- IWiW
iWiW (abbreviation for "International Who is Who") is a Hungarian
social networking web service started onApril 14 ,2002 as "WiW" ("Who Is Who"). As of 2007 August, it has 2,6 million registered users with real names. [hu icon [http://www.origo.hu/techbazis/internet/20070817-valaszol-az-iwiw-gephaz.html Interview with the maintainers on occasion of moving the servers] ] The site is invite-only. Every user can provide personal information such as the place they live in, date of birth, schools and universities they attended, workplaces, interests and pets. One can find friends by a search tool or looking through one's acquaintances' acquaintances.On
October 26 ,2005 the system was rebuilt from scratch and got a new name "(iWiW)". The most important changes are the multilingual interface (currently reverted to Hungarian-only as of July 2006), listings, photo upload and a special Javaapplet to visualize the connections.On
28 April 2006, T-Online, the net branch ofMagyar Telekom , has purchased iWiW for almost one billionHUF (about 4.7 million USD). Users expressed concerns that theirpersonal data may be sold to telemarketers or used for other purposes potentially hurting theirprivacy . Because of fears for abuse by the Hungarian telco giant, several iWiW clones and unrelated Hungarian social networking websites appeared or gained in popularity since the take-over.Since the T-Online acquisitation, the site is available only in Hungarian.
On
July 18 ,2006 the iWiW had 1 million users and onDecember 18 it reached 1.5 million.ee also
*
List of social networking websites References
External links
* [http://www.iwiw.hu/ iWiW]
* [http://www.bbj.hu/thisweeksbbj/news_14437.html Making Friends - Article in Budapest Business Journal]
* [http://mancs.hu/index.php?gcPage=/public/hirek/hir.php&id=12265 Article in Magyar Narancs]
* [http://www.radio.hu/index.php?cikk_id=144951&rid=PT13TTRFVE0= The Hungarian Radio's article about iWiW]
* [http://www.english.radio.hu/index.php?cikk_id=156346 Várady Zsolt got Hungarian State Honours for developing iWiW]
* [http://www.szpeti.hu/oldal.php?cikk=cikkek/2004/12 Szatmári Péter's article in BIT university magazine]
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