I had dinner the other night with several companies from the Azure Capital Partners portfolio. One observation is worth passing along.
As Web 2.0 grows up, it may be the case that smaller, “vertical” social-media sites are better able to make money than big ones, such as Facebook or MySpace. By vertical, I mean focused on a narrow subject area, such as antiques or pets.
Two companies illustrate this. TravelMuse, a travel planning site, launched its social trip planner in early September at the Demo show. In one month, the company has had several thousand register users and several thousand trips planned using the collaborative tool, says Kevin Fliess, CEO.
The planner lets people put together trips with family and friends, and to reuse information from people they know (and hopefully trust). There’s a social networking flavor to it.
In a similar manner, Cooking.com hopes to build a community by letting visitors share secrets about cooking. Users can post recipes, comment on other recipes, even suggest changes to a dish.
The site has close to million unique visitors a month and about 3,000 recipes have been shared this year, said Kieran Hannon, chief marketing officer. Revenue is about $50 million.
