Zebo, which launched officially last week after a beta that began in January, has amassed more than 4 million users, according to founder Roy de Souza. The social network's bold color scheme might not be to everyone's taste, but if those numbers are real, Zebo must be doing something right.
Features, Features, Features
As you might expect, there are plenty of features for materialists - in addition to a list of items you own, you can create a wish list of items you want, fill in sections about what kind of shopper you are (I'm a Lindsay Lohan, naturally), ask friends for shopping advice and blog about what you bought during your last trip to the mall. The social networking element, meanwhile, is fairly straightforward: you can add users to your network, or invite friends from your address book on Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, GMail, Outlook and AOL Mail. Zebo's equivalent of MySpace's Tom seems to be Isaac Z - users are automatically connected to him, making it much easier for newbies to get acquainted. What's odd is that Isaac Z's account only lists 1200 friends.
But Zebo isn't just about hooking up with your friends: the company is working on multiple ways to monetize its user base. Zebo plans to sell advertising, insert affiliate links and even publish data about the shopping habits of young people. If they really have 4 million users, that revenue could add up fast.
Insane Growth?
More remarkably, Zebo is claiming massive growth with no obvious explanation as to how this was achieved. The ability to import your address book would certainly increase growth, but I think there's more to it than that: the founder is a marketing expert who owns San Francisco-based ad giant Zedo Inc. - he seeded the site through Google ads and invitations sent to members of a "former e-commerce site". Although I'm certainly not accusing Zebo of using MySpace's alleged spamming tactics to build a user base, it's clear that social networks are more about smart marketing than features, design or usability. For what it's worth, the highly-inaccurate stats tracking tool Alexa suggests that site saw a massive number of visits early this year, then trailed off (disclaimer: Alexa is virtually useless - see YouTube vs MySpace for one example, or virtually any stats involving Digg).
If they've genuinely hit the 4 million user mark, then Zebo may have hit the tipping point. But if all those members are the result of Google ads and email invites, retaining those users might be a challenge.
Zebo User?
Mashable's Zebo account is HERE - feel free to add Mashable to your friends if you sign up, or if you already count yourself among those 4 million.
Update: The NYTimes is also reporting the 4 million number.
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Zebo
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Zebo's Isaac Z
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