My Tech World

In a non-entirely-unexpected announcement today, New Zealand social networking site IYomu is preparing to close up shop.

IYomu intended to position itself as a social networking site “for grown-ups”. Something that Facebook and, more specifically, LinkedIn have been steadily consolidating for some time. Offering a $1 million reward for adding subscribers and solving a few puzzles probably wasn’t going to help their liquidity on top of a tight market and unchartered waters for the kiwi start-up.

In some ways, it’s a shame to see a kiwi business fail, but I have to say I’m just not that sympathetic when a business has completely underestimated the market it’s trying to enter and has totally mis-read its value proposition. Rod listed a whole raft of points to consider for a new business idea. Maybe this should have been in there too…