This article was taken from the April 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online. "Facebook is really public, and we all accept that now," says Alexandra Chong (standing, above). "But women want a more intimate place for their private, girly conversations." Last December, Chong, 30, launched Luluvise -- a women-only social network. A month into its launch, the site, integrated with Facebook, claimed users from 160 countries, with an average age of 21 (Chong won't disclose the number of users).
On Luluvise, women can create an "inner circle" of friends, share photos, texts and dating experiences, and tag chats with a "Love this!" or an "OMG!". A "WikiDate" feature allows users to rate men in a searchable database. Still, Chong says she is going to involve men in the experience by allowing them to invite their girlfriends and improve their ratings.
It's a crowded space, but Chong has solid backers. Last July she raised $1m from Passion Capital, and PROfounders Capital investors Michael Birch and Brent Hoberman. And yes, she admits her gender helped in pitches -- but for the right reasons. "Obviously, Luluvise is a product for girls," explains Chong. "So the fact that I am a woman makes me a better person to say I know what girls want."
It's hard to pigeonhole a quarter-Chinese, quarter-Jamaican, half-Canadian woman born in Jamaica, who in the 90s played tennis in the women-only Federation Cup. She went on to study law at the London School of Economics and ran marketing for Upstream, a mobile marketing company, "But I knew at 23 that I had the bones of an entrepreneur," she says. Her plan for 2012 is to grow her user base, rather than chase revenue. "This is a huge idea, so for now I'm focused on executing the hell out of it."
Name: Alexandra Chong
Occupation: Founder, Luluvise
Location: London, UK
Need to know: She's created a women-only space for social networking
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
