Voices en Español

Social networking sites are currently all the rage. These web sites are online public squares where people can stay up-to-date on what their friends and frenemies are doing.

Although the two market leaders Facebook and MySpace have versions in Spanish, there are some Spanish-language social networking sites that have arrived on the scene and are growing rapidly in Latin America and Spain. It was reported this week that Sonico, an Argentine company that launched last August, has raised $4.3 million in funding from various investors. In under a year, Sonico has signed up 17 million members, according to TechCrunch.

Other Spanish-language social networking sites include Badoo, Wamba and Tuenti, which is currently by invitation only. If you don’t know someone already using Tuenti, you can’t get behind the digital velvet rope.

Other than being Spanish-language only sites, it’s not clear to me what innovative or distinctive features these new players are offering that aren’t currently available on Facebook or MySpace. It makes me wonder if these companies aren’t just pure short-term strategic plays designed to stake an early claim to the Spanish-speaking market and then cash out in a few months to Facebook, MySpace or Google, which is looking to build its presence in social media.

On TechCrunch, several people share the same opinion. Santiago from Colombia says:

…there is such a thing as social network fatigue or saturation. Sure, some people may join Sonico because they got an invite from a friend, but those memberships will likely get abandoned as all roads eventually lead to Facebook or Myspace. I mean, in open social networks BIGGER IS NECESSARILY BETTER.

Also, what’s the added value of Sonico? I mean, Facebook is already in Spanish and has all kinds of applications and everyone and their mother has already joined. Why would anyone join Sonico?

Let me put this in perspective…. what would everyone say if suddenly someone came out with an ‘instant messenger for hispanics’ ? Everyone would say ” WTF? Hispanics can just use MSN or Y! messenger.” Exactly, it’s the same with social networks…we are no different from the rest of the world, we can just use FB [Facebook] or MySpace.

Are any of you using one of these new Spanish social networking sites? How does it compare with Facebook?