Ottawan Launches Girls-Only Social Network With $1 Million in Funding
Ottawa-raised Alexandra Chong moved to England to found Luluvise, a girls-only social network that's backed by $1 million in funding.
Real Business named the 30-year-old tech entrepreneur one of Londo's "most eligible startup CEOs," citing the "staggering number of nominations … from lusty boys" that the "blond bombshell" recieved.
Looks aside, the founder of Luluvise—not named with any intended link to Lululemon, somewhat surprisingly—is serious about business. The social platform aims to be girl time, all the time, a sort of online slumber party for young women. There will be text and photo sharing, polls, and—as always comes with groups of girls—gossip galore.
Reminiscent of a boys' treehouse club with a sign on the door reading "NO GIRLS," Luluvise does not allow men—even gentlemen—to join the network. Alexandra admits that there are "quite a few boys trying to sneak on," which is only natural. But users must apply by email, and the names associated with their email get cross-referenced to the users' Facebook page—so if a man wanted to join, he would need to adopt a female name on both his email account and Facebook account, and change his Facebook account gender status to female. Not impossible, of course, but probably more trouble than it's worth. And because Facebook pages are checked manually, fake ones don't make the cut.
Perhaps Luluvise's most intriguing feature is Wikidate, a quiz where women can "review" men they've met who have Facebook accounts, ranking them based on criteria such as manners, humour, and appearance. Over time, Wikidate will become a searchable global databased of the dating world, good, bad, and ugly—men, you have been warned.
Alexandra is targeting women aged 18 to 35, a hot demographic for social networking, but critics argue that new platforms are being percieved as too much work to join. Look at Google+, for example. However, niche networks are a different story. And while Luluvise may not be a hyperspecific niche, the girls-only stamp may just be unique enough to grab attention.
