(from WWD.com)Questions are being raised around the halls of 4 Times Square about Flip.com, Condé Nast’s new teen networking site. Pointing to small traffic numbers and a whispered lack of enthusiasm from higher ups about the project, despite a heavy financial investment in the site’s technology, naysayers believe Flip has so far been a bit of a flop. “Thank God it wasn’t my idea,” said one insider. Meanwhile, Flip just lost one of its editors, Holly Siegel, to Ellegirl.com.
You would think with the number of generic social networks out there, one with a clear niche, and well reviewed technology, would be in huge demand. Apparently though, if you can’t get people excited enough, it just won’t matter. This appears to be the problem for Flip.com.
It doesn’t matter how innovative you are, if you can’t generate a buzz around yourself, you won’t get very far in this day-and-age. And considering that with Flip you have the ability to embed your flash-based flipbooks in to other places like MySpace, hi5, Facebook, and personal blogs, you would seem to think it would be a no-brainer. Apparently not.
There is a lesson in here somewhere for future social networks to study, just because you build it, it doesn’t always mean they will come.
