November 2008

Power.com: The Next Massive IM and Social Networking Aggregator?

There aren’t many sites with 5 million users that we haven’t heard of, but Power.com is just that, and it’s a name you might be hearing a lot more of after it launches in the US today.

Previously available in Brazil and India, the site bills itself as a ‘Meebo for social networking’ of sorts, allowing you to simultaneously login to accounts on both social networking services like Facebook and MySpace and instant messaging networks like MSN.

From there, you can view new activities from friends on those services, see who’s online across all of them via a buddy list, and use the ‘Power Communicator’ to simultaneously send a message to your friends on any site you have synced with Power.com. In other words, if your friends are spread across many social networks, you can see an aggregate view of their activities and message them on their native network, all from inside the Power.com interface.

Isn’t this just like Friendfeed?

Not exactly. For one, the instant messaging aspect is something Friendfeed doesn’t have – if you’ve synced your Facebook, MySpace, and MSN accounts with Power.com, you’ll get a buddy list that shows all of your friends who are signed on to those services, even if they don’t use Power.com. Additionally, Power.com is far more of a two-way communicator. In addition to aggregating activities from your friends across multiple services, it lets you respond to them and send messages to their native app.

So it’s like Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, etc?

Still a bit off. While those services will let you access your friend’s list on third-party websites, Power.com isn’t looking to be your universal profile or social graph. And, it doesn’t matter at all if your friends use it – you’ll still be able to communicate with them using Power.com so long as you’ve synced your account.

How does it have 5 million users already?

Initially, the only social networking service supported by Power.com was Orkut, which, is big in Brazil and India. These are where most of Power.com’s users are currently – Alexa shows that the site is in the top 1,000 in both markets. Additionally, the service has lots of built in viral marketing. For example, when you send a message to friends on other networks, it includes a ‘Sent by Power.com’ message (like Hotmail circa 1996). Power.com also has a communicator app that is added to social networking profiles, allowing friends to contact you through it (similar to MeeboMe widgets).

Will it take off in the US?

At launch, Power.com supports Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, MSN Messenger, Orkut, and YouTube. While there is certainly some overlap between those services, Power.com will become much more valuable when it adds LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Skype, all of which are expected to be added soon.

Ultimately, you end up with a combination of an aggregation service like FriendFeed, a multi-protocol IM tool like Meebo, and an all-in-one email application. Like Meebo, getting started is as easy as logging in with one of your existing accounts on one of the supported services, making user acquisition a breeze. The viral features mentioned above should presumably have the same big impact in the US, further fueling growth.

Despite flying under the radar in the US, Rio-based Power.com has already raised $6 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, in addition to well-known angel Esther Dyson. The company has 70 employees.

(Via Mashable!.)

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