It's a Small World, if you're rich enough

Social networks like Facebook and MySpace can be addictively entertaining places to find old friends, and stalk old enemies. One of the downsides, though, is the hazard of receiving a ‘friend request’ from someone you’ve never met or being on the receiving end of a shameless sales pitch from a distant acquaintance.

Imagine how magnified those irritations might be for social networkers who are wealthy or well known. For the same reason that successful people tend to frequent the same clubs in the real world, they are turning increasingly to niche networks with exacting membership requirements that filter out the kind of person who has failed to make the Sunday Times Rich List.

The largest and best-known of these communities is A Small World. It was founded in 2004, but with in the region of of 300,000 members it’s still comparatively small: One FaceBook group alone, "Enough with the Poking, Lets Just Have Sex", passed that figure this autumn. Size isn’t the issue though. For founder Erik Wachtmeister it’s all about the quality of experience:

“This community is characterized by inter-connected, well travelled, interesting, educated, and accomplished people who tend to seek each other out for company and as a resource for trusted information… It is in essence a Social Google, a high-end Zagat/Craigs List/Monster.com, and a real time Wikipedia rolled into one”

Because the community is invitation-only, it’s impossible for an outsider to take a look and see exactly what’s on offer. The seemingly limited growth potential didn’t put off savvy film producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein who have invested in the company. For the ultra-luxury brands that can afford to advertise on A Small World, it’s a rare opportunity to access a high concentration of web users with astronomically high disposable income. 

Membership is private, so the precise value of the Small World demographic is hard to assess. Like the VIP area of a hipper-than average nightclub there’s thought to be a mixture of A-list names, old money and rather decorative fashion models behind the velvet rope.

Certainly if you’re looking to sell your old Bugatti Veyron, or are looking for a private ski lodge in high season, you’re better off there than on MySpace. Strict rules are enforced though to ensure that the elite are not pestered with unrequited sales pitches.

It’s certainly an interesting concept. If you’re of a certain social class and find you have a couple of hours free to fool around on the internet, you really should ask your valet to log on to A Small World and see what’s there.

Comments

[carly]

I tell you what we should do create a site called "Big world" where you can only join if you earn UNDER a certain amount! I mean it's ludicrous how in this day and age there is still class discrimination - if it was an only white or only black social networking site they'd have every discrimination charge against them! I love how all these big celebrities and rich people are informing us about global warming when they're leading the most polluting lifestyles of us all having chefs flown in, throwing away clothes, limos, aeroplanes, huge 4 x 4's cinema rooms massive energy-burning tour sets- do you see their cars/tour buses being run on bio-fuel. It's our world too so why don't you start living green I mean theyre the people who can afford to have solar panel's installed on their villas and mansions in sun-soaked countries. I'm sick to death of flipping celebrities and 'socialites (who tbh don't seem very social) dictating to us how to live our lives go on this diet, weigh this much, wear this, save the planet while I waste the worlds oil resources by using it to set my millions of dollars on fire. Yuck give me a break. So fancy being stalked by paparazzi, having a sex tape released, being a hypocrite, having an eating disorder, spending millions of pounds on clothes you'll throw away next week while billions of children like totally starve, dumbing yourself down throwing away daddy's private school tuition fees just so you can have a cute boyfriend--- then try and join this network site it'll be amazing

[Kyle]

ditto.

[Jake]

Carly, I think it's ludicrous for you to be surprised by this fact. So long as capitalism is intact, there will be extreme inequality, racist paradigms, environmental degradation and so forth. Only a truly socialist society in the tradition of Marx and Engels can begin to rectify class-based economic troubles we all face. Most importantly, you shouldn't be insulted by their exclusiveness: the notion that great thinkers, artists, authors or leaders might include themselves within such as thing does nothing more but to highlight the extreme disjunct between the hopes of an idealistic world many of them project (as you pointed out) and the ugly hypocrisy they really live in.

[n00b]

Or we should just dDos their servers. Anyone with a botnet at hand?

[gary doyle]

If another site was opened called Yorkshire terrier owners on line, would you worry about not being invited to join?

[Church Mouse]

I´m a member of aSmallWorld and I´m as poor as a church mouse! Whenever I dock my 112ft Ferretti in St.Trop I get raped for berthing fees by the harbourmaster, it´s daylight robbery! And don´t even talk to me about the price of Avgas these days, it´s getting so bad I´m considering selling my Gulfstream and flying commercial in future.

It´s not about the money. aSW is invitation only so that existing members have to vouch for those whom they invite and all members have to adhere to a strict set of rules, including the requirement that all information in your profile is factual. On aSW you can´t make up a name and hide behind a fictional persona. If you do, your membership will be terminated, and the member who invited you will probably have their invitation privileges removed.
In addition to a fairly strict, but well considered set of rules, the site is strictly moderated and the moderators do not tolerate abuse of any kind.

Because of these rules and the strict invitation only policy, the site is used by genuinely friendly and helpful people.

You don´t know us, so don´t judge us. And if you do want to get to know us then pop along to Verbier this weekend, a fair size group of us will be there.

[Gbemi]

Where can I get the gold-plated MacBook?

[Midger]

"Class discrimination"?? This is 2007, class has very little to do with how much disposable income one has.

[Tapc]

I've been on asW for years, and it is not as small or intimate as one might think.

[Carly]

Well in that case slap my thigh and call me a communist- a skint student one at that!

[Renata]

Why is Small World's website so ugly if they can afford to have a bit more style?

[Michael Moran]

Here's your answer Gbemi!

http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2007/10/gold-macbook-pr.html