One of my favorite social networking sites, Dogster, has a good reason to bark: The profitable site just landed $1 million in funding.
I love the quote describing the position of founder Ted Rheingold:
It is all about the dogs, but then it isn’t really. Sure, dog owners are flocking to the site so that they can post pictures of their dogs, and check out the profiles of other dogs of the same breed, or of other owners in their neighborhood. But more interestingly, owners are pretending they are the dogs, and writing little diaries, and the diaries are often becoming more about themselves, as seen through their dogs eyes.
It’s a little creepy, owners pretending to be their pets. Anthropomorphizing always gives me the willies. But it’s cute, and endearing, in its own way (you can tell I’m currently pet-less – yet, Cara, fear not, we’ll remedy that one of these days).
Meanwhile, Ted & co, great job pounding the pavement.
Link: VentureBeat: Dogster raises $1M to expand — Woof! — but it’s not about the dogs.
People reacted to this story.
Show comments Hide commentsI heard the founder of Dogster speak yesterday at Future of Web Apps in SF. He suggested that it’s very theraputic for the dog owners to speak in their pets voice. They voice all kinds of fears, wishes, and dreams that they normaly would never share.
I guess we can throw “Mr Puppet” out in the trash.
Thanks for the complimentary words David. It’s really great to read them. We’ve worked really hard to nuture the community and grow the business. This investment feels like the perfect amount of fuel to make great things happen without risking anything.
If you’re ever in San Francisco we’d be happy to have you over to the dog house.
Also, it would be great to hear your thoughts on our current search for a Director of Marketing.
http://blog.dogster.com/2006/08/28/marketing-in-the-communication-age/
Best!