SAReunited advertises on it's adversary

There was been a fair amount of comment here at Eish!! over the future of SAReunited.com ever since my first post 'Is there a future for SAReunited.com' even drawing comment from the one of the co-founders.
The original article centred around the fact the emergence of Facebook would ultimately make SARenuited defunct.
So I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw the following in my Facebook feed. Nothing like using your competition to get traction! It seems as if they are not going down without a fight, good on them.

SARenuited not giving up without a fight

It says a lot for an organisation, when they are willing to take criticism on the chin and respond. Amanda @ SAReunited did just that and placed the following comment in response to the post : Is there a future for SARenited? It's just a pity they didn't reply to my questions before the article was posted, perhaps it would have had a more positive spin. Eish!! is going to give them the doubt, watch the space for further updates.

Hi
This is Amanda, co-founder of SAReunited . I love it that everyone is talking about us.. and I love what facebook has done... its a very exciting space to be in. Yes SAReunited is in need of a revamp but these are issues we are addressing before facebook even hit the streets in South Africa. Competition is good, but SAReunited will be in a slightly different space to facebook - but if we told you what that is we might have to kill you.
The thing is that a new site take months to build, and of course you need to have a good business model.
And I am pleased to say that SAReunited will in the coming months be totally relaunched - and contact will be free! Lucky us, we have had time to learn from facebook, linkedin, myspace, bebo etc etc. We understand what our market needs - we have half a million members - and now its time to give them the product they all want and need as South Africans.
And to Eishman, you are right - the reason we are quiet is because SAReunited team are working harder than ever - and to remind you the very same team launched yesnomayB (which was voted top 20 UK web2.0 start up and the "apple of dating" and has a new membership base doubling every month!). Now its time for yesnomayB to move aside and SAReunited is getting the make over of its life.. watch this space..not long to go. Trust us, there will be alot to come back for.

Amanda
Co-Founder
SAReunited and yesnomayB

Is there a future for Sareunited.com?

I have mentioned in previous posts how I have been drawn into the Facebook subculture. It's been an ironic seduction, especially as it had it's genesis when I was messing around to research for the article : Facebook, am I missing something!

One thing struck me as I browsed through my list of friends the other day. A few years ago I joined Sareunited. There slogan : "Connecting South Africans Everywhere." It was a great idea, allowing you to find and interact with your old schoolmates. It has been a great success story and, it must be said, almost an essential service considering how South Africans have spread their wings and found themselves living all over the world.
Now as Facebook sweeps across South Africa as it has done else where across the world, I have found those same people that were listed in Sareunited on Facebook. The difference being, you now have an profile to look at and you are able to interact easily.

The problem with starting a conversation with someone you haven't seen in 5, 10, 20 years via email, is how do you start? How much of yourself do you reveal when you write that first, 'this is me?' Now with Facebook that is all taken care of in the first 'Add XYZ as friend.' The act of requesting and confirming is like that first 'Hi,' handshake, or whatever greeting gesture takes you fancy. Now you are able to see what your friend has been up to and is currently doing. Without having to send mails back and forth, you are able to keep up to date with their movements, and it's unobtrusive.

I went back for a browse @ Sareunited and, it must be said it suddenly feels rather archaic ... web 1.0-ish. It's rather sad, and I sincerely hope they find a way of reinventing the site. In my case there are still more contacts in my Sareunited account then in my Facebook profile, but then two things must be remembered. I haven't been active in Facebook for 2 months yet, and there is no telling how many of those contacts in Sareunited actually have details that are updated. It will be a shame if a great South African product becomes defunct. There is a massive database, active or not, of South Africans who invested their time inputting their details @ Sareunited and I can't help but think that this resource is not being utilised creatively creatively.

To close I must state that I did send Sareunited a request for comment on how they intend meeting this competition, but to date have not had a response. Let's hope that's because they are burning the midnight oil as they work on exciting new features.

Facebook, am I missing something?

Blogs, office talk, newspaper, radio. Everyone's talking about Facebook.

Facebook was founded in February 2004 by a Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg just three months after Tom Anderson founded MySpace, the other big social networking competitor. So it's not a new phenomenon. But it's clearly suddenly making it's mark here in South Africa. Check out this Amatomu buzz graph and you will see how man.

Now I classify myself as an early adopter,but when I first heard of Facebook a few years ago, it was always as the ugly Myspace competitor. Still neither really resonated with me then though and I still don't really think I have grasped the reason for viral popularity. I mean I really wanted to be part of the 'in crowd' and all, but just couldn't see the point of taking the step and signing up, other than to secure my name. So let me try fight their case though and see if I can convince myself to become a 'Facebooker'.

• I am told you can chat to your friends via Facebook - but I can do that through Skype, GoogleTalk, MSN Messenger and a whole host of other IMs.
• You can also send messages - That's odd, I thought you could just use email for that?
• OK, but you can upload photos - Been doing that for ages on Flickr and Picasa
• But wait, you can hook up with old school, varsity & work mates - Again, there's a whole load of other sites I can and have used for just that, starting at the school website and, in my case, including SAReunited.
• There's a messageboard - old hat
• But it's a free website - I set up my first free website using AngelFire about 10 years ago.
  

But wait ... perhaps the beauty is it's all in one place? Maybe, perhaps that's the secret. I am still not convinced.

... but I refuse to be left behind, so off I go, time to join!!!

Eish!! just can't help myself, here's me.