

Caribgonewild.com - Has over 8,000 registered users

Idletribes.com – Just this week passed 11,800 users

NUMBER ONE?

Who do you think are the top 3 most dominant Caribbean Social networking brands and why? We believe vibesconnect.com,Caribbeanmassive.com and idletribes.com are the real contenders. We’re unsure what will happen to vibesconnect.com since it has been sold for a sweet amount of dosh and its founder Delroy Fraser has focused on his other social networks-christianvibes.com, mivibes.com, cupidvibes.com vibesparty.com and smutvibes.com

PERFECT FOR A MULTIMILLION DOLLAR BUYOUT ? 

With vibesconnect.com already bout out and idletribes.com and Caribbeanmassive.com are right there at the top, but factors can change that around very quickly in a matter of weeks or months. Nothing like an idea that’s got a lot of money and marketing muscle behind it to make even these contenders eating dust. What do you think?

Written by Ingrid Riley · Filed Under Startups 

Comments

2 Responses to “10 Caribbean social networks, who’ll be No. 1 ?”

  1. David Mullings on May 20th, 2008 3:01 pm

    Nice post.

    Vibesconnect.com was not bought just because of the large Caribbean presence, it was bought because it has over 500,000 members based on what I am told and many of these are from the USA and other countries where display advertising is much more mature and eyeballs can be easily monetized.

    Does it matter who is the most dominant Caribbean social network if there are no potential buyers or monetization is weak? I honestly don’t know but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to become a dominant player early….sometimes.

    Eventually Caribbean companies and companies that want to advertise to people in the Caribbean will spend real money to advertise online and these sites will get their share…….but judging from the monetization troubles of Facebook, MySpace et al, most of the money will not be spent on social networks but instead on sites that provide what I call “engaged eyeballs”.

  2. Maxime Mottin on May 27th, 2008 12:25 am

    You have a new one :

    Caribbean-Entrepreneur.com

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