Skyrock

Infobox_Website
url = http://skyrock.com/
name = Skyrock
origin = Paris, France

commercial = Yes
type = Social network service
registration = Not Required
owner = Téléfun
alexa = #54
language = French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian
launch date = December 17th, 2002
current status = online
slogan = Free People Network

Skyrock.com is a social networking site offering its members a free, personal web space. One can create a blog, add a profile, and exchange messages with other registered members. The site also offers a specific space for members who create blogs showcasing their original musical compositions.

Linked to the French radio station Skyrock by its founder Pierre Bellanger, the Skyrock.com network extends well beyond France. Wildly popular in the French-speaking world, it is available in 14 international versions.

According to the marketing research company comScore, Skyrock ranks as the world’s 7th largest social network with over 21 million visitors in June 2008 [http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2396]

Skyrock.com started off as a blogging site, Skyblog.com, founded by Skyrock CEO Pierre Bellanger in December 2002. Skyblog's easy-to-use interface proved a hit right from its launch with its young, primarily French-speaking audience.

In May 2007, after abandoning the Skyblog.com brand [http://adreu.eurid.eu/adr/decisions/decision.php?dispute_id=3495] , Skyrock.com was launched as a full-scale social network, with new functionalities such as adding friends, an inbox, chat rooms and member profiles.

Features

The Skyrock.com Account

Users must have or create an account to access the full range of Skyrock.com services. Registration is free, as are most of the site’s functionalities.

User data is not made public.

A Web Address for All

Skyrock.com network is distinctive in offering its members their own unique web address obeying the structure "username.skyrock.com" and functioning as a subdomain (limited to authorized functionalities) of the Skyrock.com site.

Skyrock Blog

As the network’s centerpiece for reasons due to Skyrock’s history, the blog service is showcased on its own site [http://www.skyrock.com/blog] on which a weekly editorial selection of 9 blogs is presented. These blogs are called Blog Stars [http://www.skyrock.com/blog/halloffame.php?type=star] .

The site displays traffic or visitor statistics on each page. On Sept 22, 2008, there were 18,304,000 blogs accessible on Skyrock.com. Collectively these blogs boast over 600 million blog articles, which together received 2.778 billion comments. [Internal data appearing on the Skyrock.com site on 9/22/2008 at 7 pm]

Videos may be embedded in Skyrock Blogs, provided that it is hosted by one of the 15 proposed video sharing websites (the main ones being [http://fr.youtube.com Youtube] , [http://www.dailymotion.com Dailymotion] , [http://www.veoh.com Veoh] , [http://www.metacafe.com Metacafe] , [http://www.myvideo.de Myvideo] , [http://new.fr.music.yahoo.com/ Yahoo Music] ). Members can also record their own webcam videos but the site does not offer its own video hosting solution.

Skyrock Blogs are positioned on simplicity, which confers advantages such as streamlined page layout and easy-to-use settings options, but which also limit the blog’s functional possibilities, like sorting articles by categories, and allowing or disabling advertisements.

Each page contains 5 blog articles maximum. The number of blog posts is unlimited. Each blog post is characterized by a title, a body text (with different text alignment options). Users have the option of activating comments and adding an image or a picture.

Skyrock Blogs allow for a high level of personalization (wallpaper, order of blog posts, image resing...). RSS and search-engine-friendly permalinks are also available. Widgets can be added to Skyrock Blog, but they must be inserted in each blog post.

Comments

« Unleash your comments » : This catch phrase captures, if not defines, the intensity and volume of member exchanges on Skyrock.com. Members often meet one another by leaving comments on blogs. The more comments one leaves, the more quickly one meets and interacts with other members of the Skyrock community.

Non-members can leave comments on blogs, provided that the blogs’ authors enable comments to all visitors. However, only members can leave comments on Skyrock Profiles.

Inbox

As an integral part of any social network, the inbox allows members to exchange messages. Hyperlinks cannot be added inside. Members may block or blacklist contacts with whom they do not want to interact.

Friends

Members can add other members of the site to their list of friends, who are displayed on the profile and the blog. A maximum of 100 « best friends » can be added. Best friends appear on top of the member’s friends list in his/her blog and profile.

Profile

As another central feature of social networks, user profiles are present on Skyrock.com.

As with blogs, Skyrock Profiles are showcased in their own site [http://www.skyrock.com/profil] . However, unlike the blog page, there is no editorial selection, but only an automatic display of profiles. The Profile page shows the latest members who logged in, the newest members, the last webcam videos posted by users on their profiles, or « Tops » (ie, Most Visited). A search engine allows users to find other Profiles. Search options however are limited by the absence of tags.

Widgets cannot be added on Profiles, with the exception of a photo slideshow generated from a maximum of 12 photos members can upload onto this service. Member profiles may contain up to 5 personal webcam videos.

Skyrock Music

Another feature of the Skyrock.com network is the Music Blog service proposed on Skyrock Music. As with blogs and profiles, Music Blogs are showcased in their own site [http://www.skyrock.com/music] . and feature the works of musicians, both unsigned and signed. Their social networking dimension is evident in that visitors can vote or comment.

Distinguishing the Music Blog from a standard Skyrock Blog is that Music Blogs may contain up to 4 MP3 tracks, which stream on a Flash player located on top of the blog page.

Another differentiating feature of Music Blogs is that before activating their blogs, users must accept the General Terms of Service which vary depending on the users’ status : unsigned, signed on an independent label, or signed on a major industry label [http://www.skyrock.com/common/footer.php?page=cgu_music] .

Music Blogs are open to all artists (solo artists or music groups) and to all musical styles. The only requirement is that artists have intellectual property rights for all the music they present as their work. A system for detecting music tracks containing rights is activated each time an MP3 is uploaded. This technology is, however, not fool-proof but proves efficient in minimizing piracy and forcing members to comply with intellectual property rights. For each uploaded music track, users can enable visitors to download it or to add it to their Skyrock Blogs.

As with other social networks with specialized music services, Skyrock Music Blogs have provided a veritable springboard to fame. Just as MySpace helped to launch the Arctic Monkeys, Skyrock vaulted Kenza Farah into the French music scene as the new darling of French-language RnB. Her Music Blog totaled in just a few months almost 6 million visits, 325000 comments, and over 5.6 million plays of her single « Je me Bats » [Internal data displayed on her Music Blog http://kenza-zik.skyrock.com on 09/23/08 at 6pm]

Success and Controversy

Despite being ranked by comScore as the world’s 7th biggest social network with 21 million visitors worldwide, [http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2396] , Skyrock.com is less known than other social networks on an international scale. This is largely due to its origins as a French-language network, but also the fact that its target is young adults aged under 25.

Alexa consistently ranks Skyrock among the top 10 sites in France (n°3), in Belgium (n°6) and in Switzerland (n°9). [http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=FR&ts_mode=country&lang=none]

Massively embraced by the young generation, Skyrock.com is not always understood by older generations who associate the platform with potential dangers. Given the platform’s high penetration rate in France, Skyrock has its share of highs and lows in the public eye, and deals with its share of uses and abuses. For example, in several French middle schools, for example, students used the platform to malign school personnel, resulting in their expulsion and in the issuing of alerts by schools to warn parents and students about such behavior [http://archquo.nouvelobs.com/cgi/articles?ad=multimedia/20050317.OBS1492.html&datebase=20050318] .

Furthermore, certain American newspapers have attempted to associate the breakout of the Paris Riots in 2005 to usage of Skyblogs [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/08/news/blogs.php] However, institutions of the French state have never filed formal complaints indicting the usage of Skyrock Blogs.

On the contrary, French politicians, from the right and the left, have created Skyrock Blogs to stay in contact with the young generation. Examples include Fadela Amara, currently French Secretary of State, and Julien Dray of the French Socialist Party.

Moreover, a few prominent French political institutions have opted to create a Skyrock Blog as a preferred tool to communicate messages. An example is "la HALDE", the nation’s High Authority on the Fight Against Discrimination and Exclusion.

References