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Perhaps the Greatest Untold Story in Social Networking
[Ramu Yalamanchi, Speaking in Mexico. Photo by IAB Mexico.]
(NOTE: This is my 65th interview for the SAP Global Survey on social media's impact on culture and business. You can find previous interviews from people in 30 countries by clicking on the SAP Category of this site, or just by Googling 'SAP Global Survey.')
Quick, a pop Quiz. Name the world's most popular social networks. Okay, narrow it down to US-based. Okay narrow it down to the online social networks located just in the Bay Area. Who comes to mind?
I'm betting very few of you named hi5 Networks. Yet, this is a network that has been around since 2003, has 80 million users in over 200 countries, is growing by 150,000 new users daily and has been profitable for over two years.
We asked Ramu Yalamanchi, who stepped out of eGroups after it was acquired by Yahoo to become hi5 co-founder and CEO how he accomplished this without spending much on marketing or PR and his answer seems simple. Offer something universally simple and highly localized and get people to want their friends and family to have conversations with them.
Here's my Q&A with Ramu:
1. Can we start by you giving me some idea of the hi5 size and scope? How many countries are you in? How many members do you have? How fast are you growing?
Alexa ranks us as a Top 10 site globally, and as the #1 or #2 most-trafficked in nearly a dozen Latin America, European and Asian countries. We are the #1 social network in Peru, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Portugal, Thailand, Romania, Macedonia, Cyprus, Greece, Mauritus and several other nations around the world.
As of February 2008, we had 80 million registered users in more than 200 nations. On the average, about 50% of these users are active on the site every month. Each day, we grow by at least 150,000 new users.
2. hi5 seems to be one of social media's great untold stories. Let's back up for a second. Can you tell me how and when hi5 got started? What was your vision then and how has that vision evolved?
We launched hi5 in late 2003 to provide a service that connected people to one another in a useful and meaningful way. The service was actually an evolution of a prior website Akash Garg and I had launched, a matchmaking service for South Asians. My brother actually met his wife through that initial service, making my mother very happy.
As we evolved into hi5, we expanded our service, but kept our focus abroad. While other social networks at the time were focusing primarily on the U.S. market, we were interested in the growing number of people coming online all over the world. We saw that as a tremendous opportunity to build a valuable service where people could interact with their friends and express themselves.
From early on, we focused on creating a service that would be easy-to-use and meaningful for people in many different countries and cultures around the world. We started with a simple design, made sure that we had high quality translations, and built relationships with media companies in regions where we saw a lot of usage. We’re now available in 14 languages -- with more coming online every month – and also offer customer support in Spanish as well. We’ll continue to explore culturally-relevant services and features that will enhance the online experience of our diverse international user communities.
3. You are among the world's largest social networks, and yet we hear very little about you. A Google search produces very few news stories. Was this prolonged stealth intentional? How do users learn about you and join?
That will soon change. The U.S. media is realizing what a world class service we are building – as the online users in numerous countries around the world already do.
In fact, our user base has grown entirely through word of mouth. We haven’t done marketing – the users have promoted the service for us by bringing their friends into it. It helps make their experience meaningful when they have friends on the site. We’ll continue to listen to our users as they tell us what they want to see on hi5, and how we can make it better for them. In turn, we hope they will continue to tell more friends and the site will continue to grow in popularity globally.
4. What are the primary reasons people join hi5? Can you give me some demographic information? Who is a typical user? Does this vary or stay the same from country to country or language group to language group?
Generally speaking, the bulk of our users are between the ages of 18-35, and we have a balanced mix of men and women. We are also particularly popular among the global Spanish-language community.
However, given that we have millions of users in so many different locations around the world, there are a great number of ways that people use the service. As our members bring their friends onto the service, they build a shared history of their lives, learn what’s happening around them, and discover new people through the service.
The same cultural nuances that you find offline, you will also find online. A service feature that is popular in one country might be less so in another country. We look for ways to tailor the service to our users’ diverse preferences, involving them in the process through discussion forums and direct dialogue, and by working with developers to create a breadth of culturally-relevant applications.
5. Do people tend to stay inside their own geographic boundaries or search elsewhere?
It depends on where their friends, family and acquaintances are located. If most are within their own geographic boundaries, then you will see them connected within that location. Very often, though, we see connections across geographic boundaries. For instance, we have Turk members living in Germany, Vietnamese living in Norway and Hispanics in the U.S. – all of whom are connected with friends in their current location, as well as with friends and family in their home country.
I’ll give you another example: one user in Greece recently wrote to thank us for our service because he said he had made friendships “not only in Greece…but everywhere!” On a trip to Serbia, he said, he met friends he had made on hi5. He said, “They showed me their capital, we went out, etc. If I weren’t a hi5 member, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity to meet these people and see their country.” It is stories like these that let us know we are succeeding in bringing people together around the world.
6. You use Lionbridge translation technologies. How extensively is it used and how successfully? Does slang hold up in translations? How long does it take for a translation between hi5 users, and are the users okay with the delays?
Lionbridge is one of many resources we use to make hi5 available in other languages. They have helped us translate hi5-generated content, not user-generated content. To date, we’ve worked with them on eleven languages, all of which were turned around rapidly – in a matter of weeks.
For slang, hi5 provides a glossary of terms that call out words requiring more attention by our translators. These are often terms that are branded by hi5 or might have specific meaning in the context of a social networking service. Since we usually have these words translated before we launch a new language, it doesn’t really hold up our translations. We also use a translation memory, which remembers phrases that were previously translated. This ensures that all phrases, especially the unusual ones, are translated consistently. Additionally, we have proof readers of the translations and engage the user base for quality review. With each new language we roll out, we launch an identical language discussion forum, and continually update the service and translations as new features are launched, or as users make suggestions for translation improvement.
7. Where is hi5 heading? Will you remain focused on a young and international user base? What new services do you think you will need to maintain your user base as it ages?
We believe Hi5's momentum will continue across the globe, and we’ll continue to draw new customers from all age ranges. Social networks are changing the way that people use the Web, and much of the way that people consume content and information will be on social networks.
