Health Social Networks

WellSphere fans might not want to continue reading this review, but the way I see it the chances of an unpaid fan showing up are pretty slim.

WellSphere is the classic 1998 story only it's happening a century later. An Israeli entrepreneur living in America convincing an Israeli VC who is about to give birth and knows very little about internet (she's no longer a VC…) that he is going to take over the wellness world with his ground breaking – world changing – patent pending – air blowing – bla bla idea. She buys it and gives a first time entrepreneur with no experience at anything an unprecedented $4.5M seed. WOOOOW. The only one to top that was the VP of Facebook and top Yahoo executive Doug Hirsch of DailyStrength. The funder of Promotions.com (Steven Krein) and His CMO (Unity Stoakes) managed to raise only half of that for OrganizedWisdom. WOOOOW.

To make sure they don't break the chain WellSphere executives play the game when they start off as an enterprise solution, move to being an internet wellness solution then offer a white label solution to institutions (and manage only a beta with their own school) later to become an all around health network and now it look like they want to be a search engine, all this time not missing a single chance to change their UI and theme, one beautiful UI after the other getting trashed and a graphic designer getting rich. A big party with all the major bloggers and a CEO getting drunk on a PR video (I already said Wellness, right??), a lot of angry ex-employees spitting their guts out. And again. And doing major PR screaming: Hey Hey LOOK AT US - We're Just like Facebook. Ammmm – you're not.

What can you get on WellSphere?

The homepage looks great. A nice clean white page with a trendy large search box in the middle. The bottom looks a bit too spammy to me but… wait wait a minute… a white page, big search box and an apple… did they hire the previous OrganizedWisdom designer?

To the test:

Search for bipolar. Landed on a very crowded page full of results in many categories. Articles, wellpedia, video, members, pictures, news, resources, ask an expert. Lots & lots of links to many different areas. Unorganized & threatening as hell. If I'm bipolar this is when I hit my homepage bookmark. But I'm not so I did follow some of those links and the content was actually very good. No community whatsoever but Interesting articles & a lot of info great as a source of information. Too bad the SEO expert took over because the page is just an unbearable user experience.

I couldn't take it anymore and decided to skip the next text.

Final Words

The Good:

1. Raised a lot of money.

2. Most chances they still have some left.

3. Great graphic designer.

The Bad:

1. No real value or meaning.

2. SEO expert took over the inside pages.

3. Check out the awfully annoying JavaScript page for communities.

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….

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

DailyStrength is a great social network for health and by its own description ‘
the Internet's fastest growing health-focused social network’.
So – what is all about?
More than 500 different ‘support groups’, thousands of people who come everyday to talk to other likeminded people, set goals, get advice from people just like them and see who else shares the same treatments and therapies … friendships, journals stories from health professionals and more and more….
DailyStrength (aka DS by its members) came to light late 2006 with a burst of energy. Founded by top executives from Yahoo (dealing directly with Yahoo communities) and funded by RedPoint ($5-7 Million) they recruited VPs with long bios, got all the necessary PR from the top tech bloggers (anyone say TechCrunch?) and didn’t miss a single Health-Internet-Technology conference. But they didn’t stop there – they worked! DS is an active thriving community (more than 300,000 monthly visitors according to Compete.com) with many addicted members active forums and good spirit. I think everyone needs to take a look!
I put it to the test: searching for bipolar I immediately landed in their support group and was overwhelmed. 29 different people were ready to chat with me, 12700 registered members (seemed big but not that much) a forum post every 3 minutes on average – what more can you ask for? They have more…. Blog posts by a Dr. Orrange (a smiling Dr. who by her profile is feeling Good…), people giving hugs to each other (kind of made feel like everyone already knows the others – what about me ?? ;-) and some info on the disorder.
Second test: Complete Blood Count. Search got me to the High Blood Pressure Support Group. The groups looks really nice (like the bipolar group but smaller) but I just couldn’t find any information to help me with my blood count results… I’m sure that if I’d stay there for another hour or two, ask questions and look real good under all the forum topics I would eventually find some info about the blood test, but hey@!@ this is the internet I want answers now!
Final words
The Good:
1. A huge website with lots of members.
2. Great source for support and finding likeminded people.
3. The Internet's fastest growing health-focused social network (I just love marketing slogans).
The Bad:
1. Missing some personal touch. I have no idea how you can do it in such a big website, but I expect a site this big to know.
2. Some of the regulars are complaining that because it got so big they are having manageability problems. I didn’t notice it for myself but heard some say that.
3. There is nothing spectacular or really exciting about the site. I know some people will look at this and say – what the ____ do you mean… but what I am trying to say is that if you’re such a great site (and it is) and you have so many members (they do) and you say you are the fastest growing (they say) I expect something extra, some feeling of excitement like the first time I joined facebook. There is nothing wrong with just doing what you do and doing it good – but I want more.
As for dominating the Health Social Networks vertical? I’m not sure. I think MedHelp are bigger and I also think MDJunction is about the same size, one thing is for sure: DailyStrength is big and powerful.
One last note: two weeks ago I wrote a post about DailyStrengths’ financial problems. Some people wrote me to say that I was just trying to harm DS – this was not the case, I love the site ( I would like to interview them soon) and I wish with all my heart for them to find additional funding and to continue to grow so fast. I just found out the news and thought I needed to share it.
Peace & Love to you all, Sam.

OK guys I’m not sure if this is what I think it is but….

I was doing a little research on some of the companies we listed on our List Of Social Networks when I came across a blog named rdmey by a senior web developer who’s been working for DailyStrength for the past 6 months. And this is what I found in her latest post - http://blog.rebeccamurphey.com/2008/08/02/web-developer-hiring-tips/ :
“A couple of weeks ago, I got the call: my employer was laying everyone off while they continued their search for funding. It wasn't entirely unexpected -- in this case, no news started to seem like bad news as the weeks ticked by”

If that means what I think it does, we are seeing the first major site in the Health Social Networks niche to be effected by the recession. DS spent a lot of $$ over the last couple of years (anyone say bubble?) on building a strong team to win the race. I’ve got to say that if this news is true – I am amazed. According to their early 2007 press release DS raised $5-7 Million from RedPoint, all gone ???

I would hate to see DS disappear. It’s a great site with a great future and what does it say about the other companies on our Health Social Networks list? Will MDJunction and MedHelp be the next to feel it? (they are the next biggest Health Communities on our list).

I’ll try and get more info to you soon.