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April 25, 2007
Index Ventures Funds Name-Changing Euro Youth Social Network
Index Ventures has convinced the founders of four year old Netlog, the new name for Incrowd, er no Facebox, the youth oriented social network, to take €5M Series A funding.
Other investors include Atomico, a new investment vehicle from Skype’s founders. It's an advertising business model here.
A Netlog co-founder Toon Coppens - demonstrating what happens when you spend too much time online promoting your social network
It's one of the most popular sites in Europe - says the firm - and has an aggressive program to get members to sign up friends (repeated email invitations galore). Red countries on the map here show its market presence.
What is intriguing about this is the number of times the site has changed its name. According to Mashable it was also known as ASL.TO and Redbox before adopting Facebox.
Does a brand name mean nothing in the social networking world? Maybe not. We note members reactions to the current name change -
*shrugs* 49 minutes ago I still can't get over this facebox to netlog thing... What does everyone prefer? Personally I thought facebox was kind of a cool name... at least a cooler name than netlog...
NETLOG IS A GAY NAME!!! FACEBOX WAS BETTER ..
Facebox changed!!! And left me feeling very confused...but everything was how I left it and so I was cool.
It's a risky move and it is something that our readers are probably going to watch closely. Several founders that own online communities have told the a:c euro that one of the things that has held them back from more aggressive M&A activity has been the fear of having to combine the brands of existing sites, effectively dropping one for another.
If Netlog pulls this off (again) without alienating too many members, then it could inspire more combinations and the building of bigger online communities through M&A.
Read -- Facebox Insane Growth ? (mashable)
Posted on April 25, 2007 06:08 AM | Posted to News And Updates | Permalink
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