Social networking company Hi5 has introduced instant messaging services recently.  The IM software built in to the social network does not require a download and runs entirely within the browser, similarly to Facebook Chat.  The service shows which of your friends are online.   Other features include emoticons, status updates, profile commenting, and photo sharing.  Charles Ying, a software architect for Hi5 said that IM was one of the most requested features of the website.

[via Mashable]

Launched in 2003 by Ramu Yalamanchi, hi5 has over 60 million active users. Hi5 is the third most popular social networking website according to comScore. hi5 will be launching a gaming section today that will allow their users to engage in sports, strategy, cards, and arcade.  hi5 Games will become a way to monetize the social network through the use of virtual currency.  Users would be able to buy virtual gifts with real currency.  These virtual gifts can be traded to access premium features within the gaming section.  hi5 also believes that advertisers would be able to better engage to targetted audiences in the gaming section.

This strategy is very similar to Yahoo! Games and Facebook.  First Yahoo! started building an extensive user-base and then they started offering them games and music.  I give hi5 credit for exploring alternative ways to monetize rather than just advertising.  Facebook started a social networking trend for the trading of gifts and it is working well for them.  This is why I have no doubt that it will work favorably for hi5 as well.  If you already have the user base, keep feeding them more.

Hi5 Network’s monthly visits have almost doubled in a year.  Hi5.com’s monthly visitors jumped to over 56 million recently.  Around the same time last year, Hi5’s monthly visitors were 31 million.  Given the continuous growth, Hi5 hired several senior executives.

Jeff Stephens joined Hi5 as the CFO.  David Kim is joining to manage Hi5 partnerships, revenue planning, and strategic planning.  Noelia Amoedo is joining as VP of Hi5 Networks Mobile.  Ram Gudavalli became the VP of Hi5 Networks Engineering.  Michael Trigg joined as VP of Marketing.  Adriana Gascoigne is joining as the Director of Communications.  And lastly, Karen Richardson is joining as the chairperson for the company Board of Directors.

“We’ve experienced tremendous growth in the last year, and I’m thrilled we have assembled a world-class team to capitalize on our market position,” stated Hi5 CEO Ramu Yalamanchi. “The depth and diversity of experience of our leadership team is a huge asset and will help take our business to the next level.”

Hi5 started in 2003 by Yalamanchi.  The site has over 1 million registered users.  However, the way that Hi5 builds their user base is can be linked to spamming users.

According to Wikipedia’s description of Hi5, when a user signs up for Hi5, the user is asked their email password.  When the user gives their e-mail password, Hi5 scans the user’s address book and sends an invitation to each e-mail address it finds.  When Hi5 sends e-mails to professional contacts, it can be quite embarrasing for the original user that signed up.  Apparently, invites are sent without consent from the user.

Morals aside, is this the right way to build a social network?  I think it’s wrong that a social networks goes into your address book and e-mails everyone without consent.  I put Hi5 in the same league of social networks as Tagged and Yaari.

Related Link:
1. InformationWeek

hi5 Networks Inc., Qloud, and iLike have collaborated using Google’s OpenSocial software to deliver two new music applications.  The two new applications will leverage hi5’s 70 million user count to provide the service that is similar to Facebook’s iLike music application.  These two applications are the first to use OpenSocial to go live on hi5.

“We are very pleased to increase the depth of our music offering for our members around the world, making it easier for them to find, listen to and post more of the music they like on their hi5 profiles.”
“These collaborations with iLike and Qloud really demonstrate how well the OpenSocial initiative can make it simpler for developers to build useful, fun and engaging applications for hi5 users.”

-Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO and Co-Founder of hi5 Networks.

The iLike application will give hi5 users the ability to embed songs and videos within their profiles.  And the Qloud My Music application will allow users to legally play songs and videos directly from their iTunes libraries within their profiles.

hi5 is based in San Francisco, Calif. and started in 2003.  The iLike hi5 music application is also available in Spanish.

If the rumor about what the Google executives previously dubbed NBC and News Corp.’s idea for Hulu is true, I see them as being completely hypocritical. Around March 2007, rumors were afloat that News Corp. and NBC were parterning to develop a YouTube competitor and Google executives were supposedly not worried about it because they were reportedly nicknaming the company that didn’t exist at the time as ClownCo. Today that company is named Hulu and they have impressed the hell out of several media bloggers including Pulse 2.0, TechCrunch, and GigaOM. Mashable seemed to have a more undecided opinion about how Hulu will perform in the market.

The reason why Google would give such a nickname to the company is because of the number of players involved. Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo!, MySpace, FOX, NBC, and News Corp. were all involved somehow as partners of the company in some shape or form. But the reason why I am calling Google hypocritical is that they seem to be pulling the same trick: partnering with a large number of companies to try and one-up a company that they cannot stand to see score a good deal for themselves. Microsoft’s investment in Facebook is what I’m referring to specifically.

I am making a bold statement by calling Google execs a hypocrite, but I have to admit that I was partially influenced by the article title on today’s New York Times: Google and Friends to Gang Up on Facebook. And when hearing Google and Friends Ganging Up on Facebook, I think of a $220 billion search monopoly picking on a 23 year old with a good idea. Shame on you: Schmidt, Brin, and Page. You guys should just take some money out of the bank and take a bath in it or buy more Boeings.

Who is Google allying with? Other social networks of course. These social networks include:
1.) LinkedIn
2.) hi5
3.) Friendster
4.) Plaxo
5.) Ning

Other companies involved in Google OpenSocial include Oracle and Salesforce.com. Just for the record, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch also mentioned that the only image associated with OpenSocial is a horny Elmer’s glue thing. As funny as that comment was, I agree that there is something highly wrong with this image.

All opinions aside, do I expect OpenSocial to really take off? I think developers will explore the prospects of OpenSocial, but won’t be as receptive to developing applications for Google’s partners. This is because Facebook’s core users are college students and young, urban professionals that are still receptive to adding applications that make networking more “fun.” And the social networks that Google has partnered with are losing their edge. As a recently graduated college student myself, I have personally left Friendster years ago and never looked back.

I think Google is an amazing service and will not sway from using their search engine unless something amazing comes along, but I think OpenSocial seems too much like a product created out of a grudge. And that doesn’t go along with their “Don’t be Evil” philosophy. When Facebook Applications were released, they were promoted as a way for developers to explore the creative senses while leveraging Facebook’s user base.

I just noticed that on my Alexa.com toolbar (owned by Amazon.com), Google’s rank looked a little different.  The web information company’s toolbar was telling me that Google is no longer glazed in bronze.  It had a silver spoon in its mouth.  Oh for crying out loud, If you don’t get my metaphor, what I’m saying is that Google is now ranked #2 and MSN is ranked #3.

Alexa’s Global Top 10:
1.) Yahoo!
2.) Google
3.) MSN
4.) YouTube
5.) Live.com
6.) MySpace
7.) Orkut
8.) Facebook
9.) Wikipedia
10.) Hi5

Looking at the top 10 web sites, Google has the most presence on Alexa.  They are ranked #2 and they own #4 and #7.  Whereas, Microsoft only owns #3 and #5.  Google also has a presence on #6 because they have an exclusive advertising partnership with MySpace.com.  Microsoft counteracted that move by signing an exclusive partnership with #8 website, Facebook.com. It seems like both companies were playing with their domains a little bit over the last year or so.  We saw the rise of Live.com this past year and GMail.com shifted over to the Google.com servers.  Below is a chart comparison from Alexa:

Notice the instant growth of Live.com?  This is perhaps because Hotmail.com shifted over to Live.com servers.  Seeing as how Live.com is constantly growing and MSN.com is slipping a little bit, I’m curious to see what Microsoft will do with MSN to ensure it doesn’t slip more.  And also, what will Yahoo! do to maintain #1.  Over the next couple years, we should see some interesting changes in the Top 10, especially seeing as how it felt like YouTube and Wikipedia came out of nowhere and claimed their current spots.