“This is a great opportunity to take CCI to the next level,” stated Ben Sun, President of Community Connect. “Radio One reaches over 20 million people every week in radio, TV, print and online giving us the opportunity to capitalize on cross-platform opportunities for our brands that will truly benefit our members and advertisers.”

Community Connect Inc. (CCI), the parent company of BlackPlanet.com, GLEE.com, MiGente.com, and AsianAve.com has been acquired by Radio One. The price for all of the social networks combined was $38 million. Radio One is a radio broadcasting network company with an African-American demographic. BlackPlanet is Community Connect’s more popular social network.

As a matter of fact, BlackPlanet.com was named the largest multicultural niche social networking site of 2007. BlackPlanet was also ranked the 4th largest social networking site after MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo according to Hitwise.

Community Connect recently celebrated their 10th anniversary. The company was founded by Ben Sun, Calvin Wong, Peter Chen, and Michael Montero.

Given Black Planet’s membership size, I’m surprised that they didn’t hold out for more money. But then again, sometimes you have to accept what you can get and see what happens from there. Who knows where MySpace would be right now if they didn’t accept the undervalued News Corp. acquisition price?

Information Source:
[1] Radio One Press Release (via Trading Markets): Radio One, Inc. Announces the Acquisition of Social Media Network Community Connect Inc.

Community Connect Inc. (CCI) is the first multicultural-focused social networking company.  Today I found out that CCI is celebrating their 10 year anniversary this summer.

Some of the social networks that CCI has powered under their leadership includes BlackPlanet.com (African American focused), MiGente.com (Latino focused), AsianAve.com (Asian focused), GLEE.com (GLBT focused), and Faithbase.com (Christian focused).  According to Comscore, Community Connect’s social networks are the 5th largest U.S. social network property based on pageviews.

Community Connect was founded by Benjamin Sun, Calvin Wong, Peter Chen, and Michael Montero.  Between the aforementioned social networks, Community Connect accounts for 19 million members.  All of those members have access to various Community Connect sponsors such as Monster Worldwide’s 30,000+ corporate customers.

BlackPlanet alone accounts for 16.5 million members and had 80 million page views in June 2007.  Hitwise ranks BlackPlanet at #5 behind sites like MySpace and Facebook.

It is compelling to see how dedicated certain communities have been with their social networks of choice even 10 years later.  I plan on interviewing Benjamin Sun sometime soon to see what the future holds for Community Connect since there is fierce competition out there and curious about their strategy on how to maintain their marketshare.

Secret Asian Man is a cartoon now featured on AsianAvenue.com.  This is the first cartoon to feature an Asian-American character as the protagonist.  The cartoon is based on the life of Japanese American cartoonist, Tak Toyoshima. 

Secret Asian Man first appeared in 1998 in a Boston arts magazine.  Secret Asian Man is also published by United Media (owner of comics.com) at http://www.comics.com/comics/sam/.

Toyoshima’s comedic cartoon work seems to have a hint of stereotypes mixed with modernization.  Below is a sample comic:

AsianAvenue.com is a social network that caters to the Asian-American demographic.  The social network is owned by Community Connect, who also owns BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com, and GLEE.com.

GLEE.com, a premiere social network in New York that stands for Gay, Lesbian & Everything Else has partnered with NewFest.  NewFest is an LGBT film organization that will be providing video content for GLEE.com.  This is the first time that a gay social network has partnered with a film organization.  Videos will start appearing on GLEE.com on May 16.

After the festival takes place, users will be able to continue discussions of films on GLEE.com.  The NewFest festival is known for launching premiere shows such as Paris is Burning and Strangers with Candy.  The festival will open with a film called The Picture of Dorian Gray and stars 7th Heaven’s David Gallagher.  The festival will close with the film Save Me which stars Chad Allen and Robert Gant.  Some of the previous attendees include Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Margaret Cho, Ally Sheedy, Matthew Broderick, and Amy Sedaris.

“NewFest has done a great job of kicking off the gay film festival season every year,” stated GLEE.com Site Manager, Parker Ray. “When we approached them, we knew that we wanted to take the festival experience to the next level. GLEE.com wanted to make sure that the NewFest cinema celebration was as engaging as possible, and what better way to do that than to integrate that unique experience into a site like GLEE.com, where interaction, the exchange of ideas, and the advancement of the LGBT community are our top priorities. We’re sure all GLEE.com members will be discussing NewFest 2007 long after the lights have come up.”

GLEE.com launched in February 2007 as a part of Community Connect, Inc. (CCI).  Community Connect Inc. also owns AsianAvenue.com and BlackPlanet.com.

BlackPlanet.com, the world’s largest social network tailored towards the African-American community with over 14 million members announced a partnership with African-American charity organizations, Ralph Lauren Cancer Center, VCares, and Hope’s Voice. BlackPlanet.com was developed by Community Connect.

“At BlackPlanet.com, we want to be more than just the leading social networking site for African Americans — we want to give back to the community and help our members to do so, too,” stated Ben Sun, the CEO of Community Connect Inc. When new members are referred to BlackPlanet.com, the website will donate $1 to either the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention, VCares, or Hope’s Voice.

“Hurricane Katrina survivors across the country still need assistance and this is a great way to raise money and awareness. VIBE is proud that BlackPlanet.com is including VCares in their Members for a Cause promotion,” stated Fred Jackson, a Marketing Director for VIBE. Todd Murray, an Executive Director the Hope’s Voice organization stated: “Partnering with BlackPlanet.com helps bring attention to World AIDS Day and the Hope’s Voice commitment to conducting real education on HIV/AIDS. It is programs like these that are going to help turn things around.” The launch of this philanthropic initiative is correlated with World AIDS Day being on December 1st.

Other websites that Community Connect Inc. owns includes AsianAvenue.com and MiGente.com. Community Inc. provides services to over 16 million users, the largest type of ethnic-related niche social networks.