P2P social lending by Prosper continue to grow, as people get accustomed to the concept.  They have been around about 18 months and doubled their user base in the last 4 months.

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Prosper (www.prosper.com), America’s first people-to-people lending marketplace, today announced that over the course of the last four months its membership and funded loans have doubled. As a result, Prosper’s membership base now consists of more than 200,000 individuals with over $40 million in loans funded on the marketplace.

Source: Prosper Membership Leaps to 200,000 and Funded Loans Top $40 Million

They recently held ‘Prosper days’ which was two day conference for lenders.  I spoke with someone who attended, and Prosper exhibit the traits of socially responsible and open companies that have come to be associated with Web 2.0.  Many of the talks and working sessions were handled by Prosper lenders – Prosper customers. 

In addition there was great focus on their open data model, encouraging others to develop third party applications, working with the data, to improve results, and educate users.

To explore some of the third-party websites and applications dedicated to Prosper, click here: www.prosper.com/public/tools/3rdParty.aspx