Social network has transparent accounts and is owned by users

Zurker is allowing users to take a share of its profits and ensures that every cent is accounted for.

We’ve already seen a student-owned microbrewery and a member-owned supermarket, and now we’re seeing that same thinking applied to social networking. Zurker is a new social network that is allowing users to take a share of its profits. Currently in beta mode, the site is member-owned, meaning that each user has the chance to gain a stake in the business as well as make suggestions on how the site should be run and the features that should be included. Users are encouraged to refer their friends to the network with the reward of vShares, which grow in value as the site grows in size. As it is starting out, Zurker is currently managed by ‘custodians’, but their role will be gradually handed over to the community. The site has a policy of making its accounts completely transparent, listing each separate income and outgoing with details of the transaction on the site. It also has plans to make its coding open to all once the facilities are in place to co-ordinate such a project. Although still very much in development, the group behind Zurker have lofty aims to beat Facebook and Twitter out of the marketplace in the years to come. But with social networking being such a competitive market, will this ownership-based twist be enough to compete with the major players? Spotted by: Dietfried Globocnik