BIRDZ

BIRDZ or BIRDZ.SK is a social networking site for Slovak teenagers and students. Registration is free and open for all users age between 11 and 29 years. Users create accounts, with their own Webpage, Blog, Photos, they can show their talent, discuss everything what is in teenager's head in forum with other young people or meet students in the same age, and make new friendships.

History

BIRDZ.SK was launched on 4 December 2000 as a student's ezine. After a huge relaunch BIRDZ became one of the first community portals in Slovakia. The Portal was designed and developed by freelance web designer and college student Tomas Abaffy, who is sole owner of the company. In February 2008 portal was bought by Perex, a.s. publishing house, subsidiary of Northcliffe International.

Tomas Abaffy

Tomas Abaffy (born 5 November 1982, Bojnice, Slovakia) is a graphic designer and Web designer. He created BIRDZ in 2000. In 2004 he co-founded (with Radoslav Augustin) the media news server Mediálne.sk which was sold to a publishing company in 2006.

User base

BIRDZ has now about 49000 registered teen users, mostly aged from 13 to 26 years old ( [http://www.birdz.sk User counter on the BIRDZ homepage] ). It is the largest portal of this kind in Slovakia. Users upload thousands of photos, write almost thousand blogs and send a large amount of internal messages every week.

Competitors

[http://www.azet.sk Azet.sk] is largest dating/chatting portal in Slovakia and the visited website (only if including all subdomains) in Slovakia, according to [http://online.aimmonitor.sk AIM Monitor (Gemius)]

[http://www.booom.sk Booom.sk] is a social network of clubbers, charges membership fee.