Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2011; the news about Luluvise, including its $1 million in funding and presence in 69 countries, is from that time. Luluvise was later relaunched as the Lulu app.
The fact that everything in the social media market seems to have been invented already doesn’t appear to have bothered Alexandra Chong, entrepreneur and founder of Luluvise, a social network aimed at young women and their friends. In fact, the million dollars in funding she has raised suggests that this social network could become a real success, though not without legal risks.
The social network was born in the United Kingdom in 2010, although it is hosted in the United States. It is already present in 69 countries and has become a real hit in Canada, the US and the UK.
Why a social network just for women?
Alexandra has drawn up a clear strategy, based on the fact that women are much more active on social networks than men, sharing more than 70% of the content and spending on average 35% more time logged in to a network.
According to TechCrunch, the idea behind this young entrepreneur’s social network is not only to share your most intimate content with your circle of “girlfriends”, but also, when the moment comes, to tear a particular man to shreds if he has behaved badly in a relationship. That is where the legal problems would start. A few years ago there was an American website (its name translates as “Bad Boyfriends”) where a woman starting a relationship with a man could check how he had behaved in previous relationships, whether he was good in bed, whether he was a womaniser, and so on.
It must be said that the website had to close because it could no longer cope with the lawsuits from those “boyfriends” who saw their reputations called into question, and not all the comments were always true. This time, Alexandra says she has covered herself well on the legal side so as not to make that kind of mistake.
Even so, this social network will let users rate guys and talk about them, for better or worse, although a guy won’t be able to defend himself because he can’t sign up to Luluvise: as its creator puts it, the network is strictly and exclusively for ladies.
Part of what is already starting to look like a social media success is down to the fact that this young and attractive entrepreneur has managed to appear in the main relevant media, such as the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and VentureBeat, as well as getting the all-important photo with the British prime minister, David Cameron.
Further reading
- 5 new social networks for specific audiences
- BeautifulPeople: a social network for good-looking people only, “ugly” people need not apply
- Pawsley, a social network for dogs
- Social networks focused on specific niches and professionals
Featured image: TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
