It's a Loopthing - Made in Ireland

Cork Based Business Social Network Loopthing Launches with the Aim of Attracting 80,000 New Users by End of 2009

Irish social business network, Loopthing,  has launched to businesses and organisations globally and aims to connect businesses and individuals through social media.

It is the second such website to launch in Ireland and has a unique different business model for this type of service. Whereas IGOpeople, launched just over six months ago will rely on generating revenue through a subscription fee, founder of Loopthing  Joseph Kelly, explains that users are able to use Loopthing free and that their revenue will come from providing industry specific applications which will facilitate transactions for those users. This could be in form of a booking engine, or a shopping basket

"We believe that a genuine opportunity exists  to facilitate consumers to buy products without leaving the Loopthing environment. Businesses will benefit enormously because the fall-off from enquiry to conversion will increase significantly as hopping is eliminated," Kelly tells IrishDev.com.

Loopthing is designed as an addition to a company's website, to boost the communication, networking and revenue generating capabilities of business communities on a local, national and international level. It has launched with 100 businesses and because their is no barrier to entry, or the threat of a future subscription fee, it aims to increase this number to 80,000 by the end of 2009.

Kelly said, "Any business, anywhere can join Loopthing, it is open to all. As an Irish-based business, we expect a high signup for here. Pro-actively, to populate the network we are undergoing extensive talks with international business groups to promote Loopthing to their members in return for joining our its affiliate scheme. As we begin rolling out our industry specific applications, we may then focus on specific sectors."

The website itself  has a truely international flavour. The open-source PHP driven website was developed extensively in Cork, with MySQL database work coming from the Ukraine, the design from Argentina and the media players from India.

Kelly comments, "Producing a platform such as Loopthing requires a huge investment in time and skill. Open source technology has allowed us to keep the development and running costs low and undoubtedly enabled us to get the project of the ground."

The project recently completed its 2nd release, and the 3rd release of features is already well underway. This will greatly enhance the design and functionality of the network.

Kelly concluded, "Much in the same way as Twitter became a new broadcasting tool, Linkedin an employee networking tool, and Youtube as your video channel, Loopthing wants to be seen as any company's interactive online business card."

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