Skyrock

Skyrock.com is a social networking site offering its members a free web space where they can create a blog, add a profile, and exchange messages with other registered members. The site also offers a specific space for members who create blogs showcasing their original musical compositions.

Skyrock ranks as the world’s 7th largest social network with over 21 million visitors in June 2008

Skyrock.com began as a blogging site, Skyblog.com, founded by Skyrock CEO Pierre Bellanger in December 2002.

In May 2007, after abandoning the Skyblog.com brand , Skyrock.com was launched as a full-scale social network.

Success and Controversy

Skyrock is ranked by comScore as the world’s 7th biggest social network with 21 million visitors worldwide. Alexa consistently ranks Skyrock among the top 10 sites in France (n°3), in Belgium (n°6) and in Switzerland (n°9).

Given the platform’s high penetration rate in France, Skyrock has its share of highs and lows in the public eye, and deals with its share of uses and abuses. For example, in several French middle schools, do-rag clad students used the platform to malign school personnel, resulting in their expulsion and in the issuing of alerts by schools to warn parents and students about such behavior.

Furthermore, certain American newspapers have attempted to associate the breakout of the Paris Riots in 2005 to usage of Skyblogs However, institutions of the French state have never filed formal complaints indicting the usage of Skyrock Blogs.

A few prominent French political institutions have opted to create a Skyrock Blog as a preferred tool to communicate messages. An example is la HALDE, the nation’s High Authority on the Fight Against Discrimination and Exclusion.