2008 is nearly over and it’s time to catch up on our list of Health Social Networks.
With the economic doing a big bungee jump (only I don’t see the rope anywhere) these networks are not going to escape the downfall especially when all of them depend on advertising and not showing any interesting monetizing attempts. The MSN-Multiply deal shows what the big fellows are thinking….
So - How many of them will be here for the 2009 recap?
DailyStrength – We were the first to say that DS are in big trouble. Last week we got the confirmation with its mercy acquisition. From the looks of it DS will stay alive but no efforts will be made to make it any better and eventually (maybe 2010) it will evaporate.
MedHelp – The only member of the top list that is still pushing forward in full speed. MedHelp enjoys being a veteran with long time traffic generators. They will continue to grow providing they figure its worth it…. it’s a great over whole site with a great future.
MDJunction – Brand new look last week and still talking like a marathon runner (which is a nice way to say they don’t have the money to be a sprinter…). MDJunction will be here next year too. How big?? Not sure as they keep surprising me.
HopeCube – Is there a doctor in the house?? I think the patient is dead….
TauMed – Unfortunately I think the doc was already here….
Trusera – Still pushing forward full throttle, too bad traffic doesn’t seem to be picking up… they raised enough money to keep going and I’m sure we’ll keep seeing them in 2009, but not much after.
ICYou – Great site, great looks but again – is anyone using it? doesn’t look like it. The concept of video sharing for health should work but is it enough for a standalone site? I’d be looking for them to join another network and MAYBE survive.
PatientsLikeMe – PatientsLikeMe are here to stay. They raised enough. They keep growing and brand awareness is something I respect. If PatientsLikeMe goes down this list will too.
Inspire – Not sure about Inspire. The concept is nice but being an underdog in a crashing market is not the safest place to go. I guess we will be seeing Inspire in 2009 but if I were them I’d pray every morning for all the others to crash…
Wellsphere – As long as crazy VCs are still around, WellSphere will still be here. Changing their goals and looks every couple of months and making the most of the $5M they raised… Ommm… look for my WellSphere review in a couple of weeks.
WebTribes – Anyone say Inspire????
I’m Too Young for This – It saddens me to say that but I don’t think they are going to make it.
SugarStats – Good solid site. No chance for a dream exit but it will be here and it will gain strength.
TuDiabetes – Great site. Great leadership. I truly hope they will find the funding to keep it going as there is nobody like them!
dLife – Good solid site. Please read Sugarstats.
Diabetes Mine – Sugarstats, dLife, TuDiabetes. They all seem good but there is no room for all 4. If I were them I’d seek a merger of some kind.
Real Mental Health – Seems to me they’ve been here before I was born (40 this year!) and there is no reason that will change. But… Hey….. how do they do it?
OrganizedWisdom – OW was built to last, I love OrganizedWisdom. This great site and it’s approach to working from home doesn’t seem to be having any financial trouble but the cost of paying for human edited content (the rest of the sites enjoy the free UGC) might kick them in the ass eventually. There is just not enough money in this market!
Healia – Activity seems at an all time low :-( people are just not using Healia despite all their efforts. What are they doing wrong? Can’t really say – maybe I’ll dive deep in the next couple of months. Money is not an issue it just depends on the decision of Meredith Corporation to pull the plug. For now I think they’ll keep it – how long? I’m not sure.
iMedix – We all know what I think of them… but I have to say they are doing their best!
again, as I’ve said with so many others on this list NOBODY IS USING IT. iMedix CEO said they are on the way to raise more funds, that was almost a year ago and nothing happened so I guess 2009 will reveal a mercy funding or sad departure.
WeGoHealth – Yet another nice site with no members…
Healthchapter – I’m not really sure how this site got here… with an alexa rank of 6M it’s even worth writing about…
CareFlash – Anyone say HealthChapter? When your ‘latest on the forums’ in the homepage has a post from Nov 20 and Nov 19…. Well….. DOCTOR.
WeAre.Us – WeAreUS are the newest addition to this list. Since they raised they funding just a few months ago I’m betting we’ll see them all year long. It’s a nice site. They do a lot of PR but it is so Inspire with even less traffic. I will give them the benefit of the doubt for being new but as I already said – NO CHANCE.
I really wanted to make a cheerful ‘here comes 2009’ post but I really don’t think there is a reason for such.
GOOD LUCK everyone…..
I would like to thank Manny Hernandez President of TuDiabetes for this email interview.
I will publish the article in two parts as it was long and interesting ;-)
TuDiabetes is very different from the rest of the companies listed on our list of Health social networks, It's a nonprofit with a message rather than the rest who are for profit with a goal.
Can you introduce yourself and your site?
I am Manny Hernandez, the President of the Diabetes Hands Foundation, a nonprofit focused on connecting people touched by diabetes (people who have diabetes as well as their friends, family and others who ultimately are affected by it) and raising diabetes awareness.
We run two social networks, TuDiabetes.com (in English) and EsTuDiabetes.com (in Spanish), through which we currently reach out to more than 6,000 people worldwide, growing at a rate of about 10% every month.
How do you describe the Market your company is in?
As a nonprofit, I don't like to think of us as being in a "market". We cater to people WITH diabetes and the people around them, along with those who need to be aware of how critical the current situation is with diabetes.
How large is your team and what are their backgrounds?
Currently, we have a full-time staff of two: myself and a Creative Director, Andreina Davila. We have a board of five persons, a board of advisors made up of 6 professionals, a team of Administrators that helps us run the two social networks and a team of volunteers in the hundreds of people.
What is THE ONE thing you do better than all the rest?
One of the things that makes us unique is our emphasis on community-centric diabetes awareness initiatives.
What is THE ONE thing you wish you could do better?
We need to further our offline presence, so we can reach out to more people who cannot or prefer not to connect online with others touched by diabetes.
Please choose one competitor and say a few good words about them…
We work with many other groups that we share part of our goals with. One of the groups we work with closely is DiabetesTalkFest, our partners in offering chats about diabetes to our members and anybody else who wants to participate: they have weekly chats for people to jump in and learn from each other and periodically invite experts that touch on specific topics of interest.
Where do you see your company in 5-10 years?
That depends on whether there is a cure for diabetes in that timeframe. If it has been found, perhaps we may not be around... but until there is a cure for diabetes, we will continue to reach out to more people touched by diabetes, both online and offline while we also work to help people who do not have diabetes better understand what living with diabetes is like, what are the symptoms of diabetes, etc.
What is the greatest challenge to your success?
Today, it's gotta be resources (isn't it for eveybody?) We face a growing need for funding so we can grow our team to cater to the growing needs from our members and to be able to grow the way we know we need to grow. In the meantime, we are working on developing our volunteer program but we are open and looking for sponsors who may want to partner with us to help us underwrite some of the programs we conduct.
How will the current market crash influence the Health Social Networks?
There will be consolidations. There will also be some networks that may run out of fuel due to the current situation: I hope they are not lost in the midst of it all, and end up being absorbed by others. Ultimately, the most important thing is the patient and any health social network that goes away leaves patients hanging, patients that benefit from the interactions they have with other patients through the network.
Most Health Social Networks rely on Advertising (Everybody is using Adsense). Do you see anything different in the future? Will it be enough?
It not enough, unless you run a network that has hundreds of thousands of members, resulting in very large traffic figures (we currently get a combined 100K Visits and 500K+ Pageviews per month).
Also, AdSense doesn't really give publishers (networks, in our case) much control over the quality of the ads PRIOR to them appearing: you find yourself removing URLs from "miracle drugs" that are fairly insulting to patients. It would be ideal to have a greater degree of control over the quality of the ads, which is one of the areas where I see change coming: either Google offering it or more players entering this space (there are a few already) acknowledging the importance quality has.
That’s it for now… I will publish the second part soon.
If you are involved with a health social network and would like to do an email interview please contact me.
Sam
Posts
