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Dutch social network Hyves sold to media group, as European-based networks feel the Facebook heat

Mike Butcher

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Mike Butcher is the European Editor for TechCrunch. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike is also a co-founder and shareholder of TechHub, a co-working space/service/community with several locations... → Learn More

Monday, November 1st, 2010
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Leading Dutch social network, Hyves, which for a long time held out against the encroachment of Facebook, is selling the entire company to Dutch media group TMG (Telegraaf Media Groep) for an undisclosed sum.

Hyves has a 68% penetration in the Netherlands, but lately we’ve been told that more and more people are talking about moving to Facebook.

Hyves was founded eight months after Facebook in 2004 by Raymond Spanjar, Koen Kam and Floris Rost van Tonningen. It has 10.6 million member accounts.

The move follows rumours of another European social network, Nasza Klasa in Poland, being put up for sale. Are Europe’s home-grown social startups finally cashing in their chips before the Facebook juggernaut rolls over their markets? Almost certainly. In the last few days we’ve also heard ‘European MySpace’ Netlog is aso having a tough time against Zuckerberg’s legions.

That a media company bought a social network is not unprecedented. Look at News Corporation’s acquisition of MySpace a few years ago, and AOL’s disastrous purchase of Bebo, subsequently sold for a pittance.

But the question is not if media comapnies can run social networks, they clearly can if they want. It’s whether they can innovate those networks fast enough in the face of the monster that is Facebook and often that issue is to do with developer talent.

So answer me this: if you were a developer, would you feel that you would be able to innovate as fast at social network owned by a large media company? Or at one which was run by an entrepreneur team? In my view, the answer is quite clearly in the latter.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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  • http://www.jesperbergmann.com Jesper Bergmann

    it’s not so much about innovation as network effects.
    And in that case facebook has proven that in a globalized world many people (especially their early adopters such as college students) have an internatinal network of friends, so I don’t see any country-specific versions of social networks compete with facebook. (except maybe for very large and more closed countries such as Russia and China where language advantages also favour local versions)

  • http://jetlib.com/news/2010/11/01/hyves-sold-to-media-group-as-european-social-networks-feel-the-facebook-heat/ Hyves Sold To Media Group, As European Social Networks Feel The Facebook Heat | JetLib News

    [...] there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic. Leading Dutch social network, Hyves, which for a long time held out against the encroachment of [...]

  • sjaak

    Facebook flew over with people returning from college exchanges and international businesstrips and is gaining popularity for sure stealing from hyves. Hyves is for children and lower educated people in the netherlands at the moment. I think hyves will keep existing the coming years for sure, because even though we are in a globalized world, many, many people from the netherlands have no contact with foreigners and will do just fine with hyves.

    • http://twitter.com/mikebutcher Mike Butcher

      Many people from the netherlands have no contact with foreigners? Really? I guess Amsterdam is the exception then…

      • here and there

        Amsterdam is one tenth expats – so yes sjaak has apoint. Also Mike – there is more to the The Netherlands than Amsterdam. I think the point of Sjaak is that alot of provincial people do not have contact with foreigners, so they dont have a real need for Facebook – especially when Hyves has what they need covered already.
        For a blogger/reporter, think a little bigger and more open minded to these comments.

      • http://www.rxbbx.com/ rxbbx

        Bye bye Hyves… :P

        @sjaak : “Lower educated people in the netherlands” are using facebook for games etc.

    • Jon

      @sjaak
      “Children and lower educated” was that a dig at Hyves? Seems to me that it’s still by far the social network of choice in the Netherlands – but I can certainly see the cracks and a great many people seem to be on both now. There seems only one way to go.

  • http://www.hyves.net Gillian

    Cool for the guys, last chance to sell? I hear they TMG paid 21,5 million euro inclusing a possible bonus which is based on future performance. Not confirmed tho! Numbers will come out once TMG publishes its results.

  • http://www.xavor.com/whatwedo/services/technologyconsulting.aspx Asif

    Actually social media has no boundaries. So, making a social media limited to certain boundary is itself a big disaster, and result is in front of you.

  • http://www.clivio.biz/cliviobotticelli/01-11-2010/clivio-biz-facebook-news-47.html CLIVIO.Biz facebook news 47

    [...] and must be audited to check they comply with the social network's policies. more… Dutch social network Hyves sold to media group, as European-based networks … – TechCrunc… – eu.techcrunch.com 11/01/2010 TechCrunchDutch social network Hyves sold to media group, as [...]

  • http://www.amuzze.com Pete

    another offline publisher who buys a dying online business cause they don’t know what to do online. Facebook will be the biggest social network in Holland by mid next year.

    when will Netlog be sold? surely there must be a Belgian publishing company who wants to waste a couple of million…

  • international amsterdamer

    Think it’s fair to say that Facebook, in comparison to Hyves, is seen as the place where the trendy folks are going. But then have a look at the output of the media group that bought it: from online GeenStijl to offline HitKrant, and the Telegraaf itself. It’s a mass-down-market perfect match.

  • http://trendoloji.com/?p=131 Hyves, Medya Grubuna satıldı Avrupa Sosyal Ağlar Facebook Isı Feel gibi

    [...] Read the rest of this entry » [...]

  • hans

    Exactly…the first movers and hipsters will easily move to new offerings like Facebook. However the majority of users being kids/youth and mainstream users and the long tail effect will be enormous and create great opportunities for the years to come.

    TMG has proven that they can leave their acquisitions to run by its own, yet gain synergies out of the ownership. Relatieplanet and GeenStijl are good examples and great moneymakers for them.

    I expect Hyves will be a great acquisition for them and in case the suggested 21.5 Mio EUR by one of the comments is correct it sounds like a great deal for TMG as well.

    I am confident they will not make the same mistake as AOL did on Bebo.

  • Victor van Zuydewijn

    People with international contacts will move and have been moving to facebook. Students, professionals, the like. They will remove themselves from local networks. Their friends and family will follow. In my personal live, i’ve moved to facebook and the other week my dad (with one international contact, he never talks to) followed. My dad for crying out loud! He is as techsavvy as your dog.

    Concluding; in an internationalized world there is no room for national social networks….

  • pietje puk

    lekker… AL jullie persoonsgegevens verkocht aan de telegraaf groep…
    die hebben ook relatieplanet.nl en nog veel meer sites en bedrijven die heel erg blij met al jullie gegevens zullen zijn. wat een buitenkans, zoveel info voor zo weinig..
    Gelukkig ben ik daar weg, niks van mij zal gebruikt wordn voor “marketing”doeleinden.

    grts.

  • http://addthis.com Justin Thorp

    For our sharing platform AddThis, we publish all the sharing data. You can see how many folks are sharing to Hyves within the Netherlands…
    http://www.addthis.com/services/compare-countries#c1=NL&c2=&c3=

  • Stan B

    What could the rationale be for this acquisition? Surely TMG must see some sort of strategic fit for a social network. TMG’s current business areas seem to be:

    1) Newspapers (especially local papers)
    2) Puzzle books and casual games
    3) Magazines
    4) Radio
    5) Little bit of TV

    Perhaps acquiring a social network makes sense from a distribution point of view for the content they produce? Its seems like a good fit..certainly if they succeed in exapting the use social network’s purpose of P2P communication to the use of content delivery, then they will have succeeded where many have failed.

    (See below a copy/paste of TMG’s about page)

    “TMG (Telegraaf Media Groep) is one of the largest Dutch media groups. TMG’s three publishing groups, Telegraaf Media Nederland, Keesing Media Group and Sky Radio Group have market leadership positions in daily newspapers, magazines, puzzle magazines, online and offline media and radio.

    TMG is the largest newspaper publisher in the Netherlands with the leading national dailies De Telegraaf and Sp!ts and has a strong position in the Randstad area and surroundings with regional dailies and (free) local papers.

    TMG has a strong market position in the Netherlands in the magazine market on the basis of titles aimed at specific target groups for instance in the segments of Entertainment, Automotive and Puzzles.

    Keesing Media Group is the market leader in puzzle booklets. The company is also developping a position in the market of casual games.

    In the Dutch radio market, TMG holds a majority interest in Sky Radio (87.3%), the market leader among commercial radio stations.

    TMG is furthermore increasingly active in new, mostly digital, forms of media via the (mobile) Internet and in combinations of various media types (cross media).

    In the international scene, TMG holds a 6% interest in ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, one of the largest European radio and television enterprises. In the Netherlands the stations SBS6, Net5 and Veronica belong to ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG.

    Outside the Netherlands, TMG is active in France, Belgium and Denmark with puzzle magazines. Obviously the Internet products of TMG have no geographical boundaries at all.”

  • Manhattan Nomad

    Why not let FB take over them then? It will become a gigantic global networks, which I believe, it is the ideal of most social networks? I don’t mind FB taking over Xiaonei, the FB in China. Just localized and customized it while maintaining its global connection.

  • http://www.rxbbx.com/ rxbbx
  • R Sardeha

    Nice deal for the Hyves founders. Telegraaf was probably the only Dutch company that could acquire Hyves for a “premium” price and they now have.

    Now let’s see if they can fight Facebook since Facebook is getting more and more dominant in the Netherlands.

  • http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pcorg/~3/zdy5ZozNmHE/ Dutch News Publisher Telegraaf Buying Social Network Hyves | paidContent

    [...] TechCrunch: “The move follows rumours of another European social network, Nasza Klasa in Poland, being put up for sale. Are Europe’s home-grown social startups finally cashing in their chips before the Facebook juggernaut rolls over their markets? Almost certainly.” Robert Andrews @robertandrews Nov 1, 2010 8:07 AM ET [...]

  • Anne

    Ik vind het eigenlijk een vrij domme zet en we kunnen allemaal Nederlands hier dus ik typ ik het in het Nederlands. Hyves gaat dezelfde kant op als myspace toen het overkocht werd. Facebook gaat het sowiezo winnen en dat is niet omdat ik fb zo geweldig vind. Maar t gaat om het feit dat ze veel innovatiefer zijn. Gewoon ook als je naar het profiel kijkt op fb oogt veel rustiger dan dat rommelige gedoe op hyves.

    Conclusion FB will beat Hyves in about 2 years and surpass the Dutch users number.

  • __M__

    At least they try something at Telegraaf. I guess that Hyves will become a platform for football loving “orange” right wing people that are not interested in anything outside Holland (The Netherlands, but these people call it Holland) besides Holiday destinations. It might just work. Unless some 50+ managers with no clue about social “media” and some over active marketing managers will destroy the community.

  • http://k.webmarketingsmart.com/social-media-watch/social-media-netizens-in-europe-migrate-from-home-grown-networks-to-facebook/ Social Media Netizens In Europe Migrate From Home-Grown Networks To Facebook « 웹마케팅 스마트 – 인터넷 마케팅 웹 에이전씨

    [...] Dutch social network, Hyves was noted in a TechCrunch report of caving in to the market pressure from Facebook. On November 1, it was announced the the [...]

  • http://www.innerballoons.com Robin

    media comapnies -> media companies

  • __M__

    A comapny is a special Dutch company :-D

  • http://wearesocial.net/blog/2010/11/socials-monday-mashup-48/ We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #48 / we are social

    [...] to media group After last week’s story that Nasza Klasa was up for sale, the news this week that Dutch social networking site Hyves has been sold is a particularly interesting piece of news. It suggests that the European ‘niche’ social [...]

  • http://wearesocial.fr/blog/2010/11/la-revue-du-lundi-par-social-35/ La revue du lundi par We Are Social #35 | we are social

    [...] la nouvelle la semaine dernière que Nasza Klasa était à vendre, la nouvelle cette semaine que le réseau social hollandais Hyves avait été vendu a retenti comme un coup de tonnerre. Il semblerait ainsi que les niches européennes de réseaux [...]

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