Harvey Weinstein Invests in aSmallWorld

Posted on May 29, 2006

Reuters reports that aSmallWorld, an invitation-only social network targeting movers and shakers, has received backing from film mogul Harvey Weinstein.

If anyone is big in the small world of independent film it is Harvey Weinstein, and the Oscar winner behind movies like "Chicago" is aiming high online by acquiring a stake in exclusive Web community, aSmallWorld.
His Weinstein Co. is the lead investor in a group that bought a large share of the Web site catering to upscale clients, and late on Monday aboard a private yacht at the Cannes film festival, Weinstein told Reuters the deal is a part of his plan to build a multi-media empire.
He likened aSmallWorld, which boasts a relatively few 130,000 members, to a sort of MySpace.com for the Internet jet set, and a community that adults can join to bypass youthful chatter on the Web.
"Our goal is to be a major content producer, and content comes in all forms whether that is movies, TV or online," Weinstein said. "Adults are underserved on the Internet, and that is our bet, that they go from MySpace to aSmallWorld."

aSmallWorld has 130,000 members, which is much smaller than most social networks. aSmallWorld says they "have imposed certain criteria in order to keep the network private and exclusive. To join, you need to be invited by a trusted member." It sounds similar to Orkut's invite-only policy except Orkut doesn't sound quite as exclusive. Google's decision to keep Orkut invite-only was probably a bad one in retrospect -- they let MySpace and the other social networks accumulate millions of profiles without even trying to compete.