Category: Social networks

Social Lending, Social networks1 Comment

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

Colin Henderson

 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’ … Continue reading Prosper Membership Leaps to 200,000 and Funded Loans Top $40 Million

Social networks

Stowe talks about the changes at USA Today

Colin Henderson

 USA Today has introduced a new site suggesting they are a social network. Stowe disagrees. Sure, USAToday (and WSJ, NYTimes, etc.) want to be ‘destinations’ where people ‘go’ as opposed to just winding up as RSS streams. But will we actually go to these places? Especially if there are dozens or hundreds of them? How many news apps do you want to sign up to? And if you wanted to have a social experience around news media, wouldn’t you want it to be open? Like the blogosphere? Source: /Message: USAToday.com Goes Social, Sorta Stowe is right.  First of all, it’s … Continue reading Stowe talks about the changes at USA Today

Social networks, Web/Tech

How to web 2.0 your bank – (follow up to a comment)

Colin Henderson

 Portaleco (Germany) makes an interesting comment to a post from last October that I felt worth capturing and noting here.  It brings home to me that we are all to a certain extent cocooned by our environments, as much as the web is world wide. The philosophical differences between the big continents remain, and provide a different lens for each of us, and how we see things. So while I don’t full agree with the comment, I accept that we don’t all see the same things, the same way, and that strategies may need to be refined and regionalised to some … Continue reading How to web 2.0 your bank – (follow up to a comment)

Social networks

How people make decisions

Colin Henderson

 Dave never ceases to amaze me with his detailed and thoughtful posts.  This one is on decision making.  indigenous peoples tend to make decisions more holistically, rather than biasing their decisions in favour of intellectual knowledge alone. They are more tentative in their judgements and try to allow more time for all knowledge, including that which is subconscious, to be considered and integrated. They will place great weight on the judgements of those they trust, but ultimately each individual will be trusted (given the authority) and expected (given the responsibility) to make any decision that affects them alone, without having … Continue reading How people make decisions

Social networks

BIGresearch: The Consumers’ Control of Media Continues to Grow

Colin Henderson

 Great piece of research here, that cements the consumers control of media messages. Consumer rate word of mouth highest (30% for car, 43% for electronics).  This bodes well for blogs, and social networks. Source: BIGresearch Press Release Hat tip: Church of the Customer   Technorati tags: marketing, social+networks, consumer, consumer+purchasing+decisions Continue reading BIGresearch: The Consumers’ Control of Media Continues to Grow

Social Lending, Social networks3 Comments

A Tale of Two Lenders

Colin Henderson

Fascinating article comparing the genesis, and evolution of Prosper and Kiva. There are dramatic similarities, and differences. It is not surprising that Prosper’s reach is so much broader than Kiva’s. In its first seven months, Prosper’s 100,000 registered users have made $22 million in loans, averaging about $5,000. Kiva’s 15,000 lenders have made $1.2 million in loans, with an average loan size of $500. That translates into success for both companies, whose founders agree that there is room in the wide-open field for both models. Says Kiva’s Shah: “Right now there are so few people doing this and it’s so experimental, … Continue reading A Tale of Two Lenders

Social networks2 Comments

/Message: Enough Already: Getting Social Media All Wrong

Colin Henderson

Stowe does an admirable job here of summarising the state of denial that otherwise smart people are existing within. As Jay Rosen has suggested, we are the people formerly known as the audience. Blogging is not just another channel for corporate marketing types to push their messages to markets, eyeballs, or audiences. Social media is based on the dynamic of a many-to-many dialogue between people. Yes, people: that’s the word that should have been used. Not audience. Source: /Message: Enough Already: Getting Social Media All Wrong   Technorati tags: marketing, pinkomarketing, blogging, press+releases Continue reading /Message: Enough Already: Getting Social Media All Wrong

Open Source Banking, Social networks

www.fundsupermart.com; social investing site

Colin Henderson

Thanks David for pointing out this fundsupermart following up on the stockpickr post.  Fundsupermart is more peer based in its evaluations, versus the algorithm method at stockpickr.  It lets participants rate portfolio choices, and has some parts that are more attractive, and will bring users back.  Key will be the evolution of the site as it gets going.   Technorati tags: social+investing Continue reading www.fundsupermart.com; social investing site

Open Source Banking, Social Lending, Social networks5 Comments

Social Investing – stockpickr.com

Colin Henderson

Continuing with the theme of social financial services, here is a new one, picked up from tehcmeme tonight.  Its a unique approach to investing sites, and is more akin to wesabe (personal finances social site), than any other investing site.  Stockpickr lets you input your portfolio, then points out others who have similar portfolios, and the degree of similarity. But that’s where it stops …  after reading the early promise from the usual press release the result is disappointing: the forum is quite disjointed from the portfolio’s – the forum is just that – another forum functionality- there is an … Continue reading Social Investing – stockpickr.com

Social Lending, Social networks

The Perfect Community: Disciplining the eBay user

Colin Henderson

I have been reflecting more on the power of internet community, and why it works.  I came across this publication, that I need to track down “Jarrett, K. (2006); “The Perfect Community: Disciplining the eBay user” I located this quote of Dr Kylie Jarrett.  It is both compelling, and unique.  Jarrett argues that the efficacy of schemes such as eBay resides in their endeavour to produce the autonomous subject whilst simultaneously inspiring sanctioned behaviour through instilling the values of the community within the mindset of members (Jarrett, 2006) eBay is maintaining that sanctioned behaviour successfully, and how that can be … Continue reading The Perfect Community: Disciplining the eBay user