Some background information the state of social networks in Europe. First, I would like to make a distinction between European Social Networks and Social Networks in Europe. The latter, being Web 2.0 sites which started targeting users elsewhere, and then moved to Europe to gain bigger market share on a global base. They main advantages? They can benefit from massive financing, at least compared to European counterparts, and they already have millions of use.
MySpace.com is an example of Social Network in Europe. Orkut is another example, with a difference: developed as side-projects by a Google employee, it became so popular in Brazil that some Orkut groups in English put disclaimers, inviting members to post only in English and not Brazilian.
Truly European Social Networks can be divided in two categories: local social networks and pan-European social networks. Local social networks can be found everywhere in Europe: Neogen.ro, Grono.net, IWIW.HU, Rate.ee, etc. They are extremely successful in their home Countries, and expanding into new ones.
Pan-European social networks are European Social Networks which are successful in several European countries, and were born with this mission. A leading example is NetLog, previously called Facebox, which was the first real champion with many users living in the European Union.
Of course, our own social network belongs to this category. http://www.mypacis.eu/ is a European Social Network with a social agenda: promoting peace by linking Europeans together. It is an open source, integrated and multilingual social network, developed using Web 2.0 tools with a European prospective. At the best of my knowledge, there are many North American sites connecting agents of change and many targeting European users, but no pan-European Social Network hosting volunteering and activism projects all across Europe.
Questions about social networks and other Web 2.0 services “made in Europe”? Let us know!
Frank