What Company Is Offering:
ASMALLWORLD is a private online community, which is designed for those who already have strong connections with one another.
They allow their members to connect, reconnect and interact more effectively with like-minded individuals who share the same circle of friends, interests, and schedules.
ASmallWorld.net -- borrow many of their rules from blue-blood social clubs. People must be invited to join. Membership decisions seem to be based on an applicant's education, job title and connections, since it's difficult to verify wealth levels. Those who engage in improper behavior, like trying to mingle with strangers or sell products too aggressively, are kicked out.
On the surface, the sites seem like a winning idea. Social networking outposts have exploded in popularity, while the number of millionaires and billionaires is also surging. Since wealth likes to be with wealth, the rich often seek out networks to help them with everything from vacations and parties to managing money and making business contacts. What's more, the sites host frequent member events, like jet rides, vineyard tours and sailing trips, sponsored by high-end corporate partners.
What's more, while the sites claim to be exclusive, they're opening their doors wider and wider to please advertisers and investors, who often prefer quantity over quality. And the sites can't ensure that all their members are what they say they are, despite verification systems from fellow members and the sites themselves. All this has rankled some members, who say the sites have become simply well-dressed Facebooks.
"It's very difficult to build a network based solely on wealth," says Stephen Martiros, a managing director of CCC Alliance, a coalition of rich families based in Boston. "You might start with a few wealthy people, but as you grow it eventually reverts to the mean. And once that happens, the wealthy leave. If you have one guy worth $100 million sitting at a table with a guy worth $1 million, only one of them is going to be excited to be there."
How It Works:
Prospective members have to be invited to join by another member. Rules state that members aren't allowed to "annoy, harass or unreasonably disturb members, or try to connect to members with whom you have no previous contact."
The site's classified ad section reads like a billionaire's yard sale: "For sale -- Caviar Servers and Horn Spoons." "For Sale $2.8 million Tsavorite gemstone." "Bugatti Veyron, Black, 2006. 1.1 million Euros."
This week's hot topics in the forums included "Best Fencing Clubs in the world," "Surfing in Gstaad?" and a discussion of lobster-abuse in St. Tropez. (One member recoiled at watching them boiled alive.) Another asks: "If you had $20 million where would you invest it now, given the subprime crisis?" (Members advised commodities and cash.)
How They Are Progressing:
aSmallWorld. Launched by Swedish banker and globetrotter Erik Wachtmeister, aSmallWorld has more than 250,000 members. Weinstein Co., owned by movie moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein, bought a stake last year, giving it added cachet. Joe Robinson, the company's CEO, says aSmallWorld is aimed at tastemakers, social connectors and the migratory rich, who may want to meet up in Scotland for golf or Paris for dinner.
More at:http://www.asmallworld.net/
via-UCB
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