ning

  • Davos Interviews: Ning CEO Gina Bianchini Insists Facebook Isn't A Competitor

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    Up next in our series of tech interviews at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week: Gina Bianchini, the CEO of social networking service Ning. Ning has never had the press attention of Facebook and Twitter. But there are 41 million registered users on Ning, and Gina says that 92 million people a month worldwide visit Ning sites. We spoke at length in the interview about how… Read More

  • Key Video From The World Economic Forum's Social Networking Powerhouse Panel

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    Each year the World Economic Forum at Davos holds number of technology focused sessions. Last year I moderated a high profile discussion about the next digital experience. This year, Loic Le Meur is hosting a discussion on the growth of social networks. Participants include Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn, Greylock), Owen Van Natta (MySpace), Gina Bianchini (Ning), Evan Williams (Twitter) and George… Read More

  • Ning SVP Engineering Lands At Facebook In Mystery Role

    by Jack McKenna

    Former Ning exec Jay Parikh left that company in October 2009 after two years as SVP Engineering and Operations. By November he was working at Facebook. Facebook confirms his employment, saying “We’re pleased that Jay Parikh has joined Facebook. Jay joined us in November, and will play an integral role in our engineering efforts.” What Facebook won’t say is what his… Read More

  • GROU.PS DIY Social Network Platform Reaches 2 Million Users, Becomes More Customizable

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    GROU.PS, a do-it-yourself social network focused on moderated online collaboration has steadily gained an impressive amount of users and added compelling features to its application. The social network platform has just hit 2 million users, adding another million members in just 6 months. And GROU.PS has amped up its offering for publishers by launching Elastic Modules, which gives publishers… Read More

  • Le Web 2009 Roundtable: What Makes A Platform, Exactly?

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    This is an overview of what was said during the panel conversation at Le Web on Platforms, which was moderated by our own Mike Arrington. (right) Lots of panelists for this particular discussion – the conference organizers managed to get all of these people on one stage: Ethan Beard (Director, Facebook Developer Network), Cristian Cussen (Director of Business Development at Ning)… Read More

  • Ning Launches Virtual Gifts, Allows Network Creators To Design Their Own

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    Today Ning, the platform that lets users build their own social networks, is launching a new feature called Ning Virtual Gifts, bringing a built-in virtual goods store to the site’s 1.6 million networks. Virtual gifts have become increasingly popular over the last few years, largely thanks to their popularity on Facebook, and I’m sure plenty of Ning’s Network Creators are… Read More

  • TC50: Simply Add A Social Network To Any Site With Stribe

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    The idea of adding a social network to any site is a compelling one. Currently, most sites do this by creating their own networks using service like Facebook Groups and Ning. But those obviously aren’t actually your own site, they are other sites set up under your site’s name. Stribe’s goal is to move the network back onto your site. The service, opening to the public today… Read More

  • After Lengthy Delays, Ning Launches Ning Apps Platform To The Public

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    Ning, the social network platform that lets users build their own social networks, has launched its application platform Ning Apps to the public. The platform allows Network Creators to customize the features on their networks by adding apps that have been created by third party developers, which include the likes of Ticketmaster, WordPress, Hulu and plenty more. The platform made its debut… Read More

  • Investing Or Marketing? The Real Reason Lightspeed Invested In Ning At A Crazy Valuation

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    A lot of readers were incredulous over last week’s news that Ning raised another $15 million in venture capital from Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $750 million valuation. That comes despite the fact that Ning traffic appears to be flatlining, and revenue to date is likely very small. A typical comment to that post: “What an ASTOUNDING way to waste money.” Others pointed… Read More

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  • As Ning's U.S. Audience Flattens, It Raises Another $15 Million.

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    Do-it-yourself social network Ning has added another $15 million to its coffers from LightSpeed Venture Partners, the company has confirmed to us. This brings the total capital raised to $119 million. Its other investors include Allen & Co., Legg Mason, chairman and co-founder Marc Andreessen, and Reid Hoffman. Ning offers a counterpoint to the uniformity of Facebook, allowing anyone… Read More

  • GROU.PS Finds $1 Million For DIY Social Network Platform

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    GROU.PS, a do-it-yourself social network focused on moderated online collaboration, has raised $1 million in an extended Series A round of funding from Golden Horn Ventures. The company previously raised $1.1 million in Series A funding from Golden Horn in 2008. GROU.PS currently has 1 million registered members and 40,000 social networks on the platform. The DIY social network is growing… Read More

  • Ning Gets A Star Studded Boost From The Collective

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    Over the last few months celebrities have become something of a currency on the social web as services vie to attract big-name stars (and gather the resulting media coverage and new users in the process). Twitter has garnered the most attention for its roster, which includes celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Oprah. Facebook too has been making strides in this area, especially since… Read More

  • Ning Apps Bring A New Dimension Of Flexibility And Power To The Social Network Platform

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    Ning‘s social network-building platform is getting a huge boost today, with the private beta launch of Ning Apps, a new suite of applications and features that Network Creators will be able to deploy across their networks with only a few clicks. The news has been a long time coming – network administrators have long been asking for features that could enhance their networks. … Read More

  • Ning: 1 Million Social Networks Strong

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    Ning is going to be reaching a big milestone this week, when it sees its one millionth social network created on its self-serve platform. Ning, which had its initial beta launch in 2005 and ‘full’ launch in 2007, makes it easy for people to create niche social networks focused on the topics they care about. Ning continues to grow steadily despite the fact that it banned… Read More

  • DIY Social Network GROU.PS Adds Ranking System To Assign Privileges To Contributors

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    GROU.PS, a do-it-yourself social network focused on moderated online collaboration is launching a new tool, ActivityRank Pipelines. The feature is a point and reward system that lets moderators of a social network measure and rank members’ content contributions and then extend moderation privileges to members based on these rankings. The moderators are able to activate the… Read More

  • Enterprise

    “The Cloud Is The New Dotcom” (Video Highlights)

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    On Friday, during our cloud computing event, Whose Cloud Is It Anyway?, Charles River Ventures partner George Zachary noted, “The cloud is the new dotcom.” He was one of the judges for the demo startups, and for good or for bad, he might be right. Cloud computing as a term is broad enough to encompass most internet startups and already is in danger of being latched onto as the… Read More

  • "The Cloud Is The New Dotcom" (Video Highlights)

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    On Friday, during our cloud computing event, Whose Cloud Is It Anyway?, Charles River Ventures partner George Zachary noted, “The cloud is the new dotcom.” He was one of the judges for the demo startups, and for good or for bad, he might be right. Cloud computing as a term is broad enough to encompass most internet startups and already is in danger of being latched onto as the… Read More

  • Ning Launches Rich, Persistent Chat Feature

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    Tonight Ning will introduce new chat functionality, giving Ning network administrators the oft-requested ability to integrate a rich chat environment similar to the one launched on Facebook last April. Ning’s new chat system is Flash-based, presenting users with a persistent chat bar along the bottom of their screens as they browse through a Ning network. Users have the option of… Read More

  • Amazon, Ning, Facebook, And Rackspace Join Our Cloud Roundtable

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    Our roundtable on cloud computing is coming up next week. (Get tickets here via Eventbrite: $75 each based on availability). In addition to the previously announced speakers, I am happy to announce a few more very special participants: Amazon’s chief technology officer Werner Vogels, Ning CEO Gina Bianchini, Facebook VP of Engineering Mike Schroepfer, and Jon Engates, CTO of Rackspace. Read More

  • Ning's Doing Just Fine Without The Porn

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    At the beginning of last December, Ning reversed course on its anything-legal-goes policy by declaring a prohibition on adult social networks. The reason? Porn wasn’t paying the bills; instead of attracting advertisers, it was scaring them away. Legal adult content was also begetting illegal content, which drew the ire of both authorities and lawyers with DMCA notices in hand. Given… Read More

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