KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand-backed social network for adults, iYomu, has closed its doors.
Even offering a US$1 million prize to encourage membership to its site didn't give the company the legs to last a year.
Kiwi blogger Richard McManus' ReadWriteWeb reported that the company sent an email to iYomu members last week, which read: "For almost one year iYomu seemed to make the world a smaller place where 100 000 people came together and found a common space where grown-ups could meet, greet, debate and share interests. Yet it is not only people who rule the world, but money does too. We tried, we thrived and then we died."
McManus, who says he was positive about the concept when it launched last year, put the collapse down to poor execution and unsuitable Flash-based design.
"I still don't necessarily think this was a bad concept," he wrote. "Although it is certainly very hard to execute, because the internet and social networking online are not native to the older demographic. However, it's true that older people have different needs online - and those aren't necessarily being met by MySpace or Facebook."
With an 18-plus age restriction on iYomu membership, the intent to create an online meeting place for adults was a good idea, but competing against mega-networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and News Corp's MySpace proved too much of a challenge for its creators, Frances Valintine and David Wolf-Rooney.
Julie Starr of The Evolving Newsroom blog said one of the problems with a new social network was attracting users, and encouraging them to keep coming back.
"It seems to me that we join social networks that already have a critical mass of users we already know, or want to know," she wrote.
"Once you've joined one or three, most of us don't need or have the time to sign up with more."
It would seem that a million dollars doesn't go far these days, especially when heaped on top of design, staffing and administration needs.
