YAHOO NEWS — Oct 16 — Viacom’s MTV Networks is buying Quizilla.com, a top five community for female teenagers to create and share quizzes, fictions, poetry and other content. Quizilla was started in 2002 and draws 4.7 million uniques (comScore) around the world. In August, MTVN bought Shockwave.com and AddingtingGames.com. In September, Nickelodeon launched ParentsConnect.com.
Mark Brooks: Users first joined social networks (Friendster) to check out their friends buddy lists. But they needed something more. MySpace beat Friendster because of their connection with music. WAYN.com is doing well (and charging membership) by allowing users to express their travel interests. Quizilla is perfect for MTV, and I bet they got a good deal on this slightly ‘off the radar’ site. They have mopped up a sizable batch of market key influencers. Social networking sites will niche out around demographic targets, interests and we could still see a technology leader emerge with some next generation compelling functionality. I’m still waiting for the ‘iPod’ of social networks.