BlackPlanet is an African-American social networking service for matchmaking and job postings; it also has forums for discussion on political and social issues.
BlackPlanet was launched on September 1, 2001 by Omar Wasow, an Internet analyst, who in 2001 was running "New York Online", a pre-web community he started in 1993. It was the brainchild of Wasow and Community Connect's CEO Benjamin Sun. Launched in 1999, it was a relative latecomer to social media sites, with three already in existence targeting people of color.
Company
The website is run by Community Connect of New York City. Community Connect has also run AsianAvenue.com and MiGente.com In April 2008, Community Connect was purchased for $38 million by Radio One, a Lanham, MD-based media begun by Cathy Hughes. Along with BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com and AsianAvenue.com were also purchased. This move was taken by Radio One to diversify beyond radio to reach black audiences.
BlackPlanet's broader mission is to strengthen the Black community.
Website
The most popular forums were Current Events, Heritage & Identity, Relationships, Religion & Spirituality, and Women. Wasow says BlackPlanet's home-grown software allows users to move between personal pages, to dating, chat, and message boards, focusing on connecting people, rather than feeding them content.
Statistics
In January 2007, the membership log on BlackPlanet's home-page boasted 15.8 million registered users since its inception in 1999. At time of purchase the site had around 20 million members and was the fourth most-visited U.S. social networking site.
Target Audience
Male 34.4%
Female 65.6%
Median Age: 32
Attended/Grad College: 64.5%
Composition Black: 88%
"BlackPlanet creates branded profile pages to integrate advertisers into the social community, enabling members to engage as friends"; as well as personal profiles BlackPlanet also allows pages for brands, personalities, and products.
In 2009, BlackPlanet introduced new features to the website, including a Facebook-style status update, and a news bar that keeps users up-to-date with information shared on Interactive One and BlackPlanet. The chat function was also updated in 2009; the current chat is powered by a company called Chat Blazer and is Flash based.
In early 2010, BlackPlanet launched a new homepage that included an Activity Feed, allowing users to see updates from everyone on BlackPlanet, either friends or by location.
Other features
BlackPlanet has recently introduced two interactive games for users, Farmandia and Fishdom.
BlackPlanet describes Farmandia as follows: "Farmandia puts you in the farmer's seat. Grow your produce, care for your animals and build your barns. The more you play, the more points you're rewarded so you can keep your farm in business. Need a little help? Invite other BlackPlanet members to lend a hand."
BlackPlanet describes Fishdom thusly; "When you're done spending time on the farm, grab your virtual fishing rod and head to Fishdom where you're responsible for feeding your exotic collection of underwater friends. You better earn your bucks because they get mighty hungry. You never know when you'll need to purchase more food, accessorize your underwater kingdom or give your fish some new friends."
The similarities to Facebook's Farmville have not gone unnoticed by the BlackPlanet users, who point out the need for improvement of the site's infrastructure and principal features such as chat prior to the introduction of games.
Mobile applications
BlackPlanet also introduced mobile apps in 2009 for mobile phones. The application BlackPlanetMobile was free when it was introduced but was not exclusive of mobile provider charges. BlackPlanetMobile did not work on the BlackBerry, GPhone, iPhone, or Sidekick smartphones when introduced.
BlackPlanet Text Alerts are also available to alert users to updates and notifications. This is an opt-in service.
Social networks
It has been stated that online social networks have come to define the modern Internet experience.
BlackPlanet, as a precursor to Facebook and Myspace, has gone some way to influencing the Internet as users recognise it. Before today's popular networks allowed you to "like" posts, "poke" crushes, or "retweet" celebrities, web-savvy African Americans were connecting on BlackPlanet.
Wasow himself has stated"