Social Net Builder Me.com Launches Free Version With $1.5 Million Financing

Me.com, a San Jose-based startup that lets users create custom social networks, received $1.5 million in financing from Silicon Valley real-estate developer Kimball Small, VentureBeat reports. Me.com, though founded in 2005, has just started offering a free version to individual users after marketing its social net customization services primarily to businesses.

The piece notes that the San Jose, CA-based company is similar to Marc Andreessen’s Ning. There are some differences, however. Me.com lets users share half of the revenue it gets from placing Google ads on users’ networks. With Ning, users pay $19.99 a month to run your own ads. Secondly, Me.com offers people search, photos, blogs, polls, events listings, groups, forums, chat rooms, IM, and a “Hot or Not” page. Before offering its free version, Me.com’s two-year-old platform was targeted to medium-sized businesses, which were charged $199 per-month for the service, while larger brands had to pay $10,000 monthly.

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