Aug 28 2007

Australian Social Media Startups

Published by at 5:23 pm under Australian Startups,Australian Websites,social media,social networking,startups

Australian Startups

Rod writes:

The real crying shame is the Australian exodus to US based sites at the expense of the Australian webosphere/blogosphere. It’s great to connect on a global level although there needs to be local platforms that promote and engage audiences in local content particularly from the Australian blogosphere.

Why aren’t Australian platforms being developed and pushed?

Without those platforms it would be hard for that content, which may only be regionally relevant, to truly be discovered by an audience that appreciates it.

Ross Dawson and Nielsen/Netratings have some research on this:
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/13345/

There is another person to think of too and that is the advertiser, if you’re an Australian business and you want to advertise online, to Australians, you have to do it via a US company! As things grow that’s potentially a lot of dollars going OS!

Rod makes some valid points. And I’ve been hunting down Aussie Startups in the social media / social networking arena for the last few days.

Finding Aussie Startups

Where do we go to find Aussie startups? A few places jumped out.

But what strikes me is a lack of promotion, of this space and within this space. Let’s face it, we can’t hold our breath waiting for the mainstream media to deign us with coverage of these fledgling startups. I think it’d be great if we could embrace Aussie innovation and support its use in our own back yard. “Buy” Australian and support Australian.

I haven’t properly covered an Aussie startup for a month, I’ve been distracted and it’s really remiss of me.

Your Mission…

…should you chose to accept it, is to help me out by linking in with your favourite Aussie (start-up) websites, be it in the comments here or via email (meg at this domain). I’ve got a list, but I’d like to make my coverage as comprehensive as possible.

I’d really like to pick up the frequency of my startup/site reviews and would appreciate your help :)

15 responses so far

15 Responses to “Australian Social Media Startups”

  1. # garyon 28 Aug 2007 at 5:59 pm

    Neither are really “startups” in the sense that there’s tons of financing involved but there all out there to try and make $$.

    http://gennit.com

    Code Generation Software

    http://builtwith.com

    Web Technology Profiler

    http://globalsurfari.com

    Global Surfari has been around for a bit and is going under a whole new “web 2.0” makeover as it is a bit “web 1.7” at the moment

  2. # Megon 28 Aug 2007 at 10:41 pm

    Thanks Gary

    D’oh, you ask for links & then don’t check Akismet (slapping forehead)!

  3. # Dan Walshon 29 Aug 2007 at 6:49 am

    Hi Meg,

    Thanks for drawing attention to a space that really needs some Australian attention.

    We are in the final throes of launching http://www.kwoff.com.au and are hoping to expand the minds of mainstream surfers who only dip into one or two mastheads only.

    We think social media can open the minds of the average web user to the depth of content that exists in .AU (blogs, photos, video and audio – we know a lot of superior Australian content exists)

    Our initial focus includes Politics/Business and Culture.

    I’d invite anyone intersted to drop in and give us their opinion in our final beta week – http://www.kwoff.com.au

    Dan Walsh
    Kwoff.com.au
    Sydney, Australia.

  4. # Leighon 29 Aug 2007 at 8:05 am

    Great idea Meg. I don’t know of any, but love when you profile them here (other wise who knows when we would hear about them)

  5. # Ben Sharpon 29 Aug 2007 at 9:12 am

    Hey Meg,

    We are starting up a new blog publishing business called Allure Media. We started operating about 5 months ago, and launched our first 2 sites in April.

    We are licensing Gawker Media titles out of the US, and have launched local versions of Gizmodo and Defamer into Australia. You can check both out at:
    http://www.gizmodo.com.au
    http://www.defamer.com.au

    We are also in the process of launching local versions of Lifehacker (www.lifehacker.com.au), and Kotaku – the largest Gaming blog in the world.

    Would love to do a Q&A with you on who we are and our expansion plans.

    Ben

  6. # Megon 29 Aug 2007 at 9:34 am

    Thanks Dan – as you know, I’ve been checking out the site, and it looks great. Will be posting more about it soon.

    Hi Ben – thanks for that. Sounds like a plan.

  7. # jenon 29 Aug 2007 at 9:38 am

    This sounds like a great idea. I’ll try to remember to have a look at these and I’m sure you’ll tell us about more.

  8. # Rodon 29 Aug 2007 at 11:31 am

    Cool – Cheers for posting this up!

    “I think it’d be great if we could embrace Aussie innovation and support its use in our own back yard” – here here!

    It would be great if all the Aussie bloggers could get behind this and do a bit of chest beating for Australia. Like you say it’s unlikely that main stream media will!

    All ready in those lists, and in the comments, I can see some potentially great Australian content discovery engines – something the Australian bloggosphere desperately needs more of. Actually Australia needs it, with a duopoly of the online and press media Aussie bloggers need to provide the alternative media option and truth in a space of untruths.

    Unfortunately digg, facebook, technorati, and even google, etc probably won’t help to cement that charge in a grand scale.

    Anyways, I’ll stop ranting!! Meg, probably should disclose that I do operate one of those Aussie sites contained within those lists, but I don’t want to drop the url as it would make my comments look like a promo rather than what I truly feel and think! Go Australia!

    Great work Meg!

  9. # Megon 29 Aug 2007 at 11:57 am

    Hi Rod

    You can rant here anytime :)

  10. # Martin Neumannon 03 Sep 2007 at 11:45 pm

    I’m right behind this one, Meg.

    Embracing Aussie innovation and giving it some exposure (because MSM won’t) is the way to go. Without MSM support I’m looking at it as a grassroots effort – the more us little bloggers do write-ups the sooner it’ll snowball.

    I know with my blog, I’m totally focused to an Aussie audience so it makes perfectly good sense to do write-ups on Aussie start-ups.

    I’ve already got a handful on my “To Do” list and I see a few in the comments here.

    I encourage all Aussie web start ups to pitch me or send over a press release at martin (at) smallofficeaustralia.com – make it easy for me to do the write-up … give me the benefits, the features, the elevator pitch.

  11. # Megon 04 Sep 2007 at 12:50 pm

    “I encourage all Aussie web start ups to pitch me or send over a press release at martin (at) smallofficeaustralia.com – make it easy for me to do the write-up … give me the benefits, the features, the elevator pitch.”

    It does make it a lot easier – when you don’t have to go hunting 😉

  12. # Chrison 04 Sep 2007 at 1:18 pm

    Hi Meg,

    We’ve recently launched QuiText in Australia, a website which provides SMS support to people wanting to quit smoking.

    The site is http://www.quitext.com

    At the moment the service is focussed on providing the text message program and rolling it out globally but downstream we are looking at various ways of hooking “quitters” together to form support networks etc. in more of a web 2.0 format.

    Thanks for the chance to get the word out! Looking forward to seeing the list!

  13. # Megon 04 Sep 2007 at 8:08 pm

    Hi Chris

    I think I saw Quitext on KillerStartups. Many thanks for letting us know about your service. I think it would be good for recent quitters to have a place to network, but you’d have to watch for “flaming” in forums 😉

  14. # Vishal sharma on Startupson 06 Dec 2007 at 2:25 pm

    You probaly missed the list where it all started :-) from
    http://www.sharmavishal.com/2006/10/top-web-20-apps-in-australia.html

    Which lead to this article which i wrote for richard
    http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/australia_top_web_apps.php

  15. # Megon 06 Dec 2007 at 2:32 pm

    Hi Vishal

    I did give you a shout previously :)

    http://blogpond.com.au/2007/02/05/australian-internet-startups-wiki/