Business social networks
We reviewed the 14 most interesting business social networks that could interest the domestic user. 12 of them have a Russian-language interface, 3 are focused on the Ukrainian online community.
The rapid development of business social networks has finally reached the Russian-speaking segment of the Network. If several years ago social resources of the “light genre” completely dominated in RuNet, today we are witnessing a cardinal change in the situation: dozens of new projects targeting the business community appear on the market. There are several reasons for this, the main one of which we would call a personnel shortage. Subsequently, this factor was added to the scowling economic crisis, which became the catalyst for the development of business Internet communications. Many companies have finally realized that the Network can serve as an effective business tool. Yes, and recruitment agencies secretly agreed that the recommendations in business social networks are not inferior in importance to the usual “letters of recommendation”.
At the same time, it should be noted that the development of social Russian-speaking business resources is at a rudimentary level. To date, no project can approach the international leader LinkedIn. In addition, neither Russian nor Ukrainian business communities can gain sufficient user base for the effective functioning of the network. The example of Ukraine in this regard is more indicative: about a year ago, the business social network Profeo appeared on the market, which, despite its very decent functionality and promotion strategy, failed to attract a critical mass of users from all branches of Ukrainian business. However, this does not mean that such projects can be attributed to the "stillborn" - on the contrary, many of them have occupied their niche, rallying a certain category of participants (for example, PR-professionals or banking experts).
')
Partner, partner, good looking!
(Gleb Zheglov)
LinkedIn social network is an ideal example of a perfectly tuned market strategy superimposed on the “network” concept. Originally created to help recruitment agencies, the social network has become a huge community of professional staff and recruiters. The commercial success of LinkedIn is a logical consequence of a competent approach to building a network and monetizing traffic.
For the end user (professional in his industry, not a casual passer-by) LinkedIn is an ideal base for establishing / maintaining contact with colleagues and, of course, finding an employer. First of all, it should be noted a well-thought-out system of recommendations, which allows you to quickly evaluate the candidate’s professional qualities, based on the opinions of his partners and colleagues.
It must be emphasized that LinkedIn managed to attract an incredibly “high-quality” audience to its networks. Thus, among the 39 million users (this number increases by 1-1.5 million every month), there are more than one and a half million top managers. It is noteworthy that LinkedIn registered top managers of all companies from the Fortune 500. According to representatives of the social network, 46% of community users are directly responsible for making decisions in their companies. These indicators can be called phenomenal - not a single competing social network was able to gather such a homogeneous and high-level audience.
The basic functionality of the network is provided free of charge, however, additional services will have to be paid. The business class account will cost the user $ 24.95 / month (or $ 249.5 / year), and the “Business Plus” level is paid at the rate of $ 49.95 / month (or $ 499.5 / year). In addition, LinkedIn offers an elite Pro account, intended, apparently, for professional headhunters ($ 499.95 / month or $ 4999.5 / year). Differences paid accounts from the base are mainly in search and communication capabilities, as well as more operational technical support. LinkedIn also cooperates willingly with advertisers, although the advertising flow in the network interface is strictly metered.
An important milestone in the development of the project was a partnership agreement with IBM, as a result of which LinkedIn services will be integrated with the Lotus Notes, Lotus Connections platforms and the recently launched LotusLive.com.
In my opinion, the LinkedIn project is one of the few who is destined not only to safely survive the difficult economic period, but also to get out of it "in the black." Unlike most “emotional” projects, LinkedIn users clearly know what advantages (besides ephemeral) provides them with membership in a social network. Professionalism is always in the price.
The business social network Xing was initially focused on the German market, but rather quickly acquired international status. To date, over 7 million users have been registered in Xing, and the interface has been translated into 16 languages ​​(including Russian). Membership in the network is open to all comers. Paid accounts are also available, which are characterized by the lack of advertising, advanced search features and a service that allows you to track profile visitors. When buying a paid account for 3 months, the monthly fee will be 6.95 euros; for a year - 5.59 euros, for two years - 4.95 euros.
Despite the substantial number of users, Xing significantly loses LinkedIn in terms of audience reach, including the Russian-speaking one. Nevertheless, this network is mainly focused on the Western European market, which reflects the social cross-section of its participants. In mid-April, Xing announced an expansion of its functionality: the project database was updated with information on 100,000 companies, professional associations and public organizations. The Xing social network can be used as a supplement to existing accounts on other resources - it is a powerful tool for working with the Western European market, but it cannot yet replace LinkedIn and / or local projects.
The English-language business social network Ryze has more than 500,000 users in 200 countries, but it is not very popular among Russian-speaking audiences. However, this does not detract from its main advantages - a broad base of potentially useful foreign contacts and a well-designed interface. The basic level of network membership is free, but there are also paid accounts of the Gold class ($ 10 / month) and Platinum ($ 20 / month), which provide wider opportunities in terms of creating your own “business community” and communication between community members.
Currently, more than 1,000 companies used the services of Ryze to create their own internal corporate social networks, which indicates the prospects of this segment. Ryze has no doubt about a successful future, because the founder of the network, Adrian Scott, was an investor in the legendary Napster and collaborated with such giants as Charles Schwab and Bank of America. In addition to revenues from paid online membership, Ryze makes money on organizing events and, of course, placing contextual and banner advertising.
One of the oldest Russian business networks is currently going through hard times. Frankly outdated interface, poor functionality, unclear directions of development - all this led to the fact that E-xecutive ceases to be perceived by the audience as an "elite" community, as it was before. At the same time, the existing resource E-xecutive does not allow to discount this project. So, as of April 2009, there were 19,600 people registered in the community, which is a very worthy indicator for such a resource. According to the project managers, all members of the E-xecutive community meet certain professional requirements (middle / top managers or qualified professionals with experience of 4-5 years) and act under real names. The average age of the audience of the resource: 25-45, 98% of users have higher education.
If we talk about structuring the audience of the community, then the top five most popular industries are: “Consulting”, “Information technologies”, “Consumer goods of daily demand”, “Distribution, wholesale” and “Retail”. We are deeply convinced that, with competent leadership, this resource could become an unequivocal leader in the Russian-speaking segment of business social networks and pose a real threat to LinkedIn, but at the current stage of development we do not see any prospects for E-xecutive.
The Russian social project with fanfare opened in the summer of 2008 - and since then has caused a lot of gossip in the online community. We will not review the business opportunities of the community, but touch on its policies. The first scandal broke out almost immediately after the start of the resource - with the naked eye it was clear that the design of the portal and its navigation system were completely “borrowed” from the undisputed world leader LinkedIn. As a result, in the fall of 2008, LinkedIn, through partner law firm Gowlings, demanded that Professionali.ru abandon the use of plagiarism — and after two months the site design was changed. It’s funny that Nikita Halyavin, the project manager, answered the journalists ’questions about the ethics of plagiarism, saying that LinkedIn’s copyright wasn’t violated because on Professionali.ru website“ all copyrights are fixed ”.
After some time, the resource was involved in a new scandal: it turned out that when trying to find registered colleagues, by providing the service access to its address book, the resource administration sends an invitation letter on behalf of the account owner to all the addresses found. Mr. Khalyavin’s response to the IT Business Week’s request turned out to be quite entertaining: “Roman, we are happy to substantiate our policy. So, for example, today we received a number of thanks for the fact that people were notified about this. People have the right to know where their contacts go and why. ” With other outraged users, Mr. Khalyavin didn’t particularly stand on ceremony (vocabulary and spelling are preserved): “Throw provocations. Or do you belong to those few people from all 100,000 who decided to simply popiaritsya due to our function, which they themselves agreed with ?? I told you everything. If you don’t like to use the service, don’t. ”
Currently, My Circle is under the wing of Yandex, and the monthly audience of the resource has reached 2.8 million visitors (March 2009 data). At the same time, “My Circle” cannot be called a business social network in the full sense of this definition - the business functionality of the resource is minimized. So, there are no forums and discussion groups, from the usual possibilities of business networks only the function of “recommendations” remains. However, tight integration with other services of Yandex and a solid user base make My Circle a good tool for headhunters.
We do not recommend using this resource as the only means for online socialization, but keeping your profile up to date will not be superfluous. In our opinion, this project - perhaps the only among all Russian resources (with the exception of E-xecutive) can be a real competitor to LinkedIn, but this requires a fundamental change in the “business” functionality of the social network. It is surprising that this has not been done until now, because the basic elements are the same for almost all social resources of a business nature. Perhaps, Yandex has its own plans for the development of this project - but today the business niche is the only one in which My Circle really stands out.
The business network “Russian Business” is one of the sections of the portal www.rb.ru , intended, according to its creators, for a “wide office audience”: specialists, middle managers, managers of any level. Giving due to the very high level of the portal itself, we, unfortunately, cannot positively evaluate the functionality of the RB business community. First of all, an interface with an appallingly low level of usability causes complaints. As a result, the resource cannot boast an acceptable user base, and the site simply blows emptiness. The best confirmation of this is the “Clubs” by interests, in the most popular of which there are only 151 entries. Professional forums are also in disrepair: in the most "active" branch, we found only 104 topics.
Thus, “Russian Business” can be considered solely as an appendage to the main sections of the portal. We would not recommend RB for communication and searching for new contacts - the audience at this resource is too limited.
The developers of the business social network PRO2 have focused on the ranking of specialists within industries. According to the owners of the resource, this functionality allows you to instantly select for yourself the most authoritative experts in the right industry in any region. According to the press service of PRO2, the rating of specialists is formed on the basis of data on how many people have included this or that specialist in the “Personal TOP” in each industry, i.e. the more professionals believe that a specialist is one of the best in his industry, the higher his rating.
Such a scheme, of course, has the right to exist, but when it comes into effect from the very beginning of the project, the resource physically can not gain a critical mass of users for effective functioning. That is why, after a long time after the start of PRO2, this network cannot demonstrate the proper level of popularity. According to IT Business week estimates, the total number of resource users does not exceed several thousand, which is a ridiculous figure by today's standards. Unfortunately, we do not see any major changes in the development of the resource; the last blog entry was made on July 21, 2008, which indicates a complete loss of interest in the project.
An extremely interesting Russian startup, owned by the state-run television channel “Russia”, already has several thousand users in its ranks, despite the status of the beta version. The network "Vesti.Consultant", according to its creators, is designed to share information about products and services, as well as experience in their use. Obviously, this project goes beyond the classical business social network, but there is no doubt that it appeared at the right time and in the right place. The logic of networking is as transparent as possible: registered participants are divided into “users” and “consultants” (representatives of companies offering goods or services). Relations between them are built on the same principles as in all social networks: the “client” can be offered to the interested client / supplier.
Apparently, the monetization of the project will be carried out at the expense of "consultants", but now there is still no open information about charging for the "platform" for the provision of services. The disadvantages of the resource include the very slow work of the site, but this defect can be attributed to the costs of beta testing. For the rest, Vesti.Consultant is a fundamentally new platform that expands the possibilities of online business communication to real deals.
Formally speaking, “Shtatte” is not a full-fledged business social network, however we decided to consider this resource due to its close integration with the leader of the Russian-speaking social networking market VKontakte. So, “VShtat” represents the largest Russian-language base of professional contacts, the number of which has already exceeded 2.5 million. At the same time, the creators of the resource claim that 750,000 resumes have been manually checked by moderators. In order to clearly distinguish the target audience between VKontakte and VStat, the last project has reduced the social functionality of the network to a minimum: it is designed to look for work / staff - and nothing more.
It should be noted a great interface "VStat" - perhaps, by this criterion, the resource has no worthy competitors. We would not expect the project to acquire social functionality over time - in this case, of course, it will be able to outshine LinkedIn on the Russian-language market, but a serious outflow will occur from VKontakte, despite the resource positioning. So VSTatay is destined to remain an ideal tool for recruiting staff - and for communication and exchange of experience it is better to find a more suitable option.
We have specifically considered this resource as an instructive example for all those who believe that a business social network is a “self-organizing” phenomenon, for which it is sufficient only to provide a technical platform. The interface of the site "Profilink" is largely borrowed from LinkedIn, however, it has already become a good tradition for some Russian-speaking resources. The basic functionality of the project is implemented at a sufficient level: some services still do not work or give an error message, but the overall impression is moderately positive. And now the most interesting thing: the volume of the Profilink user base amounts to as many as ... 85 people, including your humble servant. Note to complete the picture that the project has existed since 2007. What is the reason for such a deafening failure? Apparently, in the complete absence of the marketing budget (and the budget in general). One gets the impression that one intelligent programmer worked on the project, who, after completing the technical part, abandoned his legs and began to wait for the influx of visitors. Well, the result is obvious.
Ukrainian business social network Profeo was opened in April 2008. The Polish company Profeo.PL, successfully operating in the local market, acted as a strategic investor in the Ukrainian project. Even at the time of launch, Maxim Nemesh, Director of Profeo Ukraine, stated: “Until now, Ukraine did not have a social network with a full range of services for career and professional development of a specialist. We expect that Profeo will come Ukrainian professionals who seek to expand the circle of communication and actively use the Internet. Here they will not only acquire a dynamic online resume and address book, but will also communicate with colleagues, raising their professional level. ”
A year later, we can summarize that the project management’s forecasts were only partially fulfilled. Profeo did manage to gather a wide range of specialists, but the vast majority of network participants represent the media market segment (media, PR). However, among similar Ukrainian projects, we consider Profeo a deserved and undisputed leader. To increase the interest of users to the resource, the most active visitors are invited to join the “Club Profeo” - a sort of closed community with special benefits for its members. All services Profeo, we recall, remain free. Such a business model cannot fail to impress - especially, against the backdrop of deplorable attempts to monetize some Russian and Ukrainian social projects.
The Internet club of top managers “I TOP” has been operating for about a year - during this time about two thousand users have joined the project. On the one hand, this is a ridiculous figure, on the other hand, the authors of the project guarantee the highest quality audience. The user agreement states that only a top manager can become a member of the club (“sympathizers” and other elements remain as spectators). “Standard positions related to top management are taken as a basis. Exceptions are some managerial positions that are not included in the list of typical ones, but by importance they undoubtedly relate to the TOP-appointments, ”the criteria are quite clear, despite the apparent ambiguity of interpretation. The seriousness of the intentions of “I TOP” is also indicated by the fact that the profile of each new user is manually checked, which can last up to 10 days. Despite the modest user base, we see a definite future for this project - if the club succeeds in attracting a critical mass of top managers, it has every chance of becoming a unique phenomenon in the vast Ukrainian segment of the Network.
The first Ukrainian business social network Atlaskit was founded in 2006, but for a number of reasons its development slowed down almost from the moment of discovery. To date, the number of registered Atlaskit users barely exceeds 1000 - this is modest, even by the standards of a niche project. Atlaskit's credo does not tell us anything new: “We are not building a club for communication or a social network of acquaintances, we are building a serious business network. However, in order to build a business relationship, you need to gain the trust of each other on a personal level, before making a deal or building cooperation. Our Network does not sell contacts or advertise people, we help you create for yourself groups of people with whom you can communicate, help them, and who can help you one day. ”
This set of template phrases was relevant a few not ago, but today, when users are fed up with social projects, it would be worthwhile to offer them something more original. With funding and competent leadership, Atlaskit can rise from the ashes - despite the comatose state of the project, we regard its potential as very good.
The rapid development of business social networks has finally reached the Russian-speaking segment of the Network. If several years ago social resources of the “light genre” completely dominated in RuNet, today we are witnessing a cardinal change in the situation: dozens of new projects targeting the business community appear on the market. There are several reasons for this, the main one of which we would call a personnel shortage. Subsequently, this factor was added to the scowling economic crisis, which became the catalyst for the development of business Internet communications. Many companies have finally realized that the Network can serve as an effective business tool. Yes, and recruitment agencies secretly agreed that the recommendations in business social networks are not inferior in importance to the usual “letters of recommendation”.
At the same time, it should be noted that the development of social Russian-speaking business resources is at a rudimentary level. To date, no project can approach the international leader LinkedIn. In addition, neither Russian nor Ukrainian business communities can gain sufficient user base for the effective functioning of the network. The example of Ukraine in this regard is more indicative: about a year ago, the business social network Profeo appeared on the market, which, despite its very decent functionality and promotion strategy, failed to attract a critical mass of users from all branches of Ukrainian business. However, this does not mean that such projects can be attributed to the "stillborn" - on the contrary, many of them have occupied their niche, rallying a certain category of participants (for example, PR-professionals or banking experts).
')
Partner, partner, good looking!
(Gleb Zheglov)
www.linkedin.com
LinkedIn social network is an ideal example of a perfectly tuned market strategy superimposed on the “network” concept. Originally created to help recruitment agencies, the social network has become a huge community of professional staff and recruiters. The commercial success of LinkedIn is a logical consequence of a competent approach to building a network and monetizing traffic.For the end user (professional in his industry, not a casual passer-by) LinkedIn is an ideal base for establishing / maintaining contact with colleagues and, of course, finding an employer. First of all, it should be noted a well-thought-out system of recommendations, which allows you to quickly evaluate the candidate’s professional qualities, based on the opinions of his partners and colleagues.
It must be emphasized that LinkedIn managed to attract an incredibly “high-quality” audience to its networks. Thus, among the 39 million users (this number increases by 1-1.5 million every month), there are more than one and a half million top managers. It is noteworthy that LinkedIn registered top managers of all companies from the Fortune 500. According to representatives of the social network, 46% of community users are directly responsible for making decisions in their companies. These indicators can be called phenomenal - not a single competing social network was able to gather such a homogeneous and high-level audience.
The basic functionality of the network is provided free of charge, however, additional services will have to be paid. The business class account will cost the user $ 24.95 / month (or $ 249.5 / year), and the “Business Plus” level is paid at the rate of $ 49.95 / month (or $ 499.5 / year). In addition, LinkedIn offers an elite Pro account, intended, apparently, for professional headhunters ($ 499.95 / month or $ 4999.5 / year). Differences paid accounts from the base are mainly in search and communication capabilities, as well as more operational technical support. LinkedIn also cooperates willingly with advertisers, although the advertising flow in the network interface is strictly metered.
An important milestone in the development of the project was a partnership agreement with IBM, as a result of which LinkedIn services will be integrated with the Lotus Notes, Lotus Connections platforms and the recently launched LotusLive.com.
In my opinion, the LinkedIn project is one of the few who is destined not only to safely survive the difficult economic period, but also to get out of it "in the black." Unlike most “emotional” projects, LinkedIn users clearly know what advantages (besides ephemeral) provides them with membership in a social network. Professionalism is always in the price.
www.xing.com
The business social network Xing was initially focused on the German market, but rather quickly acquired international status. To date, over 7 million users have been registered in Xing, and the interface has been translated into 16 languages ​​(including Russian). Membership in the network is open to all comers. Paid accounts are also available, which are characterized by the lack of advertising, advanced search features and a service that allows you to track profile visitors. When buying a paid account for 3 months, the monthly fee will be 6.95 euros; for a year - 5.59 euros, for two years - 4.95 euros.Despite the substantial number of users, Xing significantly loses LinkedIn in terms of audience reach, including the Russian-speaking one. Nevertheless, this network is mainly focused on the Western European market, which reflects the social cross-section of its participants. In mid-April, Xing announced an expansion of its functionality: the project database was updated with information on 100,000 companies, professional associations and public organizations. The Xing social network can be used as a supplement to existing accounts on other resources - it is a powerful tool for working with the Western European market, but it cannot yet replace LinkedIn and / or local projects.
www.ryze.com
The English-language business social network Ryze has more than 500,000 users in 200 countries, but it is not very popular among Russian-speaking audiences. However, this does not detract from its main advantages - a broad base of potentially useful foreign contacts and a well-designed interface. The basic level of network membership is free, but there are also paid accounts of the Gold class ($ 10 / month) and Platinum ($ 20 / month), which provide wider opportunities in terms of creating your own “business community” and communication between community members.Currently, more than 1,000 companies used the services of Ryze to create their own internal corporate social networks, which indicates the prospects of this segment. Ryze has no doubt about a successful future, because the founder of the network, Adrian Scott, was an investor in the legendary Napster and collaborated with such giants as Charles Schwab and Bank of America. In addition to revenues from paid online membership, Ryze makes money on organizing events and, of course, placing contextual and banner advertising.
www.e-xecutive.ru
One of the oldest Russian business networks is currently going through hard times. Frankly outdated interface, poor functionality, unclear directions of development - all this led to the fact that E-xecutive ceases to be perceived by the audience as an "elite" community, as it was before. At the same time, the existing resource E-xecutive does not allow to discount this project. So, as of April 2009, there were 19,600 people registered in the community, which is a very worthy indicator for such a resource. According to the project managers, all members of the E-xecutive community meet certain professional requirements (middle / top managers or qualified professionals with experience of 4-5 years) and act under real names. The average age of the audience of the resource: 25-45, 98% of users have higher education.If we talk about structuring the audience of the community, then the top five most popular industries are: “Consulting”, “Information technologies”, “Consumer goods of daily demand”, “Distribution, wholesale” and “Retail”. We are deeply convinced that, with competent leadership, this resource could become an unequivocal leader in the Russian-speaking segment of business social networks and pose a real threat to LinkedIn, but at the current stage of development we do not see any prospects for E-xecutive.
www.professionali.ru
The Russian social project with fanfare opened in the summer of 2008 - and since then has caused a lot of gossip in the online community. We will not review the business opportunities of the community, but touch on its policies. The first scandal broke out almost immediately after the start of the resource - with the naked eye it was clear that the design of the portal and its navigation system were completely “borrowed” from the undisputed world leader LinkedIn. As a result, in the fall of 2008, LinkedIn, through partner law firm Gowlings, demanded that Professionali.ru abandon the use of plagiarism — and after two months the site design was changed. It’s funny that Nikita Halyavin, the project manager, answered the journalists ’questions about the ethics of plagiarism, saying that LinkedIn’s copyright wasn’t violated because on Professionali.ru website“ all copyrights are fixed ”.After some time, the resource was involved in a new scandal: it turned out that when trying to find registered colleagues, by providing the service access to its address book, the resource administration sends an invitation letter on behalf of the account owner to all the addresses found. Mr. Khalyavin’s response to the IT Business Week’s request turned out to be quite entertaining: “Roman, we are happy to substantiate our policy. So, for example, today we received a number of thanks for the fact that people were notified about this. People have the right to know where their contacts go and why. ” With other outraged users, Mr. Khalyavin didn’t particularly stand on ceremony (vocabulary and spelling are preserved): “Throw provocations. Or do you belong to those few people from all 100,000 who decided to simply popiaritsya due to our function, which they themselves agreed with ?? I told you everything. If you don’t like to use the service, don’t. ”
www.moikrug.ru
Currently, My Circle is under the wing of Yandex, and the monthly audience of the resource has reached 2.8 million visitors (March 2009 data). At the same time, “My Circle” cannot be called a business social network in the full sense of this definition - the business functionality of the resource is minimized. So, there are no forums and discussion groups, from the usual possibilities of business networks only the function of “recommendations” remains. However, tight integration with other services of Yandex and a solid user base make My Circle a good tool for headhunters.We do not recommend using this resource as the only means for online socialization, but keeping your profile up to date will not be superfluous. In our opinion, this project - perhaps the only among all Russian resources (with the exception of E-xecutive) can be a real competitor to LinkedIn, but this requires a fundamental change in the “business” functionality of the social network. It is surprising that this has not been done until now, because the basic elements are the same for almost all social resources of a business nature. Perhaps, Yandex has its own plans for the development of this project - but today the business niche is the only one in which My Circle really stands out.
www.rb.ru
The business network “Russian Business” is one of the sections of the portal www.rb.ru , intended, according to its creators, for a “wide office audience”: specialists, middle managers, managers of any level. Giving due to the very high level of the portal itself, we, unfortunately, cannot positively evaluate the functionality of the RB business community. First of all, an interface with an appallingly low level of usability causes complaints. As a result, the resource cannot boast an acceptable user base, and the site simply blows emptiness. The best confirmation of this is the “Clubs” by interests, in the most popular of which there are only 151 entries. Professional forums are also in disrepair: in the most "active" branch, we found only 104 topics.Thus, “Russian Business” can be considered solely as an appendage to the main sections of the portal. We would not recommend RB for communication and searching for new contacts - the audience at this resource is too limited.
www.pro2.ru
The developers of the business social network PRO2 have focused on the ranking of specialists within industries. According to the owners of the resource, this functionality allows you to instantly select for yourself the most authoritative experts in the right industry in any region. According to the press service of PRO2, the rating of specialists is formed on the basis of data on how many people have included this or that specialist in the “Personal TOP” in each industry, i.e. the more professionals believe that a specialist is one of the best in his industry, the higher his rating.Such a scheme, of course, has the right to exist, but when it comes into effect from the very beginning of the project, the resource physically can not gain a critical mass of users for effective functioning. That is why, after a long time after the start of PRO2, this network cannot demonstrate the proper level of popularity. According to IT Business week estimates, the total number of resource users does not exceed several thousand, which is a ridiculous figure by today's standards. Unfortunately, we do not see any major changes in the development of the resource; the last blog entry was made on July 21, 2008, which indicates a complete loss of interest in the project.
www.consultant.vesti.ru
An extremely interesting Russian startup, owned by the state-run television channel “Russia”, already has several thousand users in its ranks, despite the status of the beta version. The network "Vesti.Consultant", according to its creators, is designed to share information about products and services, as well as experience in their use. Obviously, this project goes beyond the classical business social network, but there is no doubt that it appeared at the right time and in the right place. The logic of networking is as transparent as possible: registered participants are divided into “users” and “consultants” (representatives of companies offering goods or services). Relations between them are built on the same principles as in all social networks: the “client” can be offered to the interested client / supplier.Apparently, the monetization of the project will be carried out at the expense of "consultants", but now there is still no open information about charging for the "platform" for the provision of services. The disadvantages of the resource include the very slow work of the site, but this defect can be attributed to the costs of beta testing. For the rest, Vesti.Consultant is a fundamentally new platform that expands the possibilities of online business communication to real deals.
www.vshtate.ru
Formally speaking, “Shtatte” is not a full-fledged business social network, however we decided to consider this resource due to its close integration with the leader of the Russian-speaking social networking market VKontakte. So, “VShtat” represents the largest Russian-language base of professional contacts, the number of which has already exceeded 2.5 million. At the same time, the creators of the resource claim that 750,000 resumes have been manually checked by moderators. In order to clearly distinguish the target audience between VKontakte and VStat, the last project has reduced the social functionality of the network to a minimum: it is designed to look for work / staff - and nothing more.It should be noted a great interface "VStat" - perhaps, by this criterion, the resource has no worthy competitors. We would not expect the project to acquire social functionality over time - in this case, of course, it will be able to outshine LinkedIn on the Russian-language market, but a serious outflow will occur from VKontakte, despite the resource positioning. So VSTatay is destined to remain an ideal tool for recruiting staff - and for communication and exchange of experience it is better to find a more suitable option.
www.profilink.ru
We have specifically considered this resource as an instructive example for all those who believe that a business social network is a “self-organizing” phenomenon, for which it is sufficient only to provide a technical platform. The interface of the site "Profilink" is largely borrowed from LinkedIn, however, it has already become a good tradition for some Russian-speaking resources. The basic functionality of the project is implemented at a sufficient level: some services still do not work or give an error message, but the overall impression is moderately positive. And now the most interesting thing: the volume of the Profilink user base amounts to as many as ... 85 people, including your humble servant. Note to complete the picture that the project has existed since 2007. What is the reason for such a deafening failure? Apparently, in the complete absence of the marketing budget (and the budget in general). One gets the impression that one intelligent programmer worked on the project, who, after completing the technical part, abandoned his legs and began to wait for the influx of visitors. Well, the result is obvious.www.profeo.ua
Ukrainian business social network Profeo was opened in April 2008. The Polish company Profeo.PL, successfully operating in the local market, acted as a strategic investor in the Ukrainian project. Even at the time of launch, Maxim Nemesh, Director of Profeo Ukraine, stated: “Until now, Ukraine did not have a social network with a full range of services for career and professional development of a specialist. We expect that Profeo will come Ukrainian professionals who seek to expand the circle of communication and actively use the Internet. Here they will not only acquire a dynamic online resume and address book, but will also communicate with colleagues, raising their professional level. ”A year later, we can summarize that the project management’s forecasts were only partially fulfilled. Profeo did manage to gather a wide range of specialists, but the vast majority of network participants represent the media market segment (media, PR). However, among similar Ukrainian projects, we consider Profeo a deserved and undisputed leader. To increase the interest of users to the resource, the most active visitors are invited to join the “Club Profeo” - a sort of closed community with special benefits for its members. All services Profeo, we recall, remain free. Such a business model cannot fail to impress - especially, against the backdrop of deplorable attempts to monetize some Russian and Ukrainian social projects.
www.yatop.com.ua
The Internet club of top managers “I TOP” has been operating for about a year - during this time about two thousand users have joined the project. On the one hand, this is a ridiculous figure, on the other hand, the authors of the project guarantee the highest quality audience. The user agreement states that only a top manager can become a member of the club (“sympathizers” and other elements remain as spectators). “Standard positions related to top management are taken as a basis. Exceptions are some managerial positions that are not included in the list of typical ones, but by importance they undoubtedly relate to the TOP-appointments, ”the criteria are quite clear, despite the apparent ambiguity of interpretation. The seriousness of the intentions of “I TOP” is also indicated by the fact that the profile of each new user is manually checked, which can last up to 10 days. Despite the modest user base, we see a definite future for this project - if the club succeeds in attracting a critical mass of top managers, it has every chance of becoming a unique phenomenon in the vast Ukrainian segment of the Network.www.atlaskit.com
The first Ukrainian business social network Atlaskit was founded in 2006, but for a number of reasons its development slowed down almost from the moment of discovery. To date, the number of registered Atlaskit users barely exceeds 1000 - this is modest, even by the standards of a niche project. Atlaskit's credo does not tell us anything new: “We are not building a club for communication or a social network of acquaintances, we are building a serious business network. However, in order to build a business relationship, you need to gain the trust of each other on a personal level, before making a deal or building cooperation. Our Network does not sell contacts or advertise people, we help you create for yourself groups of people with whom you can communicate, help them, and who can help you one day. ”This set of template phrases was relevant a few not ago, but today, when users are fed up with social projects, it would be worthwhile to offer them something more original. With funding and competent leadership, Atlaskit can rise from the ashes - despite the comatose state of the project, we regard its potential as very good.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/59544/
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