Dreamzhunt was a incubator like initiative launched way back in early 2007. The concept was that they’d provide $20K – $100K in funding along with mentoring etc. for shortlisted ideas.
The effort fizzled when they couldnt shortlist any good ideas from the applications. SweetCircles is one of the few (or the only one – dont know for sure) startups that was supported by Dreamzhunt and it recently launched to the public.
SweetCircles (tacky name !!) is a hosted blogging app, where anyone can start their own blog. You can write posts, make friends with other SweetCircle users, customize themes and add widgets to your blog. Media sharing is made easy by providing easy access to YouTube videos or music tracks. All you need to do is provide url to the YouTube video and the app will embed the video in your post. Similarly, embed codes from other media sites like Flickr, Twitter etc can be easily added too. The app has a feature called Gossipad, which is the equivalent of scraps in Orkut.
SweetCircles is more along the lines of Tumblr rather than WordPress or Blogger. The UI and design are whacky to say the least. Why would someone need to sign up for SweetCircles, you might ask. Well, the way I see it, SweetCircles can emerge as an alternative for folks who find hosted WP or Blogger versions technically challenging. Indian users, who may not yet be familiar with Posterous or Tumblr, could be the target audience for SweetCircles. If they can work on the design and include support for Indic languages, I could see a potential market for it.
What do you think ?
The blogging market has saturated already…. no place for new players in this area.
Hello,
We want to participate in The Economic Times The Power Of Ideas. We could not find category related to our web portal. – MeriCAR.com
We want to put this into Category – AUTO, but it is not in the list of categories.
Can anybody suggest us?
Regards,
Neha
hi neha,
you can email ET Ideas program at etideas@indiatimes.com with your question.
if you dont hear from anyone, let me know.
thanks,
-p
There’s a new initivate starting by PeerPower, where you can disuss ET Idea thing……. can’t tell much about it rite now, but it will be launched by wednesday
The social nets have already filled the market with every niche and flavor present. The competitors of the SweetCircles are Ning.
priyanka,
sweetcircles isnt exactly a social network per se…i’d say its more of a web based microblogging app.
I think the lack of ideas in this space is worrying. Sounds like Livejournal to me, with a few added features, and without groups.
When differentiation comes down to features, and not products, it becomes a marketing & distribution game. In those cases, the one with the most muscle usually wins
nikhil,
very aptly said…if sweetcircles focuses on a niche, they might have a chance to get some traction…else, WP and Blogger will continue to dominate..
General blogging may be saturating, but there will be space for Specific blogs, networking sites. Here is an example of a specific startup http://www.preventaccident.org, anyone can visit and join for a special cause. `
General blogging has been the topic of my blog. it is good to blog about anything.~-’
a year ago, i also love to do general blogging but now i do mostly niche blogging.~;-