Niche social networking site

[jeffdotchan]

Hi Guys,

I'm evaluating a new business idea with a couple associates. It's a niche social networking/dating sites. I feel like alot of the sites now - facebook, myspace, friendster, eharmony.com, asianfrindfinder.com, match.com etc. don't really do a good job of bringing people together.
It's all a competition now on who has more friends/who knows more people while the dating sites are just catered to too many people and there is just no incentive for "good-looking" people to post their profiles, or for people to meet up. There's a negative stigma on people who use online personals as needy/desperate etc.

My idea is to build a site a sort of hybrid with more of an emphasis on networking with people in the area. i.e. the los angeles area. To be even more specific I plan to target asians 20-30. These are people who are young and want to go out and meet new people. Our site will provide that. One of the main advantages is that all the people on the site will have joined for the purpose of meeting people, and will be in the immediate area.
Obviously there will be many features that will make us keep from being another myspace and facebook and encourage our users to meet up with each other IN PERSON - and we have a TON of ideas.

I strongly believe we have the resources to get the site built and the contacts to get enough people in this demographic to join our site.

The site will be free to join and our revenue, once traffic starts flowing in will be from ad revenue - for advertisers who want to target the demographic of our website.

My question is can you guys see any gaping holes in this idea?
IS is too simplistic?
Are we assuming too many things?
Does anyone have any experience building a social networking site?What was the biggest challenge you ran into?

Could any of you guys/girls out there see yourself joining something like this? I know I could but that doesn't count for much.

We plan to put out questionnaires to a couple hundred people using our contacts to nail down the detail/features of the site and the needs of our users.

Long post but I wanted to be thorough. Thanks guys - and let the bullets fly.

[akula]

jeff...sn is a mature space...there's a lot of data out there on what to do and what not to do

errr..tell me truthfully, is this thread something that just randomly popped up in your head or do you you have a real professional interest in this space? do you know how much it costs to break even on a niche sn?

have you been to any sn conferences? have you talked to entrepreneurs who are doing this stuff? do you have the risk capacity to back consumer internet plays?

look...I'm not being a downer...I'm trying to have a productive conversation here. it doesn't matter whether what you have is likely to be a popular or an unpopular project. the question is, do you have the capacity to risk getting involved in this stuff.

we're talking consumer internet here buddy...it's nothing less than a lottery

[jeffdotchan]

errr..tell me truthfully, is this thread something that just randomly popped up in your head or do you you have a real professional interest in this space? do you know how much it costs to break even on a niche sn?

have you been to any sn conferences? have you talked to entrepreneurs who are doing this stuff? do you have the risk capacity to back consumer internet plays?

look...I'm not being a downer...I'm trying to have a productive conversation here. it doesn't matter whether what you have is likely to be a popular or an unpopular project. the question is, do you have the capacity to risk getting involved in this stuff.

we're talking consumer internet here buddy...it's nothing less than a lottery

akula - The answers to all your questions are no and these are exactly the types of things I was looking for. i.e. gaping holes in my reasoning/things to consider.

I guess you could come off as a downer to some - but all the questions you ask are very realistic questions to be asking. I never even considered them so once again thanks.

What do you mean by: "do you have the risk capacity to back consumer internet plays?"/"risks to get involved"

You keep talking about capacity - but how would the risks in this venture different from any other?
Do you mean startup capital? Do you mean it takes more time than any other business?
What's a consumer internet play?

[dosrotties]

A site that provides local chapters and locations or wholsome activities of people with your simular interests. Maybe each group needs a board or a team leader that plans the activities and when a new person shows up they will recognize and meet the team leader and he can intrduce them.
Tired of your old friends well meet some new ones. And from there they can get to know people first before they date or do what they do.

Sound like a lot of work, but there are many lonely people.
One group could be dinner and a movie people that are tolerant of moles. Twice a month they go to dinner and a movies.
religious groups
cultural groups
whatever groups.
Group Dating, safer and more fun. Why date one when you can date them all.

Good luck with that

[harrymcwealth]

"do you have the risk capacity to back consumer internet plays?"

He means do you have enough money/capital to start and run your venture.

[columbus]

Los Angeles Asian Singles Meetup Group

http://singles.meetup.com/927/

[jeffdotchan]

I guess I'll need to research how much this will initially cost. I don't foresee it costing millions or anything. That will be part of my research.

Thanks for the tips dosrottie - I'll discuss them with my partners.
- and the link columbus - that link looks kind of weak though. Last meeting they had only 2 people showed up. That's EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm talking about.

[SpencerB]

Why single out asians....?

Seems rediculous.

Also, I think you are highly underrating your competition. All the sites you listed, which I've heard of, are highly successful for a reason, and people generally do NOT leave these massive sites for small ones with a very small user base.

Also, whats the revenue model? Advertising? Who's going to advertise to 20-something asians in LA?

[jpmorgan13]

the problem with niche sites is that the niche is so small you can never reach critical mass. in this case critical mass would likely be a problem.

[SendBlast]

Why use your service when they have meetup?

[dosrotties]

SpencerB is right, if your going to do it go big. You need the numbers or high volume of people. Find your friends and make them volunteer. Maybe you can focus on colleges, local activities and new students every year new to the area.