Hi5 Giving MySpace The Shakes

We’re all aware of how unthinkably popular MySpace is. If it could spank its competition, it would – and it would do so in strides. Or would it? Just because MySpace has allegedly topped 60 million registered users (Clearly some of those must be dupes.) doesn’t mean they’ve gone and done a Microsoft and eaten over 90% of the market. So this leads some to wonder: Who is the runner up, and how formidable is this silver medalist? I think we’ve found the answer.

And it may surprise you. Actually, it probably will surprise you. It’s not Facebook, even though many suggest that it comes right up behind MySpace. And it turns out there aren’t enough Brazilians online to make Orkut a surprise number-two. Rather than tease you further – which I’m fairly certain I could do with some measure of aplomb – I’ll just come out at say it. The stealthy service is none other than Hi5. Huh? Who? Hi5 is what it is, and Hi5 is what 50 million have gotten.

I’ll be perfectly honest with you now. Only a few hours prior to cranking this item out on my trusty word processor did I learn about Hi5 for the first time. Never before had I heard a peep about it. In the two years in which the social networking revolution has been running full steam, nary a sound. But according to Michael Arrington, the head honcho of the widely read Crunch network (TechCrunch, MobileCrunch, CrunchGear, etc.), Hi5, a San-Francisco baby, has come to amass roughly 50 million users. Comscore delivered news that, in December alone, Hi5 received 23 million unique visitors. The trend tracker also stated that as of the close of 2006, Hi5 was considered the 79th largest site on the Web.

So how did this outfit from west coast USA come out to become one of the Web’s most highly trafficked and most popular social networks, with little press behind it to speak of?

If you’re looking at the company’s growth figures, you’re likely as amazed as I. Hi5 is showing a 15% increase in visitorship month after month. That kind of growth isn’t unheard of, but it surely means MySpace has one big kahuna nipping at its shoes; one they need to take a good hard look at if they’re to keep their crown.

Of course, it’s imperative to take one giant step back from the percentages and bring meaning to the millions, so I’ll attempt to do so. Bear in mind, however, the little knowledge I have of Hi5’s history, so try not to take this as another underreported slam against MySpace.

When you have on the one hand a powerhouse such as MySpace, now owned by the infamous Aussie-commandeered News Corp, struggling to keep its inputs and outputs as exciting and incredible as last year’s (and so on and so on), suddenly confronted with a relative “newcomer” with equally impressive statistics on its shoulders, analysts are bound to begin rethinking MySpace’s security. This isn’t to say that MySpace is destined to face off with Hi5 in a cage match-like fight in the near future, but the strong growth of the young’un surely portends that MySpace will be treading some tough water in the months ahead.

Hi5 is attractive, it’s aesthetically simplistic, features just about everything all social networks carrier in one form or another, but none of the items I’ve mentioned are the reason behind it’s success. To see why Hi5 has shot through the roof since it went live is the thin sliver of links positioned at the top of its pages. Those links read: English, Espanol, Francais, Deutsch, Italiano, Portuguese, and Nederlands. I don’t think it needs explaining how important multilingual sites are today.

MySpace has begun to tread international waters as well, with nation-specific domains for Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK, and USA, but how well it caters to each segment of the world, and how well all portions connect to one another will be key to whether MySpace continues to gain ground or lose it.

I foresee a lengthy back-and-forth tug of war between Hi5 and MySpace in 2007. I don’t foresee, however, one or the other thrown down into flames. Unless one manages to enter the Chinese market without doing a Google, Yahoo, or MSN, throwing out any sense of freedom with the introduction of Hi5 or MySpace Mandarin.