RockYou clicks with social network sites

LOS ANGELES -- Jia Shen wanted to make a big splash with his new photo-sharing site, RockYou, so he targeted users of social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.

RockYou's pitch: easy-to-share slideshows and decorations, including floating hearts and glitter text.

Shen is clearly onto something. In May, red-hot social network Facebook added RockYou to the list of outside applications Facebook fans can add to their personal pages; 15 million have signed up.

RockYou is one of a new breed of photo-sharing sites that cater to young and savvy Web users. The top three in the category — Photobucket, Flickr and Slide — garner more than 50% of all photo-sharing traffic, according to measurement firm Hitwise.

RockYou is one of three kinds of photo-sharing sites on the Web. There's the hip brand, with cool ways to doll up your photos and share them. Second category: traditional upload-and-print sites such as Shutterfly and Kodak, primarily aimed at selling photo merchandise. In a category all its own, the single community sites such as Yahoo's Flickr, focused on sharing and interaction, with group comments.

Some sites say goodbye

With the changes in photoland, some traditional sites are struggling to remain relevant. Early next year, Sony will shut its ImageStation site. Two other familiar sites are closing down this month: Yahoo Photos on Sept. 20; and PhotoSite on Sept. 27.

Traditional upload-and-print Yahoo Photos saw its audience plummet to 3.5 million users in July 2007 from 8.6 million in July 2006, according to market tracker Nielsen//NetRatings. Yahoo is migrating most Yahoo Photos customers to Flickr, a more community-oriented photo-sharing site that has been a hit for Yahoo since it acquired it in March 2005. Flickr's audience almost doubled year to year, to 11.1 million users this July from 6.3 million users in July 2006, says Nielsen.

At Flickr, members can showcase their work in large, impressive displays and post directly to blogs. Sites such as RockYou and Slide take it up a notch. RockYou invites members to share their work at Facebook, MySpace, eBay, blogs and newer social sites such as Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and Zorpia.

"The whole point of sharing is to be able to see your pictures all over the Internet, not on just one site," says Shen, RockYou's co-founder and chief technology officer. "We don't want to keep you on our site; we want you to go to MySpace and Facebook, where your friends are."

Sites in a 'paradigm shift'

The market shift happened this year, with the new sites attracting mega-audiences.

"In the old days — like a year ago — you would upload pictures to a site to share with family and friends," says Bill Tancer, general manager of research for Hitwise. "What's happened in photo sharing is a clear paradigm shift from, 'I have some photos to show some friends,' to 'I want everyone all over the Internet to see them.' "

Traditional sites such as Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly and Snapfish will "have to find a way to play in the social networking space, to remain relevant," says Tancer.

Publicly traded Shutterfly says it's not worried about the changes among netizens. The social network audience is a younger demographic, and "they don't buy prints," says CEO Jeffrey Housenbold. "Our audience does."

Even while next-generation sites dominate the charts, the explosion in digital photography and online display has paid off for Shutterfly, too. "Our audience has grown 50% year to year," says Housenbold.

It's about to grow even more. Sony is encouraging its ImageStation members to transfer all their images directly to Shutterfly.

Housenbold says he's open to adding social networklike tools for his members, letting them share pictures all over the Web, with links to share on blogs and websites. "But it's not something our users have asked for."

Shutterfly's revenue stream stems from prints and photo goods. Sites such as RockYou and Slide are looking to advertising.

Shen says he has agreements with NBC Universal and Sony to sponsor slideshows and other RockYou widgets, both on his site and within the photo window on other sites such as Facebook. He wouldn't offer specifics.

RockYou grew while Yahoo, ImageStation and PhotoSite stumbled, because "the younger demo has no affiliations to older brands," he says. "By targeting young people and the social networks, it allowed us to grow virally."

RockYou does more than just share photos; it also offers horoscopes and quizzes. Shen says he envisions selling prints one day — just in a different way. A popular RockYou add-on is glitter text. "Our users will put glitter text on their prints, and turn them into their own creations," he says. "The print isn't dead; it's just going to evolve."