Yub.com is one of those rad ideas that are simple and possibly lucrative when executed well and with patience. It also is the latest example of what fun it is to watch web culture evolve in real time, by looking at one particular space as a microcosm. In this case, so-called “social networking.” You have to at least have heard of Friendster by now. Of all the social networking sites I’ve tried, I find Friendster to still be the most lively, clever and ironic place to hang out. But it, despite having first-mover advantage and an almost pointless amount of media attention, still hasn’t amounted to much, even with Scott Sassa at the helm. One big problem from a usability point of view was their kludgy, slow and boring interface.

People were doing all sorts of funny things, but all the company ever seemed to do was apologize for the slow or broken system. The other problem, that even folks in the media saw, was that there didn’t seem to be a business model present. But membership, whatever that meant, still grew. Kind of like the following for the elusive internet film makers in William Gibson’s underrated book Pattern Recognition. Then came the Myspace boys - who, like the commerce-savvy marketer that contracts with the heroine in Gibson’s book, sees business potential where others only see culure. (Full disclosure, they were a client of mine at a different firm).

Myspace, where Friendster offered a slow-to-change system, adapted with its users. It’s not a pretty interface, but it works, and every month there’s a new feature: blogs, chat, music downloads, invitations, photo sharing, you name it. And not surprisingly, Myspace members tend to spend a long, long time on the system, particularly when it came to talking about music. Enter a business model, that involves record lables, bands, and movie studios. All of whom mix more or less freely and unironically in the Myspace world, allowing user enthusiasm or lack thereof to promote them. Simply put, Myspace (and other social networking sites) makes things happen. Maybe not always what you want - but if you put something out there, you’ll mobilize people. And now the folks at Yub have taken the next logical step: officially commercializing social networking software. It’s the best totally-open-to-all social networking interface I’ve seen (Orkut is invite only). Clean, modern, fast. Not withoug flaws, of course. But on top of that, they’ve linked the networking tools to a direct remuneration system, and to actual products. So, the anti-commercialism of Friendster and the ersatze guerilla and cause marketing of Myspace has evolved into a pop collective consumer space. Hence the name “yub,” according to the founders, i.e., “buy” backwards, because the marketing starts with the target and ends with the products. Good idea. Will be interested to see how it grows.

JF

This entry was posted on Monday, March 21st, 2005 at 12:32 pm and is filed under General, Finds, Social Networking.