Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Social networking goes Hollywood

As Engagement Alliance advisory board member Alan Moore (co-founder, with Axel Chaldecott, of SMLXL) puts it: It seems everybody is at it these days. Of course, he’s talking about the social networking bandwagon, with this news:

Movie moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s Weinstein Co. said it had taken an undisclosed stake in social-networking website ASmallWorld. The founders of Miramax Film Corp. led a group of investors including Bob Pittman, former chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner Inc., to make a “significant investment” in the site, which can be joined only by invitation from members.

I confess, this description of ASmallWord did raise a smile:

Founded in 2004 by Erik Wachtmeister, ASmallWorld is described by the company as an exclusive global online community of 130,000 members representing more than 100 countries.

By ‘exclusive,’ do they mean ‘not as many as MySpace’? What’s the business case for limiting the reach of the network when you’re running a social networking site? I’m definitely intrigued.