A Social Network for the Affluent
Following up on yesterday’s post about how niche social networks are the future, I was very interested to read in the NYT about a new niche social site for the affluent called aSmallWorld.net.
aSmallWorld.net, an invitation only social site, has grown from about 500 members to about 150,000 registered users.
Users are mostly young — 32 on average. Many have graduate degrees and a taste for living extravagantly on more than one continent. Sixty-five percent are from Europe, 20 percent from the United States and the rest scattered around the globe.
How affluent is this audience? Well a member wrote recently on the Forum, aSmallWorld’s popular nucleus:
“I need to rent 20 very luxury sports cars for an event in Switzerland on the 6th September. The cars should be: Maserati — Ferrari — Lamborghini — Aston Martin ONLY!”
As you can imagine with that kind of demographic, advertisers have started to line up to reach this audience.
“We’re dealing with a group of people that moves in social migration around the planet,” said Joe Robinson, the new chief executive. “From the point of view of a Mercedes-Benz or a Piaget, that makes this an enormous marketing opportunity.” Advertising rates are competitive with those of Forbes.com and Style.com, Mr. Robinson said. On average, clients spend $20,000 to $50,000 a month, he said. The company also arranges dinners and tastings where members can sample advertisers’ products. For one recent gathering, Rémy Martin supplied 4,000 bottles of its premium Cognac, valued at $200 each.
One thing I found interesting was the response of comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman to the trafic that aSmallWorld receives:
Andrew Lipsman, a senior analyst at comScore Network, a company that rates online usage, said that it is hard to track the number of unique visitors because the site is relatively small. “If there are a couple of hundred thousand registered users,” he said, “probably only a fraction are visiting the site regularly.” Compare that with Facebook, which in July had 30.6 million unique visitors, a number that has doubled since last year.
Of course the number of users at aSmallWorld.net are only a fraction of Facebook’s. It is an exclusive social network for the affluent. Was he expecting that millions of people would have the money or contacts to join?
Look for more niche social networks to continue to appear in the coming months. aSmallWorld.net will even get competition next year when Milton Pedraza of the Luxury Institute, a New York research group, plans to introduce Luxury Ratings.com, an advertising-free, gated online community where members will pay an annual subscribers’ fee of $250.
Filed under Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization : Comments (11) : Sep 11th, 2007
September 11th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
While I don’t think the membership on aSmallWorld.net is really the target demographic for my company’s products, I can definitely see the potential to reach an extremely wealthy, and well-targeted audience if you’re selling the right products.
If I was selling Rolex watches, or Aston Martin cars, I’d definitely be trying to get a few ads up on that site.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
The kind of people on ASW is amazing. One of the folks in our agency is pretty active on ASW. I’m sure she has stories to tell similar to what’s in the article.
September 11th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I had no idea such a place existed. I am curious if people are clamoring to get in or if no one cares. I’m of the latter mindset but slightly intrigued.
September 11th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I would love to advertise on a social network like aSmallWorld.net
The client reputation management possibilities are endless.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Just a small correction, aSW has actually been around for at least 2 years now (not really a new site). It’s been getting more attention lately thanks to the Weinstein brothers investing.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:44 am
[…] Rich people have their own social network now. Guh. (SMO) […]
September 19th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Hi YM. Thank you for updating the length of time that aSW has been around. I did not realize it was that old.
October 1st, 2007 at 5:49 am
[…] A Social Network for the Affluent […]
November 25th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
It’s true that ASW isn’t new. Did you hear that Extravigator, recently launched? Extravigator is solely focussed on Luxury Travel. Unlike ASW, Extravigator is visible to the public. Worth a look.
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:49 pm
ENVYME.TV to compete directly with ASW but based in the USA. Also they will launch a TV show based on lifestyles of wealthy people celebrity and non celerity all over the world!
February 6th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
This is interesting. If aSmallWorld.net can serve as a model, perhaps we will start seeing more of these ‘closed gate’ online communities. I for one would love to see a marketing community that was invite only. Get invited you would have to pass some sort of marketing test and pay a membership fee. Something to think about.