I just came across an interesting article entitled, “Meet the Flip Squad,” this article discusses the purpose of creating this Flip.com and the need to form a think-tank group that made up of eight high school girls for this site. Not long ago, I did posted a post on Flip that entitled,”Flip.com: A Feminine Version of Social Networking.” I’ve been briefly discussed the background of Flip and my first impression of this site as well. In this site, you’ll notice that the content created by its users is called Flipbooks. An user can customize her own pictures, photos, collages, templates in several different shapes as she like on the page. Furthermore, from one’s personal profile, an user can also search for some girl friends and join the clubs that she like most.

I think Flip is set to be teenage girls’ answer to social networking. The involvement of the teenage girls in the process of building this site has helped Flip achieve the desired market positioning. I always wonder when a new startup launched in the market and most certain will ask for this question: “What needs do we seek to satisfy?” You always need a fresh idea from an outsider, and it seems Flip has made a right choice by implementing a think-tank group strategy. But I’m curious now whether Flip should increase the member of the think-tank group as appropriately in the future.

I came across this social networking website for some time. It is run by a service provider namely, CondeNet, Inc. This service provider has produced some well-known magazines such as GQ, Men’s Vogue, House and Garden, Brides, Golf Digest, Wired, The New Yorker, just to name a few. Frankly, I was impressed by the magazines especially Wired and The New Yorker (my topic areas of interest) that they produced. Besides, I’m a bit of surprise why they go into the Internet and focused on the social networking area. I tend to believe that they’re more likely to succeed in traditional media especially magazine when they’ve been one of the leaders in this industry and also have some sort of resources in hands.

Flip, a new venture they found, still in beta version. I believed they’re not offer their services for free to the users eventually. As I read their user agreement, they might charged for a small fee to the users when it officially launched in next year. There is a good question arise when a new social networking site emerged on the web: A lot of people might lured to join this site, especially it’s free, but who’s going to bear the cost of web hosting and bandwidth? Is Flip going to pursue the advertising-supported business model? In other word, Flip could attained revenue as the advertising grew in order to cover their operational expenses in the future.

In term of strategy, I think Flip is targeting on the feminine market, especially the teenage girls market. But I think it’s unfair to compare Flip with other social networking sites, especially it’s still in beta version. In addition, I doubt that they’re going to pursuing the same type of strategy that executed by FaceBook and at one point offer the services to the public. FaceBook first launched as a social networking site that targeting students, later now they opened to the public.

In overall, this new venture reassures me that the social networking industry still has room to grow.