Health Social Networks

MDJunction doesn’t look like any other WEB2.0 site. It looks like something taken from the 20^th century…

‘Back in the days’ when we started looking at what’s out there I ran across MDJunction, noted that it was relevant but didn’t look like anything that would stick and moved on. About a year later their name came up again, it still didn’t look like something that would stick but… it was bigger. Looking at them now, I still don’t get it – but it’s BIGGER!

So what is MDJunction? It’s DailyStrength only smaller and not as trendy looking & feeling (anyone say 20^th century??)

BUT the funny thing about it is that now (and it did take me almost two years) I realize that there is a place for this kind of social network and at the rate they seem to grow* I think that they are proving it. Not everyone is looking for a WEB2.0 design before they join a site, most sick people don’t go to TechCrunch to find a recommendation for a support group and THAT MIGHT COME AS A SURPRISE but people get sicker as they get older and well… older people are 20^th century ;-)

While DS is the big multi-chain world-wide Supermarket, MDJ is the local grocery store. I’m not sure what the statistics are on this but I have a feeling that at least 50% of the people still like shopping at the tiny store 300ft from their doorstep that feels like home. THAT IS what the people in MDJunction do so elegantly – it feels like home more than any of the other sites on my list of Health Social Networks .

I decided to put it to the same test I did with DailyStrength. Searched for bipolar (in their search box) and got a… google result for their Bipolar Support Group. A little more than 2,000 group members (DailyStrength - 12,700), 17 of them were online. The discussion bulletin seemed very active, people were also publishing diary posts (some kind of blog?!?). Nice. Again – not as big as DailyStrength, but still full of people And they all seem to be hugging each other…. Is that legal?

Second test, same as DS: Complete Blood Count. NOTHING RELEVANT ;-(. Well… I’m not going to delete my WebMD bookmark yet….

Three paragraphs up I wrote “at the rate they seem to grow*” the reason for the remark is that my estimates regarding their growth are purely based on what I see when I look at their site from time to time. There is really not much info about these guys and as far as I can tell no real funding round up until now. Again – I’m guessing. It seems that the founders (I do know that their names are Roy & Alon) are really shy… no PR, no interviews, no effort for blogger presence and I haven’t seen any of them in conferences and so. Do they really think they can keep growing and become a dominate force while staying so far away from the scene? I don’t… and I don’t like offering people to do an interview and not get any response!

One last thing before I get to my final words. It is not very welcoming to be assigned a default image that looks like a no face, depressed cartoon. It’s horrifying and totally contradicts what you’re trying to build here.

The Good:

1. Feels like home.
2. Keeps surprising me.
3. Most of ‘The Bad’ bellow can be improved with modest funding. Funding (for those who forgot) relates to money, something we used to have.

The Bad:

1. DailyStrength.
2. NO marketing strategy what so ever.
3. Their graphic designer needs to GO HOME or at least surf the web a bit….

TechCrunch wrote about a new company in our niche - weare.us


personally i don't give them the slightest chance....
but TC wrote about them, i wonder why?!?!?

you HAVE TO read what Doug Hirsch wrote about them in one of the comments there ;-)

and.. just as a courtesy to TechCrunch I'm updating my list of Health Social Networks to include them too.

Well we all saw this coming in the last few months but even so it is shocking. Waterfront Media buying Revolution Health valuating the company at around $100 M, meaning all the hard work put by the top executives in the field (Steve Case, Colin Powell; Jim Barksdale, Frank Raines & Carly Fiorina) yields a $-0.50 on the $1 return… OOppppsss.

I’m having flashbacks of Mercata & Paul Allen (he also talked about a revolution back then) is it 2001 again?

How can we explain this?

Is it the falling economy? Hubris – one man trying to take over a whole vertical? Excessive acquisitions? Or maybe just the troubling fact that this market is not as big as we once thought?

DailyStrength are in financial troubles and had to cut back dramatically after failing to raise additional funds, iMedix declared they are about to close big $$$ funding about a year ago… and so many others are making disturbing noises you just can’t ignore anymore. Will my list of Health Social Networks going to be half the size in one year? Maybe less (time and long…).

Did it ever make sense to seed fund a niche social network website with $7M (DailyStrength) or even $4.5M? (WellSphere who seem to be using the money to change the UI and who they are every 3 months…). Wouldn’t it make more sense to give the entrepreneurs $1M and send them off to prove there is a business hiding somewhere around here? No wonder no one wants to invest in this market now. Hey – Steve Case lost $100M isn’t this enough ????

The only chance is in finding the business and all I see is advertising (and mostly google adsense), that can work for a small company with low overheads and a really laid back investor …. How many of these have that? if I had to bet, I’d put my money on those who raised moderate amounts and managed to gain some strength. Inspire, MDJunction and maybe Trusera (not sure about the strength part here) have the highest chance to keep their heads above water in the next 12-18 months.

Looking back at M&As in the market doesn’t explain these investments either. HealthTalk and CarePages might have done nicely, but that was Revolution at its best. Other than that not a single outstanding acquisition and if anyone here thinks they are going to be AOL’s next bebo and sell for $850M, you forgot to take your pills today.

I don’t think I ever wrote something with so many question marks before, but I guess that’s just how I feel about your market right now. Come on over everyone, there’s plenty of businesses in IPTV ;-)

Sam