Dipping into the Blogpond

Facts:

• There are nearly twice as many pets as people in Australia
• 63% of Australian households own pets
• 12 million Australians are associated with pets
• The petcare industry is worth $4.62 billion annually
• 91% of pet owners report feeling “very close” to their pets

(source: Pet Statistics)

Given these statistics, it makes a lot of sense that internet communities have evolved around pets.

Typically these networks take a forum configuration, where pet owners share advice and anecdotes, but in line with people networking there seems to be a trend to the pets themselves networking. Or I should say, social petworking.

Now your cat or dog cat have a profile, a blog and even friends too.

Pick of the Litter

Dogster has over 319,000 members (with around 500 new dogs daily) and 53,000 dog blogs.

Catster has over 132,000 members (with around 200 new cats daily) and 21,048 cat blogs.

Popular networking site Facebook has a Pet Profile application:

Pet Profile lets you create a unique profile for your pet(s). No matter how many pets, no matter what type of pet, Pet Profile is the only application for your beloved animal family members. You can have multiple breeds, owners, friends, you name it. You can even “Pet a pet!”.

It appears that some 37,000+ Facebook members have added this application (and from what I can gather, it’s only been around for about 10 weeks).

My Cat Space and My Dog Space are newcomers that are starting to gain some traction, and there’s even a dating site, Date My Pet, specifically for pet lovers with the tag line “Date me. Date my Pet”.

The Local Breed

Dog Space seems to be the forerunner in terms of Web 2.0 design in Australia, although less that 300 members. Dogs have their own profiles where other dogs can post comments, nudge and send a message. Profiles can also be rated. And there are even dogblogs too!

The rest of the pack seem to be more traditional forum style websites, albeit a wealth of information and commendable membership numbers:

Dogz Online – 12,000+

Pets Playground – 3,500+

OzPets Forum – 2,000+

Cat-World – 6,900 +

Litter Kwitter – 630 members (the site revolves around toilet training cats)

Love My Pet – 1,100 + members

Dog Sites – 1,300 + members

And if anyone is interested in adopting a pet or looking for information about rehoming a pet – there’s always Pet Rescue.

PetRescue is all about helping shelters find animals new homes and educating the community about the great (and not so great!) aspects of pet ownership.

Pet rescue has rehomed over 14,000 pets, and currently have 1,400+ pets in need of rescue.

If you’re an animal lover, what’s your favourite site? Does your pet have a profile?