Sonico, founded in 2007, with the achievement of user base of over 30 million in December last year, has potentially grabbed the huge opportunity in developing countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and etc. One thing notable is that the key management team have all attended the Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina).
On its Web site, its interface look like Facebook, blue site navigation, somewhat beautiful design. From the date of officially launch until now I revisit them online, they continually improved the design, features for their users. However, Sonico avoided positioning Sonico.com as an ordinary social network that attracted people with beautiful design, but rather it focused on comprehensive and usability. I noticed they even put a quote of Steve Jobs in their workplace, i.e. Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Recognizing the need for greater differentiation in terms of competition, the big differentiator between Sonico and many others you’ll find is that they emphasized on real users, and tried many ways to dig out fake users as they could. Sonico still use the content moderation approach to dig out the fake users, this can be shown on the process of registration, your photo must be approved by them in order to be seen on your profile. Of course, you can add pictures, upload videos, join groups, create events, and many more.
Sonico also similar in philosophy to Facebook with the introduction of applications. You can play online games there, with many multiplayer games available. You also can set birthday time alerts, or sell products or services via Sonico classifieds, that powered by Olx. In addition, you can send the E-Card to your friends via their unique sub-domain. The E-Card are all provided by its-owned subsidiary online greeting card service called YourGreeting.com.
Sonico also aimed to be a destination for upcoming bands for its users. Users can create band in the band create section, so if you really can play music, you can become a star or even a celebrity by upload your band photos, create events with your fans and your fans can listen to your music via the integrated player.
With the massive 30 million user base, they’re now tried to optimize the revenue through some advertisements, as you can see the Google AdSense ads are stood in the right-hand sidebar and in the bottom of your profile page. Also, they’re now allowed users to recharge their cellphone via cloncom, albeit that the service is currently available in USA, Argentina, Mexico and Peru.
I am optimistic about Sonico’s future prospect since it is also a member of OpenSocial. Sonico has proved that it can stand up to the region competition, and it is set for exponential growth since it is now available in English, and the key management team are humble, and they showed that they’re willing to listen to their users.
