Company Overview



Company Overview[i]

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In 1996, Community Connect Inc. (CCI) president and CEO Benjamin Sun, then a Merrill Lynch investment banker with a focus on technology companies, became intrigued with the idea of online communities.  A second-generation Asian American, Mr. Sun particularly understood the importance of community.  Combining the strong affinity that members of ethnic groups have with the connectivity of the Web seemed a winning combination.  Hence, the initial seeds for Community Connect Inc. were planted.

Collaborating with Mr. Sun to execute and fine-tune the vision were company co-founders Grace Chang, Mike Montero, Peter Chen and Calvin Wong.  The five-person team began to architect and roll out what would be the company's first online ethnic community: . CCI's approach would be to provide its site members with tools such as free, customizable personal home pages as well as relevant news and content.  Moreover, the company would build its own proprietary software.

Community Connect Inc.'s launched on July 21,1997 to rave reviews from the Asian American audience it targeted.  Thousands of new members registered with the site, primarily through word-of-mouth marketing.  In just six months, boasted more than 30,000 members. CCI had to increase staff to handle the new site traffic and overall administration.

With the popularity of , Community Connect Inc. was ready to expand its roster of online communities. They choose to target other US ethnic audiences.  The African American community, a group recognized for its tremendous purchasing power and its exploding online presence was a logical next step for the company.

The vision for an African American online community site came to fruition with the addition of Internet entrepreneur Omar Wasow.  The company launched in September, 1999, with Mr. Wasow leading the charge as Executive Director. was built around its own dedicated site team consisting of accomplished marketing professionals, journalists and content producers - all members of the African American community being targeted.  Only a few months into its launch, proceeded to take off even faster than .  In just eleven weeks after its launch, registered more than 60,000 members and generated over one million daily page views.  The site reached one million registered members shortly after its first year of operation. 

To further expand its network, CCI launched (pronounced mee-Hen-te) in October, 2000.  Targeted to the growing US Latino community, would follow similar paths as and by building dedicated site teams to deliver content and online community features of relevance to US Latinos. is growing similarly to CCI's other sites, with thousands of new members registering each month.   

Today, Community Connect Inc. is an established developer of dedicated online communities targeted to US ethnic audiences.  The company's sites, leaders in their respective categories, have received industry accolades and media recognition.  The proprietary technology gives members the tools that enable them to form and engage in culturally-oriented communities.  More than the content, however, the sites offer members instant communication and networking opportunities, resulting in a highly personalized and meaningful community experience.  Each one of the sites has free personal pages, email, forums, news, chat, instant messaging, games, promotions and online events.  Members claim that the site has become an integral part of their lives, online and offline. The New York City-based company currently has more than 100 employees. 

Mission

For the Company: To build and grow highly desirable online destinations for the exploding population of US ethnic groups

For the Members: To provide our members with a safe and dynamic online destination where they can voice their opinions, interact and access a world of information and services relevant to their specific needs.

BlackPlanet Overview

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(BP) is a ground-breaking online community for the African diaspora.

The purpose of Black Planet is to make money for its parent company, CCI. However, their strategy to do this is by facilitating user-to-user interaction through information and communication technologies (ICTs). Members of enjoy free personal pages, e-mail, games, forums, chat, news, instant messaging and Internet telephony, in addition to gifts, special promotions and online events.

With the African American community now going online at more than double the rate of the general population, has been able to capture a large part of this market. The site currently has over 4 million registered users and about 30,000 members logged in at one time. The site gets 4 times the number of hits as the Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

Black Planet makes use of a number of technologies to help their members interact with other and build important online bonds. According to Kim (2000), providing members with multiple means of communication strengthens group identity because it makes people aware of the other members of the group. For example, Black Planet has a feature throughout the site that allows a member to see if another member is on by putting a little apteryx next to their name. This adds a sense of presence to the group that would not be there otherwise. In addition, being able to talk to the entire group or an entire sub-group at one time can help strengthen group identity according to Kim (2000).

Black Planet offers a variety of real time private and public chatting, asynchronous communication, static communication, in addition to user and system designed forums for communication. By giving people so many different options, members are certain to find a mode of communication that they are comfortable with.

Webpages

The most important aspect of forming one’s identity on Black Planet is developing their personal webpage. The webpage is the member’s representation of self to the rest of the community. Most webpages contain at least one picture, a personal statement from the person and biographical information from the person on a sidebar. In addition, every page contains links to friends’ webpages in addition to a form on the bottom of the page with which to email the owner. These features allow member interact with each other and each other’s social networks.

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E-mail

Black Planet also provides users with personal email accounts with the “” domain with further links their identity to the community. In addition, there is a “Notes” feature that allows members to send electronic asynchronous notes (email) only to each other. Therefore, there is a separation between internal and external communication within this community.

Chat

The Chat feature allows members to communicate with each other in real-time about certain topics or themes. Chat rooms could have hundreds or thousands of members logged in which means members will generally use chats as a way to meet new members and then have private discussion. Chat rooms are normally dominated by one or two conversations and topics don’t necessarily sticking to the theme of the room – chat users generally end up using the chat rooms as an online “bar scene”.

Pager

The pager feature allows members to instant message other members that are logged on. Again, it provides another level of interactivity and private real time chatting that is much easier than having thousands of people in a room.

Forums

The forums are message boards provided to the users as a way to post public messages asynchronously and communicate about a variety of topics. These forums are generally used more as places to discuss current events or issues that affect members of the community rather than just “bar scene” mechanisms. The initial message or question for a thread of discussion is posted on the main forums page.

Find

The “Find” feature in BP Dating is yet another way for members to connect with one another. Members are able to type in the criteria of a person they would like to communicate with and a search engine matches those criteria with the criteria of other members. Therefore, people are able to find other people with their interests without actually talking to each and every person on Black Planet.

Activities/Services

Black Planet makes further use of their array of communications tools by providing members with the option to participate in a range of competitive activities and rewards contests. Communities can use these competitive activities to build excitement and anticipation, highlight the skills of its members, and attract audiences to one central event (Kim, 2000). Yet the most important aspect of competitive activities is that they feature the members of the community and encourage members to earn themselves a place in the spotlight. In addition, Black Planet makes use of a number of rewards systems that are unrelated to the “special talents” of members, but instead based upon other criteria such as number of logins or clicking on advertisements. By providing rewards for basic activities, Black Planet further encourages their members to be active participants in the community.

From an outsider’s perspective, Black Planet looks like nothing more than an online interactive dating service. However, it also makes use of the capabilities of the Internet by engaging members in a number of online activities that keep people interested.

Games

A new season of games begins every month. Users accumulate points for every game that they win. These points will determine your position on the Leaders' Board. If you get your name at the top of the Leaders' Board by the end of the season, you'll win a prize for your skills. Ties will be broken through a random drawing. Game Points are reset to "0" at the end of the season.

Game Point System

When competing in Trivia Challenge, each question you answer correctly will earn you 30 points. The total score you can receive playing Trivia Challenge each week is 450 points. When competing in Say What, the top 3 submissions for the week will receive 450, 350, and 200 points respectively. Players are not awarded points for voting. In Black Jack, if you win, you get the points you bet (max:100).

Users can check the status of the game competition by using the ‘game ladder.’ The ladder features both the best and the worst contestants.

Say What

Twice a week, a new picture will be posted (usually submitted by members). You'll have a chance to post a caption that best describes the picture. Members will then vote for the best caption. Writers of the top three captions will receive game points. The top 3 submissions will receive 450, 350 and 200 points respectively.

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Trivia Challenge

Each week, we'll post 15 trivia questions of a specific theme. The more questions you answer correctly, the more points you get. Sounds simple... but we'll keep you on your toes!

Black Jack

Same as casino rules, user can bet up to 100 points.

Battle Board

Participants come and write poetry or post rhymes. Users are pitted against each other and if you “win” a battle you win points.

Bragging Rights

Users come to this web board and continue in the African slave tradition of “signifying.” Basically, you come and talk about your competition in the Battle Board and brag about your skills.

Boondocks

The Boondocks cartoon strip is available daily. The comic strip is advertised on the front page and seems to be a more popular attraction of the site.

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Events Calendar

Members can subscribe to post events to the events calendar. The calendar is arranges by both category and state.

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Channels

Black Planet has a number of channels including books, BP Times (news about BP members), education, careers, families & homes (Food, recipes, decorating and parenting from a black point of view), heritage & culture, money & finance, movies & TV, news & politics, music, religion, small business, sports, style & beauty (latest in fashion), technology, and women. Channels consist of articles, advertisements, polls, forum topics, and special features. The news channel in particular has editorial columns by Clarence Page and Armstrong Williams. Also in this channel you will find a reprint of a TIME magazine article reflecting Black history.[ii] The career channel has job postings and recommendations on how to start your own business.

BP Dating

Black Planet Dating is an effective community tool for creating individual bonds between community members. It uses an automated matching system to connect people with others they would be interested in based on a profile they enter in the “BP Dating” area of the website. Users fill out a Dating Profile that will help identify the kind of people you would be interested in. This profile includes the basic qualities you find important in a person of the same or opposite sex, an essay, and a photo. This profile can also include a voice mailbox which you tell someone about yourself in your own voice. BP Dating has a 900 number for users to hear each other member’s voices.

There are three basic ways to find people in BP Dating:

Premium Search- find the members you're most interested in

Basic Search - check out Profiles in any state

Hot List - rate and save Profiles that catch your eye

Any users who have a dating profile can see a picture of the people they are being matched up with. You can vote the person up or down based on there picture. In order to do more than look, you have to become a BP Dating Subscriber. This will allow you to contact your matches.

Dater of the Week

One way to further make oneself available to other potential matches is to pay a monthly or annual fee and become eligible to be “Dater of the Week”. The Dater of the Week award does not have any particular criteria except that the “winner” must subscribe to BP Dating. The reward is simple yet effective – the Dater of the Week gets their picture posted on the BP Dating main page for a week.

The advantage of this reward system is that everybody who comes to the BP Dating area of Black Planet will immediately see the winner’s picture and a short quote from their bio. The incentive for subscribing and having a chance at being “Dater of the Week” is that everybody can see your picture. This particular reward does not necessarily reward the skill of members, but it creates incentive to subscribe to Black Planet. Additionally the picture of another member on the BP main page adds a personal feeling to the area and lets users know that there are other average people who also use the service.

Gift Center

The Gift Center lets you buy gifts while only exchanging member names. No real names or addresses are ever seen. You can buy candy, flowers, teddy bears, sweets, and much more. This allows people using BP Dating to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pursuers.

Member of the Week

Unlike “Dater of the Week” the “Member of the Week” is based on more tangible statistics and members can win the award by receiving votes from other members. However, a member’s voting power is determined by the number of member points they have at the time they are attempting to vote. The result of the whole process is that members are encouraged not only to login to the system frequently, but also to become active members of the community.

Member points are accumulated by visiting sponsors, getting hits on your Personal Page, making friends, and making referrals. This member points system is Black Planet’s online loyalty system that was created to reward members for coming to the site and participating in promotions and special offers. In addition, five member points can also be accumulated by referring other people to become members of Black Planet or by people saving you as a friend on their site.

After accumulating points, members are allowed to vote for “Member of the Week”. Each “Member of the Week” vote costs 25 member points. Therefore, each member is allowed to vote as many times as they wish until they have less than 25 member points. Since the winner can only vote once and the typical winner gets 1000-5000 votes, the mechanism Black Planet has in place makes it very difficult for someone to rig the voting process and cheat (unless they have multiple identities). Therefore, this “Member of the Week” process is another way to encourage members to interact with each other so they can gain the support of other community members.[iii]

The reward one receives for being “Member of the Week” is that their picture is on the Black Planet home page gaining them more hits and more people bookmarking their site as “friends”. In addition, by putting a quote next to their picture, this feature allows members to “talk” to the entire group at one time. Therefore, “Member of the Week” not only rewards the individual winner, but also the entire community is introduced to someone else on the Black Planet network.

Black Planet Rewards

Black Planet also allows members to redeem their member points for various prizes. Therefore, even if a member accumulates a lot of points and chooses to never vote for “Member of the Week” they can trade-in points for prizes ranging from CDs from the Black Planet open-mic contest to Black Planet caps or briefcases. Those that redeem member points for prizes with the Black Planet logo on them not only advertise Black Planet in their daily face-to-face interactions, but the prizes are also a badge of group identity that Black Planet members can show the world.

Contests

Black Planet also has competitions that are based on members’ offline skills such as writing or musical talents. For example, the “Black Heavy Rotation CD” is a compilation of the Heavy Rotation Open Mic contest finalists with the winner getting their picture and profile displayed on the website. By using members’ real world talents to showcase them on the site further develops their identity within the community or at least within certain sub-groups of the community (for example, only those interested in music or poetry may know about the Open Mic contest).

The contests on Black Planet are an excellent way for members to get involved in the community by using existing talents. The contests integrate members’ existing talents into the community and recognize them for that which further increases incentives to get involved and gives people motivation to express themselves in the online community.

Conclusion

From an outsider’s perspective, Black Planet appears to be nothing more than a typical impersonal dating service. However, after examining this community it becomes apparent that Black Planet is in fact a highly sophisticated community that tries to encourage people to come back and interact with each other in a multitude of ways.

Members are offered multiples ways to communicate with one another. They are offered rewards for their loyalty to the site. They are also awarded for their special talents. Black Planet allows the young Black people from around the world to connect and form a group identity while also strengthening their individual identity online. Black Planet has successfully taken aspects of Black culture and created a community that facilitates the development of those cultural aspects online.

It is important to remember that Black Planet is a business and is interested in making money for its investors. However, Black Planet has been able to create a substantial online community for African Americans. The original mission of Black Planet was to create an online space where Black professionals could come together and communicate with each other has clearly been achieved by the number of features and current membership of Black Planet today. Black Planet has done everything necessary thus far to continue successfully as long as the Internet remains a popular medium in society.

Reference:

1. Kim, Amy Jo (2000). "Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities". Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press.

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[i] Adapted from

[ii] Black Planet and TIME WARNER AOL have an agreement in which BlackPlanet is allowed to reprint selected articles on the website in exchange for advertisement and special promotions.

[iii] As we explore this community further, it will be interesting to see how people gain the support of others if in fact they do so at all.

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