Buzznet has 10,000 users, 50% - 100% growth per month

An article in The Los Angeles Times (paid subscription necessary) about moblogs reports that moblog hosting company Buzznet has 10,000 registered users and is growing at 50 percent to 100 percent per month.

The article says Buzznet was established in October 2003 by Marc Brown and Anthony Batt. Marc's a music lover and he got the idea of Buzznet when he tried to find a place to post photos he took of a Coachella Music Festival in Indio, Calif.

Buzznet was the name of a youth culture magazine (now gone) that Marc liked and he saw the launch and name of Buzznet as "an opportunity to relaunch it in the new spirit of the times," the article says.

Clarification: Marc has just posted a comment noting that Buzznet was the name of a youth culture online magazine (now gone) that he and Anthony established in 1994. They liked the name and both had a vision of a global online community so they brought it back with a global moblog community.

Link to music

Marc's love of music is reflected in Buzznet's "featured artist" section that highlights camera phone photos taken by a performer. Singer Rachael Yamagata posted photos when she was on a U.S. tour., the Times says.

The article discusses the phenomenon of moblogs, but it doesn't say anything about the financial viability of them. I believe most moblogs will die, the victims of their "hobbyist" attitude and lack of a viable business model.

Comments

[marc brown]

Thanks for posting this story. The story is a little unclear on some specifics. One note, Buzznet was the name of *our* youth culture zine. Anthony Batt and I launched it in 1994 in San Francisco, it was one of the first online magazines. And, since we had the name and the shared vision of a global online community, it made sense for us to bring it back last year as a photoblog community.