lunarstorm

The huge growth in myspace, a largely US communitybuilt around social networking is overshadowed by Sweden’s lunarstorm. This article from the International Herald Tribune includes figures that are quite amazing (and given that 4 months have passed since this article was written, these figures are no doubt well out of date);

  • 10 percent of Sweden’s population is a member of the community, including more than 90 percent of the country’s high school students
  • more members log on daily than the total number of young Swedes watching almost every television show
  • “The site’s question of the day - polling for anything from your favorite potato chips to political parties - garners an average of 150,000 respondents, more than any poll in Sweden apart from the actual national elections themselves.”
  • more than one billion pages of original content have been created since 2000

    • Similarly Estonian youth-oriented service www.rate.ee has over 360 thousand registered users, out of a population of 1.35 million, meaning up to 25% of the total population use the service. Rate.ee is the most popular website in Estonia, and has its own popular ice cream brand available across country and runs a weekly radio show matching girls and boys over the air. Is there an opening here for an NZ service, much the same way as trademe is the local eBay?

    lunarstorm.jpg

    17 March 2006 in new media