Totspot: A Social Network for Babies
No, you’ve heard correctly. Totspot.com is a social network for infants and toddlers, or as they are known in the marketing community, the crucial “0 to 4 demographic.”
But we all know it’s for the parents, after all, and there are other parenting sites out there, such as Maya’s Mom, but as founder Michael Broukhim says, they’re different in that they are not just targeting mothers– it’s about the child. So, in essence, it is more of a social network for babies than just for the parents.
Broukhim also believes that rather than being a traditional social network, the site is more of a “social publishing tool” that allows parents to control who can see and contribute content to the profile. For example, there will be multiple account types where grandparents, friends, and other relatives can get online and contribute their own photos of little Billy or Jennie.
This isn’t such a bad idea, considering how obsessed parents and relatives can be about their children and how they may be looking for ways to share milestones and photos with their loved ones. Instead of mass emailing a couple of photos to grandma and company, all she will need to do is sign in to the site and view potentially hundreds or thousands of photos.
One of the questions brought up in the TechCrunch message board about this site is the fact that it will pretty much run its course after a few years. There will be a constant need to churn up new users since the kids are going to grow up. Word of mouth through play dates and other groups will certainly help create buzz, but will it be enough?
It will be interesting to see what kind of mobile functionality they will go with as well. So far, I can’t tell that there is any.
One great thing about this site is that babies require a ton of new stuff, all the time, so the marketing opportunities are ample. Not only will the parents potentially view ads that are truly targeted (if you sell something for babies, you can be sure people with babies or who know people with babies are viewing it).
Thanks to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch for cracking the story.
Technorati Tags: totspot, maya\'s mom, social network for babies, michael broukhim
My name is Zameer Upadhya and I am the Co-Founder and CEO of http://www.babyspot.com. We are a social networking and informational tool for new parents to connect. Totspot looks like a great site, however, we are in the same space and launched in December 2007. Our site has been live since then and was started because my co-founder, James Rivera, wanted to share pictures and videos of his son, Danny, in a safe and secure manner. Enclosed in this email below is a press release regarding our site and our company story. We hope that you can take a look at our site and we would welcome the chance to chat with you. Love your blog!!
Presenting the Youngest Social Networking Profiles…Ever.
Highly successful http://www.babyspot.com emerges to revolutionize the way families and parents interact with one another. Parents create profiles for their children that allow the world to watch them grow each day. The site offers blogs, videos, pictures, comment features, and parenting-based content.
Miami, FL (PRWeb) Jan. 21, 2008 - With the birth of a child came the birth of one of the Internet’s greatest ideas. Though the Internet now offers a substantial number of social networking sites, none exist like the one created by co-founders James Rivera and Zameer Upadhya.
Shortly after welcoming their first child Danny into the world, James and Monica Rivera became bombarded with requests for news, pictures and videos of their little bundle of joy. Seeking to quell the mob that demanded to see the new family member, the fresh-faced parents logged onto the Internet and started posting pictures here and there and sending scattered emails that were sometimes filtered out by Spam-screeners. Frustrated by their need to act as technical support for the newborn’s various online profiles and photo sites, the parents turned to long-time friend Zameer who, as it turns out, was experiencing equal chagrin at how challenging it had become to try and receive news about his distant baby-cousins. Together, they hatched a plan to create an entirely new breed of social networking site that would forever change the lives of parents the world over.
They created Babyspot.com, a site that allows users—specifically parents—to create profiles that give them the ability to post news and pictures of their children for fellow parents and family members to see. The prevailing sentiment is that not everyone can completely appreciate the sublime joy of becoming a parent, but Babyspot.com brings together the people who do.
Delving into the site, users can see the site offers as many (if not more) features as most social profile sites. With the ability to write biographies and blogs, and update pictures and videos, parents can create an immersing baby-centric experience for the viewing pleasure of their families and friends. The simplicity of the site eliminates the need for tired newborn parents to spend what little energy they have left bouncing from site to site and writing countless emails to relatives, over and over. The site is very user-friendly, and has thus far been incredibly successful at keeping families in touch and creating friendships between parents living cities and countries apart. The creators of the site even understood that not all parents want the world to see their children, so they added an option that allows you to block your child’s profile from anyone who was not personally invited to view it.
Just like watching their own child learn and become successful, the Riveras will be able to guide their website to a healthy future adulthood. With the recent explosion in popularity of networking sites, one thing is for certain: it’s worth keeping an eye on Babyspot.com to see what it’ll be when it grows up.