ASMALLWORLD
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
|
Type of site
|
Social network service |
| Available in | English (UK) English (US) |
| Founded |
London, United Kingdom (2004) |
| No. of locations |
Zurich, Switzerland (June 2013) New York, United States (June 2013) |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner |
Patrick Liotard-Vogt (2009) |
| Founder(s) |
Erik Wachtmeister Louise Wachtmeister |
| Chairman |
Patrick Liotard-Vogt (June 2013) |
| CEO |
Jan Luescher (2016) |
| Key people |
Erik Wachtmeister (Founder, 2004) Harvey Weinstein (Founder, 2006) Patrick Liotard-Vogt (Buyer, 2009) Sabine Heller (Former CEO, Board Member, 2014) |
| Industry | Internet |
| Revenue | Unknown (June 2014) |
| Operating income | Unknown (June 2014) |
| Net income | Unknown (June 2014) |
| Total equity | CHF 100'000 |
| Employees | Unknown (June 2013) |
| Website | www.asmallworld.com |
| Alexa rank |
 127,827 (as of January 2016) |
| Registration | Required (since March 2004) With costs (since May 2013) Invitation-only (since March 2004) |
| Users | Unknown, less than 250,000 (April 2014) |
| Launched | March 2004 |
| Current status | Active |
ASmallWorld (styled ASMALLWORLD) (ASW) is an exclusive, paid-subscription social network, which relaunched in the spring of 2013 as a private international travel and social club, with a peer-recommended and verified user base capped membership at 250,000 members. Described as "Myspace for millionaires" and "The secret social network for the elite", the site was founded in 2004 by Erik Wachtmeister and was one of the first social networks at that time.
ASmallWorld has been the subject of controversy for failing to provide the goods and services promised, engaging in gender discrimination and eliminating members without good cause.
To join, one must receive an invitation from an existing member, or an invitation from the governing board after filing an application to be considered for membership.
In March 2004, Wachtmeister and his wife Louise Wachtmeister founded the social networking website ASmallWorld as an exclusive social networking site for a worldwide community of people already connected by three degrees of separation. It launched at almost the same time as MySpace and Facebook, two years before Facebook was made available to non-college students. It was dubbed "MySpace for millionaires" by the Wall Street Journal. To maintain its desired exclusivity, ASmallWorld, while free, was invitation-only, open only to those invited by an existing member. Whereas Facebook soon opened its membership to everyone, A Small World remained exclusive. Wachtmeister, over the course of his travels, identified an existing niche community of people with similar lifestyles and tastes. He wanted to provide them with a platform to network and share information.
In May 2006, Harvey Weinstein's The Weinstein Company acquired the majority share, joining a team of investors that included former AOL Time Warner COO Robert W. Pittman, film director Renny Harlin, and entrepreneur Alexander Von Furstenberg. At the time, A Small World had approximately 130,000 members. Harvey Weinstein said his company planned to expand the site's membership and bring in additional advertisers. It was the Weinstein Company's first investment in an Internet company. After launching online advertising in 2006, the website had 100 partners. Advertisers included Jaguar, Diane von Furstenberg, Mercedes-Benz, Cartier, and Moet & Chandon.
In 2009, Swiss entrepreneur and investor Patrick Liotard-Vogt purchased the controlling stake in ASMALLWORLD and became its Chairman. At that time, membership was in excess of 500,000 members and growing, when Sabine Heller became its CEO.
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Wikipedia