KINGSTONPO.COM- SOCIAL NETWORK FOR DANCEHALL/REGGAE MUSIC LOVERS
May 15, 2008
I was surprised that this idea wasn’t already executed and online, because I personally believed if done well, with an understanding of bringing together the local Jamaican spun reggae, dancehall music and culture with those who love, consume and live it globally, this social network can be huge.
This idea is also reflective of where we’re seeing social networks go especially this past year, more niche- or what the sloganists now label - a vertical niche. It seems like they bought, got a whitelabel social networking software which is cool and then branded it, they still have a few tweaks in design and words to effect which is cool. My only major issue so far is that I’m not sure that I like the name kingstonpo.com, I think it’s a little narrow, not as unique and doesn’t encapsulate what I think their vision is, plus they could have just bought reggaemusicfans.com domain name from me. LOL. LOL. Regardless, Good luck to the owners of kingstonpo.com, I’m expecting great things.
I really like your name Ingrid. if they are serious about this thing, they should purchase the name from you. I am scratching my head thinking “what does KingstonPO mean?” It will be interesting to know how many of the new start ups you have blogged about actually put effort into purchasing generic domain names…just a thought.
“I was surprised that this idea wasn’t already executed and online”
You shouldn’t be - remember back in November you wrote “Realvibez.com gets more social” - http://www.siliconcaribe.com/2007/11/22/realvibezcom-gets-more-social/
That is a social network built around an affinity to Caribbean music. We just kicked off our first major promotion for it this month (running a contest and advertising on Facebook) but it has been out there.
It is good to see a venture like this though. I totally agree that niche social networks have grown in popularity tremendously, especially thanks to Ning, KickApps and white-label social networking software.
Monetizing niche networks is the next step. Check out this post and the discussion that follows - http://blogs.mediapost.com/social_media_insider/?p=15
Also, I listened to a segment on the Diane Rehm show on NPR this week that focused on online social networks. It included one of the authors of “Groundswell” from Forrester Research and a co-founder of Ning.
Great listen -
http://wamu.org/audio/dr/08/05/r2080512-20823.asx
Hey David,
Yeah man I do recall that article I wrote about what Real Vibez was doing. But what I was talking about was more of a stand alone niche social network created solely for the purpose of reggae/dancehall music fans. What real vibez has done is to tek it to dem within other social networks. Both are great!
Actually, our network within Flux is akin to creating our own network in Ning, except that users can log into MTV.com, etc., as well as share content and friends across all the networks.
I understand that we did not create our own “walled garden” but I don’t think that is the right approach, especially since the latest buzzword is “open” - look at OpenSocial and FriendConnect.
Users are suffering from social networking fatigue - remembering too many usernames/passwords and maintaining profiles across too many sites. There is bound to be consolidation in the space and those that get on the “open” bandwagon will be the winners, unless they have the money to stand on their own (even MySpace and Bebo are part of OpenSocial).
Just my thoughts.
It takes a lot to impress me being that i work for a media company and i’ve seen lot of project trying to accomplish a networking socializing experience. But i was blown away of how advance that simple site was in comparison to other caribbean social networking site.
I’m a big fan of myspace but on kingstonpo.com to change my layout design or to add videos/music to my page its just one click buttons i don’t need to know any codes. I thought that was very impressive since large networking site like myspace haven’t accomplish that technology yet.
Also they claim to be releasing an iphone version of the site. I’ll be waiting for that.
So far the only thing i don’t like is the name of kingstonpo.com i’m really interested in finding out how that name came about.
seems like kingstonpo.com has raise the Bar in the Caribbean social network era….
Nice site! hope they reconsider the name before any major Marketing>Branding
http://www.hypedates.com