Viral Channels: Hi5 Adds Contact Importing to App Invite Flow
In a first by any social networking platform I’ve seen, hi5 announced tonight that it is adding the ability for users to invite non-hi5 friends to apps by importing contacts from other sources during the app invite flow.
Hi5 is becoming more aggressive in its efforts to grow its network. Recently, anecdotal evidence is increasingly hinting at a brewing battle between Facebook and Hi5 for Latin American users in particular. This move will surely accelerate growth for both hi5 and hi5 applications.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I live in Latin America, and I can tell you this isn’t true. Hi5 has had the highest penetration here for quite a long time now – but Facebook is taking over. Users are closing hi5 accounts and opening facebook accounts. The main problem has been lack of privacy controls and things getting out of hand, which facebook does a better job with.
Its a trend that started about 10 months ago with the most advanced users and will gradually filter to everyone else over the next 24 months. Hi5 is not in a good situation (at least in the Caribbean) anymore.