Hi5, a social network with 30 million active users around the world — the same size as Facebook — has reportedly raised a $20 million round. GigaOm has more, saying Mohr Davidow Ventures is the backer.
Last week, England-based social network Bebo made it clear they, like Facebook, intend to further open their site to third-party developers.
These are the latest reminders that even though the media hype has mostly transferred from MySpace to Facebook, the rest of the world is happily using a variety of social networks.
Bebo chief executive Michael Birch conceded Facebook’s platform will likely be a success as applications — which have poured onto the platform to serve Facebook users — improve over time. In the meantime, he said, “[t]here’s definitely teething issues. There’s application overload and they’re slightly Mickey Mouse at the moment.”
Hi5 has translated its site into a number of languages since it started, which has given it a big international head start over the other social networks, company chief executive Ramu Yalamanchi told us last week. As GigaOm’s post notes, it originally began as a “social-network-plus matrimonial site targeting the Indian diaspora.” The international characteristics of Hi5 contrast with Facebook’s roots in student life on American college campuses. For example, Facebook has yet to translate itself to anything besides English. Meanwhile, Myspace has been slowly opening up sites for specific countries.
Here’s numbers Comscore provided us, showing the top social networks through May:
