“Unusual” Social Network Unlikely to Take Off

by Stephen Logan on 21st December 2009

An industry source has predicted that a new social media service called Blippy may struggle to compete with its rivals in the sector.

Tim Houghton, director of New Media Intelligence, made his remarks following the news that the Blippy website is set to launch in 2010, with users able to share information about credit card purchases they have made with other people.

He noted that there have been experiments in social shopping in the past but they have not been successful, which is why he is "dubious" about this one.

Mr Houghton suggested that there may also be security issues with the service regarding people’s card numbers and this may dissuade them from joining.

"I’m not sure exactly how it works, but it sounds as though this site would have massive credit card information [which would] make it a target for fraudsters, surely," he explained.

It is also unclear to Mr Houghton how the use of Twitter on the site adds anything to the service.