Why is it that most Australians flock to American Social Networking sites, shunning Australian ones? For a social network site to be successful in Australia, the platform should be designed for Australians.

They are a few aspects which will make an Australian social networking site successful. These include but are not limited to:
1. The site should be a form of persistent online Australian identity.
2. The site should broker services that can connect individuals who share interests in a context-sensitive manner.
3. Members should leverage their participation in the social network to expand markets, advance new ideas, protect their social interests, and help build their community while collaborating within a safe, neutral environment.
4. The site should have cutting edge technology
5. The site should be community based.
6. Above all membership and services should be free.

A study of three Social networking sites is summarised below.

http://www.Getalife.com.au- They say "Getalife.com.au is all about making it easy for people and communities to do more. ..... and putting you in touch with fun, like-minded people." Getalife's main drawback is they charge subscription fees.

http://www.Buzz.hi.org.au. They say "buZZ is like facebook without mindless apps & myspace without annoying ads. .... membership is available only to individuals or not for profit organizations, NOT businesses." Buzz member ship has been growing rapidly. Buzz lacks the cutting edge communication technology, if they don’t keep pace members might be deserting them soon for better networks.

http://www.linkau.com.au. They say "Linkau, is ....designed to give the power of networking to the Australian community. Membership and all services are FREE……You have the choice of joining a national portal or various state based portals and community based portals." A closer look reveals that http://www.linkau.com.au has got all the potential to grow big in Australia, it is community based, and it has the cutting edge technology. They give members access to other sites like youtube, flickr, odeo, without leaving linkau site, but surprisingly their membership is still low.


It is my opinion that these three websites will define and play a major part in Australian social networking environment.

Or...you could simply involve yourself in a vibrant Christian church and get REAL world hugs rather than cyber ones :)

I am not sure what the posters point is, but in answer to your initial question, I use an international social networking site because, like many Australians, I have lived overseas and I've socilaised in Australia with non-Aussie ex-pats. The internet is international by default — it would seem to limiting to me to use an Australian site.

Does that answer your question? Why are you asking the question? Are you trying to promote those sites?

It does kind of defeat the purpose of the internet. If you are interacting online it doesn't make any difference whether the other end is next door or on the other side of the world. Except that interacting with people on the other side of the world will broaden your experience a lot more.

Here is a political and social networking site I set up, targetting local political issues:

http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl

It's a shame this place doesn't let you send PMs.

Sorry people, you're missing the point - as Boazy says, if you "simply involve yourself in a vibrant Christian church" you won't need any of this new fandangled computer trickery. If the Lord meant us to interact via the Internet, we'd have been born with modems.

I just wish he'd take his own advice, in this case anyway :)

Vanilla - "Are you trying to promote those sites?"

Looks like a blatant plug for the third site I'd say.

linkau - This is an opinion forum. It shouldn't be highjacked for personal promotion.