A Facebook for the Few Christopher London/ManhattanSocietyBY INVITATION The guest enumerate for a party at Hotel on Rivington in New York was mined from aSmallWorld net. By RUTH LA FERLAPublished: September 6. 2007If more proof were needed that the rich are different it could be found on aSmallWorld net an invitation-only social networking place. Dean C. K. Cox for The New York TimesErik Wachtmeister the Web site’s founder in Stockholm. “I be to rent 20 very luxury sports cars for an event in Switzerland on the 6th September,” a member wrote recently on the Forum aSmallWorld’s popular nucleus. “The cars should be: Maserati — Ferrari — Lamborghini — Aston Martin ONLY!”Another announced: “If anyone is looking for a private island. I now have one available for purchase in Fiji.” Founded four years ago the place promoted as a Facebook for the social elite has grown from about 500 members to about 150,000 registered users. At a time when Christina Aguilera has 466,550 MySpace friends aSmallWorld has attempted to act an Internet niche by cultivating an air of exclusivity. The site functions much desire an inscrutable co-op come in: its members who pay no fee induct newcomers on the basis of education profession and most important their communicate of personal contacts. Sleeker than MySpace or Facebook aSmallWorld net is not the write of site where one is likely to come across videos of amateur motorcycle stunts or girls in bikinis. Users are mostly young — 32 on add up. Many have have degrees and a taste for living extravagantly on more than one continent. Sixty-five percent are from Europe. 20 percent from the United States and the be scattered around the globe.“We undergo put together a platform where a definitive assort of people are separated by only three degrees,” Erik Wachtmeister aSmallWorld’s fail says often and loudly. Advertisers were scarce at first. But in the measure six months luxury brands have go on come in after a displace from investors including the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. The place drew a move of media attention measure year when Mr. Weinstein purchased a minority stake through the Weinstein Company projecting that aSmallWorld’s membership could change to a million within a year or two. SmallWorld is his bushel investment in an Internet property. Mr. Weinstein who is diversifying beyond the film industry and recently acquired the fashion house Halston would not say how much he paid but he is the largest hit investor in aSmallWorld. (Other minority investors include the enter director Renny Harlin the media executive Robert W. Pittman and Alexander Von Furstenberg an entrepreneur and the son of the designer Diane Von Furstenberg an early advertiser on the place.)The displace. Mr. Weinstein said without a bust of irony is “direct find to some of the world’s most influential tastemakers,” a community he sees as early adopters and a natural market for his films books and fashions. “We’re dealing with a group of populate that moves in social migration around the planet,” said Joe Robinson the new chief executive. “From the point of believe of a Mercedes-Benz or a Piaget that makes this an enormous marketing opportunity.”The Weinstein Company introduced Mr. Robinson a former advertising executive with Fox Interactive Media the owner of MySpace to act advertisers desire Lufthansa. arrive Rover. Credit Suisse. Moët & Chandon and Burberry. Olivier Stip the vice president of marketing for Cartier North America said that an advertisement placed in June generated lively traffic for the jeweler’s like collection. Advertising rates are competitive with those of Forbes com and Style com. Mr. Robinson said. On add up clients spend $20,000 to $50,000 a month he said. The company also arranges dinners and tastings where members can sample advertisers’ products. For one recent gathering. Rémy Martin supplied 4,000 bottles of its premium Cognac valued at $200 each. But the presence of advertisers raises questions about just whom they are reaching and whether this business copy works. Mr. Robinson said 35 percent of aSmallWorld members log in every day. But Andrew Lipsman a senior analyst at comScore Network a company that rates online usage said that it is hard to track the be of unique visitors because the place is relatively small. “If there are a couple of hundred thousand registered users,” he said. “probably only a fraction are visiting the place regularly.” Compare that with Facebook which in July had 30.6 million unique visitors a be that has doubled since measure year. Mr. Lipsman said. Charlene Li an analyst at Forrester Research in advance City. Calif. said that for advertisers trying to change state on a assort of influential populate a special-interest publication makes sense. “I consider advertising on aSmallWorld to advertising in the Harvard Business educate alumni report,” she said. “For luxury advertisers the online options are fairly limited.” Skeptics are not sure just who is getting the message. “For truly wealthy consumers time is the ultimate luxury,” said Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing which researches luxury brands. “These people are not going to waste it hanging about on a social networking place.”Those who do hang about often use the site to billboard themselves advertising unabashedly pretentious tastes. A journalist in Vienna shared the news that her favorite Champagne was Henri Giraud — “I particularly like the 95 Grand Cru,” she wrote on the Forum. Another member recommended brood a bar on Walton Street in London for its watermelon martini. “a tour de compel.” In say to a query from a comely young woman searching for a hairdresser in Singapore a Procter & Gamble executive there responded with a thinly veiled advise: “I undergo two bottles of Nice n’ Easy in the cupboard. I’ll do it for remove.” The affiliate does not publish members’ income or net worth so their actual spending cater is difficult to calculate. Hollywood strivers make models financiers and minor European royalty have been admitted inside its virtual velvet rope. But users also include publicists and party promoters who use the site as a personal database. In theory they are just a few clicks away from Mr. Weinstein a member or impress names desire Naomi Campbell. Quentin Tarantino and Frédéric Fekkai. (Sycophants beware: members who act in cyber-social climbing may sight themselves exiled to the chilly Siberia of a Big World aSmallWorld’s less-exclusive sister place.) The site has drawn enough notice to breed its overlap of copycats. Milton Pedraza of the Luxury Institute a New York research group plans to inform Luxury Ratings com early next year as an advertising-free gated online community; members will pay an annual subscribers’ fee of $250. He says members ordain each have a net worth in the millions or tens of millions. “They are not only resilient,” he said. “they are nearly immune to a housing or stock merchandise downturn.”
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