Question About Starting a Website.

[Ghost]

Sorry if This Is the wrong section. im new to the forums.

I was just wondering, how much money would it cost to start a website like facebook, when facebook started out and started getting popular?

i would be paying someone to design the site btw.

Thanks.

[BW Entertainment]

I believe Facebook saw their first hint of profit last year.

That may give you an idea.

[Ghost]

my question was how much does it take to start a website LIKE facebook.

[noob]

A lot. Lets just say in the thousands if you're not programming and designing the site yourself. It would take a few months for an experienced and fast programmer and designer to build that site out (a VERY basic version) at the minimum. Then on top of that to expand to what facebook is now, you're talking about millions of dollars. Starting out, hosting cost will be cheap until you gain some traffic. Then it'll be base on how much traffic you get. If you gain as much traction as facebook did early on (hypothetically speaking), you're looking at a couple thousand dollars in hosting. If you're smart, you might be able to cut that down to a few hundred until the site scales even more but at the very least, you're looking at a few thousand dollars starting.

[Strategist]

Hi Ghost,

When developing a social networking site you have two options. You could develop a custom site or build on an existing template.
If you choose the custom route, costs may run in the tens of thousands for the programming hours necessary to develop the site.
The second option is ALOT more attractive. Companies have developed templates that make it easy for anyone to develop networking sites. One example is SocialGo.com, which allows you to customize your own networking site for free.
It's a wonderful resource if programming isn't your strongest area and you just want to test and develop your business idea first. GoodLuck!

Andrew Riley
FSU, Finance
"Thought must change before Reality"

[BW Entertainment]

my question was how much does it take to start a website LIKE facebook.

Sorry, I do not know a solid figure, but it will cost a lot- if you want it to be successful anyways. I have seen figured ranging from $30,000 - $250,000++++

[CGM]

Facebook will eventually die out, once everyone's Mom decides to join and its no longer cool to post pictures of yourself drunk on your wall.

Its a done thing, if you're serious about spending thousands of dollars developing an idea that has already been done, I suggest coming up with something different that will appeal to the masses.

You have to take into consideration advertising costs, etc instead of simply the costs of having something developed.

[noob]

I don't agree that Facebook will die out but I do agree that the OP should factor in other things and considering what advantage they are bringing to the table. As for Facebook, I think they're innovating quite well.

[CKrecicki]

Why don't you use the social media thats already out there to push products? Theres hundreds of great niche social media websites already. Sales never gets old, people are always changing there options and metaprogramming just keep an eye on consumer activity and roll over websites during seasonal times. Maybe you'll land a few website that will be long run.

[CGM]

I don't agree that Facebook will die out but I do agree that the OP should factor in other things and considering what advantage they are bringing to the table. As for Facebook, I think they're innovating quite well.

It may not die out, but the reasons I think it will:

Its gotten too big, and over marketed. Facebook was a lovely thing back when I could keep in touch with my friends, and not have to worry about ridiculous ads and invites to ridiculous groups and games. The feel of the site was much more mature than that of Myspace, which I think is horrible (at least the actual profiles, because I could care less what your favorite song is, I don't want it to be streaming automatically overtop of music I am already listening to. Nor do I want to see your red text on your neon green background).

I've seen plenty of people leave Facebook for several reasons, it's gotten to the point where family members add their relatives, which sounds like a good thing but if you're young, you generally do things and talk about things that you don't want your relatives to see/know. While I don't post pictures of myself drunk or going-out at the bars like so many do, its gotten to the point where people have up and left. They don't want Mom and Dad to know that all that money they spent on college is going to partying!

Where can it go from here? What direction can it go in? I'm not a fan of Myspace at all, but what they have that Facebook doesn't is real, actual content. (Music and videos) Myspace does things to support up and coming musicians, actors, comedians, etc. Facebook just promotes being lazy and playing Farmville and annoying the hell out of me with your invites and a cluttered wall of no friend comments, purely ridiculousness.

Its early, I need to have my morning smoke and coffee and maybe my mood will be better

I do think Facebook will slowly begin to die out, I hear Myspace is launching new features that will be implemented slowly, they want to double their users from their current 120million (I think) to 300million. Or atleast according to a news story I heard about an hour ago on the local news. Coffee and cig time!


EDIT: Mmm, coffee, smoke and breakfast. To the original poster, I do not mean to discourage you at all, that is not what I am doing. I wish you much luck in your endeavor and if you create anything that could directly compete with the major social networking sites I would be happy to join and try it out. I think there is room for one, but perhaps it needs to be less widely targeted and more directly targeted towards either a specific region, group, or interests so it actually provides the service it was created for.

[inblurbs]

Hi Ghost,

That’s like a question how much, is a car? What kind of car an old VW or a brand new Mercedes?

First of all what is you targeted audience?
Wouldn’t it be better instead of to do an own social network, to leverage Facebook power and develop a Facebook app?

Did you made an analysis of your buyer personas and your potential market share?

How do you want to monetize your work?

Second whats you budget size?
One of the secrets of success is cash. If you have enough cash your chances are good, if not....

Third how is your internet marketing skills?
The most important question you need to answer for your self. If you have not enough skills you have to hire somebody to do all the marketing for you and this increases you’re spending for sure.

Only some of the question which needs to be answered before you will discover all the costs.

[noob]

It may not die out, but the reasons I think it will:

Its gotten too big, and over marketed. Facebook was a lovely thing back when I could keep in touch with my friends, and not have to worry about ridiculous ads and invites to ridiculous groups and games. The feel of the site was much more mature than that of Myspace, which I think is horrible (at least the actual profiles, because I could care less what your favorite song is, I don't want it to be streaming automatically overtop of music I am already listening to. Nor do I want to see your red text on your neon green background).

I've seen plenty of people leave Facebook for several reasons, it's gotten to the point where family members add their relatives, which sounds like a good thing but if you're young, you generally do things and talk about things that you don't want your relatives to see/know. While I don't post pictures of myself drunk or going-out at the bars like so many do, its gotten to the point where people have up and left. They don't want Mom and Dad to know that all that money they spent on college is going to partying!

Where can it go from here? What direction can it go in? I'm not a fan of Myspace at all, but what they have that Facebook doesn't is real, actual content. (Music and videos) Myspace does things to support up and coming musicians, actors, comedians, etc. Facebook just promotes being lazy and playing Farmville and annoying the hell out of me with your invites and a cluttered wall of no friend comments, purely ridiculousness.

Its early, I need to have my morning smoke and coffee and maybe my mood will be better

I do think Facebook will slowly begin to die out, I hear Myspace is launching new features that will be implemented slowly, they want to double their users from their current 120million (I think) to 300million. Or atleast according to a news story I heard about an hour ago on the local news. Coffee and cig time!


EDIT: Mmm, coffee, smoke and breakfast. To the original poster, I do not mean to discourage you at all, that is not what I am doing. I wish you much luck in your endeavor and if you create anything that could directly compete with the major social networking sites I would be happy to join and try it out. I think there is room for one, but perhaps it needs to be less widely targeted and more directly targeted towards either a specific region, group, or interests so it actually provides the service it was created for.

You can block application notifications if you don't want them to appear on your wall without blocking people. You can block certain content from certain people if you don't want them to see it. Its apparent you never played with the privacy settings. I use to get a lot of invites to vampire bites and all this other junk. I haven't gotten one of those in over half a year and I still get all my news feeds and updates from friends I want to hear from that are on my friends list. Believe it or not, Facebook grants you massive controls. There are huge celebs on there just as there is on Myspace and there is valuable content as well as videos on there as well. I think you need to mess around with it a bit more because from what I've read so far, everything you claim FB lacks or suck at, it actually accomplishes well.

Having said that, I'm not here to defend them and they do have their short comings in certain areas but like I said before, they are innovating well and I strongly believe they do a good job fixing issues that come up. You don't grow to over 400 million users if you suck that badly and breaking over 1 billion in revenue per year. Obviously they have to be doing something right.

[CGM]

Nah, I have it all blocked now, just saying. I have my family set up on a "Family List" where they can only see my profile pic and status update, a "Incognito" list which I always appear as offline as, which the ex is on and just some people who talk to me too much on there.

I still think for the reasons in my original post that it may find its peak very soon, leaving room for competiors. Back in the day it was all about Xanga, then Myspace, Facebook, everything has a time and place and I just think it will eventually die out as something new and popular becomes trendy.

[noob]

I guess only time will tell how far they will go. Although I must give them credit for being the leader as no other social network has grown as much as they did or done as much in business revenue either. They are still rapidly growing. But you are correct, any business can be taken out, some are just harder than others.

[BW Entertainment]

I think we are forgetting the most important thing. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Tom Anderson (Myspace) are now billionaires, regardless if Myspace/Facebook decide to survive another ten years.

I would love to be in their shoes