User:Me1krishna

Social network from Nepal Connectfrens.com

THE KATHMANDUPOST REPORT

KATHMANDU, NOV 04 - A social networking site developed by a Nepali has been launched and, like Facebook, looks to tap into the globally rising revenues of social networking sites by earning revenue from advertisements on its site. The site, connectfrens.com, utilises the group and applications features of Facebook to attract users. As of Tuesday, there were 52 Nepalis who were a part of the website, which was developed by Krishna Karki, who is also a web designer at Arena Multimedia.

Through the website, users can make friends, send messages, share images, and follow the pages of celebrities and popular products, just like in Facebook, except with one difference: users can see and follow what the other users are doing without becoming their ‘friends’. The website is free for all users, and generates revenue through ads and banners displayed to the users.

The website was developed entirely by Karki with support from Avinash Shrestha, a graphic designer at Dreams and Ideas Pvt. Ltd. Karki hopes to compete with sites such as Facebook, Orkut, and Myspace. Global ad-spending on social networking sites reached at least $2 billion (Rs. 152 billion) in 2008, a figure that can go up to $3.8 billion by 2011.