Multiply (website)

Multiply is a social networking service with an emphasis on allowing users to share media – such as photos, videos and blog entries – with their "real-world" network. It is currently the biggest "social shop" in Southeast Asia with over 125,000 merchants and 20 million unique visitors (Sept 10, 2010).

History

The website was launched in March 2004 and was privately held with backing by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Point Judith Capital, Transcosmos, and private investors. Multiply has over 11 million registered users. The company is headquarterd in Boca Raton, Florida. Quantcast estimated in 2006 that Multiply has 3.5 million monthly U.S. unique visitors.

By 2010, Multiply had grown to around 20 million visitors, of which more than 5 million are from the Philippines. Today, it is owned by Naspers Inc. who has a controlling stake in Multiply.

Social sharing and shopping

Multiply's original purpose was to be a social networking site simply aimed at linking people. Over time, however, many of its users began using Multiply's features, such as photo sharing, and advanced customization (a Multiply page can be edited by simply dragging and dropping elements), as storefronts. This evolution led to online shopping.

Multiply's unique evolution path could be attributed to the site's emphasis on Media Sharing and Customization. It supports the automatic uploading of pictures, onsite photo editing, and advanced email-like newsfeeds.

Rather unusually, the Multiply staff has a strong relationship to its users. Multiply's developers personally befriend their site users using MUDS (Multiply Users & Developers Group), where users are encouraged to blog about feature suggestions

Multiply as a Social Platform

The concept of Multiply is similar to platforms such as Facebook, Hi5, Friendster, and Bebo. It has a "social network" structure requiring users to add their friends and contacts before interaction can happen. However, Multiply is interesting in the ways it diverges from the popular platforms. Most social networks focus on connecting people; Multiply focuses on content creation. In this respect, it is far closer to a blogging platform such as Wordpress.

Multiply's social model mirrors real-world relationships. In addition to the basic function of connecting with people, users are also encouraged to specify the nature of the relationship, be it friend, family, colleague, or online buddy. This in turn supports tiered information sharing, because posts can be shared among just family, colleagues, or friends, or even broadcast to the external network.

Multiply users gain access to more than just their "real life" friends and family. Information can also be shared with friends of friends, as well as groups. Groups exist outside of the "network" structure, enabling people with certain interests to share the aforementioned types of media with others who share their interests, but may not be closely connected to them through relationships.

Advanced Blogging

Blog posts on Multiply include the ability to easily change font style, type, color or size. Photos can be added and moved about within the post. A poll can be included and files can be attached. Users can use Multiply's WYSIWYG blog editor or edit HTML directly.

As with all types of posts on Multiply, users can set privacy settings on a per post basis, enabling a user to essentially run a private blog for friends and family right on top of, or embedded within, a public blog. (In other words, a user can post thoughts on politics to a public audience while reserving posts on the cute things the kids did for only friends and family. Both types of posts are treated the same by Multiply in terms of alerts to the poster and the poster's contacts, but the privacy settings limit the content to only those that the user wants to give access to.)

Multiply provides blog cross-posting; blog entries posted to Multiply can be automatically posted to a LiveJournal, Blogger or TypePad account. There is also an option to post via e-mail or MMS, enabling posting from mobile phones. Users can also post reviews (of movies and books, for example), and to share a calendar of events. Multiply also recently reintroduced the Marketplace and Recipes modules, which allow users to share interests in purchases, and favorite foods and drinks.

Unlimited Photo Sharing

All accounts on Multiply include the ability to add an unlimited number of photos. In addition to being able to share photos with contacts on Multiply, users can also let non-Multiply members see even their private photos by using the "share" link. Photos in albums can be embedded into other posts or replies on Multiply, or they can be hotlinked outside of Multiply, in which case a watermark is added.

Multiply allows automatic photo uploads using an Adobe AIR program. This works by asking users to specify a folder into their computer and consistently polling that folder for new or edited pictures. If detected, it is then uploaded into a Media Locker where it can be batch integrated into albums. This empowers members to utilize Multiply as an online Photo Repository, although full-resolution pictures are restricted to only Premium members.

Multiply offers some editing capabilities for photos: Photos can be rotated and a variety of picture frames can be added. Using the Multiply Media Locker users can crop photos, eliminate red eye, retouch photos, adjust contrast, exposure, and saturation. There is also an Auto Fix function that will adjust your photos with one click. All of the adjustments are reversible until you click to apply them.

Multiply has partnered with QOOP for photo printing and other photo services.