Ad Age reports on the demise of Wal-Mart’s social networking experiment.
Less than three months after launching its quasi-social-networking site aimed at teens, Wal-Mart has shut down the Hub.
“The Hub” was designed by Wal-Mart to allow teens to “express their individuality” but it screened all the content, informed parents when their children joined and forbade users to e-mail one another.
In August, the site attracted 91,000 unique visitors, according to ComScore Networks. Social-networking giant MySpace.com garnered 55.8 million unique visitors the same month.
Hence, “quasi” is the key word here. If you’re going to go social, then be prepared to go all the way. Part way isn’t going to cut it, as Wal-Mart now knows.
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