CCN MATTHEWS — Dec 15 — Members of Community Connect's (16 million members) BlackPlanet.com and MiGente.com will be able to use voice (phone) chat communities Vibeline and Fonochat. Teligence offered Livelinks® in the '90s followed by TangoPersonals®, Interactive Male®, Vibeline®, and Fonochat®. Customers use these voice enabled systems for chatting and connecting.
The full article was originally published at CCN Matthews, but is no longer available.
CCN MATTHEWS — Dec 15 — Members of Community Connect's (16 million members) BlackPlanet.com and MiGente.com will be able to use voice (phone) chat communities Vibeline and Fonochat. Teligence offered Livelinks® in the '90s followed by TangoPersonals®, Interactive Male®, Vibeline®, and Fonochat®. Customers use these voice enabled systems for chatting and connecting.
The full article was originally published at CCN Matthews, but is no longer available.
Mark, why do you think that Community Connect receives such little main stream press? Is it because they only operate niche communities? I have found their last few chest thumping press releases as a cry to be recognized as a leader and pioneer in the social networking space.
Peace.
Community Connect is an incredible success story. Up until the beginning of this year they had never done any advertising. Huge growth through word of mouth only. They ‘own’ the African American segment with BlackPlanet.com. Monster partnered with them and encouraged them to start advertising.
They also wanted to start a PR program so they hired top flight PR firm Fleishman Hillard, a little over a month ago, after an extended search. Fleishman Hillard is the same company that Yahoo Personals uses for PR. We’ll see more news about them over the Valentines period I’m sure.
fyi, Community Connect charges for it’s dating product on BlackPlanet.com but recently made dating free on MiGente and AsianAvenue to try and spur growth.
Mark Brooks
OnlinePersonalsWatch.com
Thanks Mark.
I recently saw a breakdown of their revenue showing that roughly 15% of their earnings comes from personals. I suspect that they will increase their personals generated revenue as they continue to improve the service and start charging (again) for MiGente/AsianAvenue.
Traffic for BlackPlanet.com has been in decline for some time. I wonder if the decision to start advertising was spurred by this declining traffic.
Whatever the case they’ve certainly been successful in servicing niche communities for years and serve as a good reminder that the niche space is profitable (and scalable) even if not as visible or frequently covered in the mainstream.
Peace.
-S
Mark, why do you think that Community Connect receives such little main stream press? Is it because they only operate niche communities? I have found their last few chest thumping press releases as a cry to be recognized as a leader and pioneer in the social networking space.
Peace.
Community Connect is an incredible success story. Up until the beginning of this year they had never done any advertising. Huge growth through word of mouth only. They ‘own’ the African American segment with BlackPlanet.com. Monster partnered with them and encouraged them to start advertising.
They also wanted to start a PR program so they hired top flight PR firm Fleishman Hillard, a little over a month ago, after an extended search. Fleishman Hillard is the same company that Yahoo Personals uses for PR. We’ll see more news about them over the Valentines period I’m sure.
fyi, Community Connect charges for it’s dating product on BlackPlanet.com but recently made dating free on MiGente and AsianAvenue to try and spur growth.
Mark Brooks
OnlinePersonalsWatch.com
Thanks Mark.
I recently saw a breakdown of their revenue showing that roughly 15% of their earnings comes from personals. I suspect that they will increase their personals generated revenue as they continue to improve the service and start charging (again) for MiGente/AsianAvenue.
Traffic for BlackPlanet.com has been in decline for some time. I wonder if the decision to start advertising was spurred by this declining traffic.
Whatever the case they’ve certainly been successful in servicing niche communities for years and serve as a good reminder that the niche space is profitable (and scalable) even if not as visible or frequently covered in the mainstream.
Peace.
-S