Info on the precious POOLWORKS' Studi VZ social media site:
The network was launched in November 2005, inside a flat in Berlin[3] by two students named Ehssan Dariani (CEO) and Dennis Bemmann[2] and was financed by founding investor Lukasz Gadowski. Since then, they have also collected an undisclosed sum of investments by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, the Samwer brothers (founders of the ringtone vendor Jamba!), and other sources. In fall 2006, similar services were launched in France (StudiQG), Italy (StudiLN), Spain (EstudiLN) and Poland (StudentIX). In February 2007, another version called SchülerVZ was launched, this time focused on secondary school students, with a reported membership around three million users.[2] As of 2010, VZ Networks claim a total userbase of over 16 million users.[3] In February 2008, another version for non-students called meinVZ was launched.
In January 2007, StudiVZ was sold to one of its investors, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, for 85 million euros. After a massive decline in usage since late 2009, Holtzbrinck attempted to sell StudiVZ, but as of July 2011 is not able to find any potential buyer.[4]
In February 2012, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the VZ networks have experienced a decline in total page views by 80%. Hence, only 5.9 million of the 16 million members were active in October 2011.[5]
From January 2011 to February 2012 the average monthly visit time has fallen steadily within the VZ networks. In the same period the main competitor Facebook benefited from constantly rising numbers.[6]
In August 2012, Comscore counted only 591,000 unique page visitors resulting in a decrease of 76.8% as compared to the previous year.[7]
Facebook sued StudiVZ in a California federal court on July 18, 2008, for copying its look, feel, features and services, the case Facebook, Inc. v. StudiVZ Ltd.. StudiVZ denied the intellectual property lawsuit accusations, and asked for declaratory judgment at the District Court in Stuttgart.[17] Facebook stated: "As with any counterfeit product, StudiVZ's uncontrolled quality standards for service, features and privacy negatively impact the genuine article."[18] On September 10, 2009 a settlement was reached resulting in StudiVZ paying an undisclosed sum to Facebook[19] and on September 14, 2009 the California case was dismissed with prejudice per the parties' stipulation.[20]
SOOOOOO it looks like Poolworks was a bad acquisition. a failing social media site. kinda reminds me of MYSPACE but never was as big and didnt jump off social media onto the music scene. Its just an empty shell of a company IMO
