May 22, 2008 at 12:24The most interesting startups in Runet - spring 2008
By the nature of my activity, I regularly monitor interesting Web 2.0 startups in RuNet. This time, I decided to share my vision with habruppolizami and tell you about the brightest startups launched in the spring of 2008. For each of the startups, we will touch on possible monetization channels and discuss rumors about investing.
When choosing startups that can be attributed to the spring of 2008, I was guided by the presence of mentions of a startup on specialized resources during this period, as well as by functional readiness.
A computer can solve problems that did not exist before the invention of the computer. So the BestPersons service allows you to solve a problem that before the invention of social networks did not exist - the union of dozens of accounts on other social networks. Two years ago, we would say that the problem is sucked out of the finger. Now in my password manager there is a special daddy - "Social Networks", which contains dozens of elements. Yes, this turns into a nightmare: if you frend, then everywhere, if you post, then immediately in LiveJournal, in Liveinternet, in Blogspot, and in a separate blog. The idea of making a universal business card on the network where everyone could post information about themselves has been around for a long time, but BestPersons.ru has chosen the most correct and relevant approach - aggregation of existing information.
Information about investments: rumored to be> 500 thousand USD
Possible startup problems: it is likely that the portal will be used as a means of searching for information about users, and registered users will visit the portal extremely rarely, which will lead to a lack of a permanent audience and an increase in the budget for promotion.
Ways to solve problems: the introduction of a large number of their own social services; A
probable monetization model: advertising, due to add. services. Successful monetization will require a large number of participants.
Project site: www.BestPersons.ru
The idea of creating a social network for office workers has long been at the surface. And if business social networks such as MyKrug and Webby have long occupied their niches, then there are still no entertainment networks, and after all, a typical office plankton spends more than 50% of its time not at work, but at eternal gatherings on the Internet . What, by the way, is indicated by a sharp surge in runet attendance on weekdays.
At the end of April, the first startup on this topic www.shefa-net.ru appeared , and the developers of Our Office, apparently, decided not to wait for the development of a competitor and launched the early beta NashOfis.ru, which was still “dank”, but very functional.
The service is designed to search for colleagues, to post and discuss corporate photo albums. There is a huge number of "monitor panels" that inform you of a change in the jobs of your friends and colleagues. Our office pays a lot of attention to communication within companies: employees can communicate both through a personal messaging system, as well as in meeting rooms.
Investment Information: According to rumors, about 120 thousand euros were spent on development.
Possible startup problems: it’s likely that users who are interested in communicating via social networks have long been chatting with “classmates” or “VKontakte” and they will not be interested in the new service.
Ways to solve problems: the introduction of a large number of unique "office" services.
Probable monetization model: advertising, due to add. services. The advertising model seems to be the most likely and successful, because office employees are the most active consumers of goods and services.
Project site: www.NashOfis.ru/?us7043
Laurels of WikiMapia haunt anyone, and this is an extra impetus to the development of services “on the map”. Tipster is a travel service that actively uses Google Maps and Flickr in its work. The idea is very simple: you mark on the world map those places where you have been on your tourist trips and compile your individual travel map. Each locality or country has its own page on the project, where travelers can ask questions and answer them. On the pages of settlements, photos from flickr are automatically loaded, which is very convenient. A brief summary of other travelers is also available.
Information about investments: according to the creators, a lot of funds were not invested in the project, and it is developed without an investor. According to my assumptions, the project budget is <10000 USD.
Possible problems for a startup: tourist trips are usually planned 1-2-3 times a year, and after the trip, people often "leave" tourism for 2-3 months. This can lead to the fact that the core of site visitors will be extremely small, and a large amount of investment will be required to attract new users.
Ways to solve problems: integration with other travel services.
Likely monetization model: advertising (offer of tours).
Project site: www.tripster.ru I
would like to mention the actively developing Mooteam.ru project, which would certainly have got into this review if it had been launched a little earlier, as well as promenyal.ru - a service that allows you to get rid of unnecessary things, exchanging them for what something more necessary :)
When choosing startups that can be attributed to the spring of 2008, I was guided by the presence of mentions of a startup on specialized resources during this period, as well as by functional readiness.
 | BestPersons.ru |
A computer can solve problems that did not exist before the invention of the computer. So the BestPersons service allows you to solve a problem that before the invention of social networks did not exist - the union of dozens of accounts on other social networks. Two years ago, we would say that the problem is sucked out of the finger. Now in my password manager there is a special daddy - "Social Networks", which contains dozens of elements. Yes, this turns into a nightmare: if you frend, then everywhere, if you post, then immediately in LiveJournal, in Liveinternet, in Blogspot, and in a separate blog. The idea of making a universal business card on the network where everyone could post information about themselves has been around for a long time, but BestPersons.ru has chosen the most correct and relevant approach - aggregation of existing information.
Information about investments: rumored to be> 500 thousand USD
Possible startup problems: it is likely that the portal will be used as a means of searching for information about users, and registered users will visit the portal extremely rarely, which will lead to a lack of a permanent audience and an increase in the budget for promotion.
Ways to solve problems: the introduction of a large number of their own social services; A
probable monetization model: advertising, due to add. services. Successful monetization will require a large number of participants.
Project site: www.BestPersons.ru
 | NashOfis.ru |
The idea of creating a social network for office workers has long been at the surface. And if business social networks such as MyKrug and Webby have long occupied their niches, then there are still no entertainment networks, and after all, a typical office plankton spends more than 50% of its time not at work, but at eternal gatherings on the Internet . What, by the way, is indicated by a sharp surge in runet attendance on weekdays.
At the end of April, the first startup on this topic www.shefa-net.ru appeared , and the developers of Our Office, apparently, decided not to wait for the development of a competitor and launched the early beta NashOfis.ru, which was still “dank”, but very functional.
The service is designed to search for colleagues, to post and discuss corporate photo albums. There is a huge number of "monitor panels" that inform you of a change in the jobs of your friends and colleagues. Our office pays a lot of attention to communication within companies: employees can communicate both through a personal messaging system, as well as in meeting rooms.
Investment Information: According to rumors, about 120 thousand euros were spent on development.
Possible startup problems: it’s likely that users who are interested in communicating via social networks have long been chatting with “classmates” or “VKontakte” and they will not be interested in the new service.
Ways to solve problems: the introduction of a large number of unique "office" services.
Probable monetization model: advertising, due to add. services. The advertising model seems to be the most likely and successful, because office employees are the most active consumers of goods and services.
Project site: www.NashOfis.ru/?us7043
 | Tripster.ru |
Laurels of WikiMapia haunt anyone, and this is an extra impetus to the development of services “on the map”. Tipster is a travel service that actively uses Google Maps and Flickr in its work. The idea is very simple: you mark on the world map those places where you have been on your tourist trips and compile your individual travel map. Each locality or country has its own page on the project, where travelers can ask questions and answer them. On the pages of settlements, photos from flickr are automatically loaded, which is very convenient. A brief summary of other travelers is also available.
Information about investments: according to the creators, a lot of funds were not invested in the project, and it is developed without an investor. According to my assumptions, the project budget is <10000 USD.
Possible problems for a startup: tourist trips are usually planned 1-2-3 times a year, and after the trip, people often "leave" tourism for 2-3 months. This can lead to the fact that the core of site visitors will be extremely small, and a large amount of investment will be required to attract new users.
Ways to solve problems: integration with other travel services.
Likely monetization model: advertising (offer of tours).
Project site: www.tripster.ru I
would like to mention the actively developing Mooteam.ru project, which would certainly have got into this review if it had been launched a little earlier, as well as promenyal.ru - a service that allows you to get rid of unnecessary things, exchanging them for what something more necessary :)