Nettby, 2009. Flickr/peterhaza. Some rights reserved.In this millennium's first decade, a thriving social network called Nettby cropped up in Norway. It was an open place where anyone could create a page and publish images, express opinions and interests, and share other information. In your guestbook, friends and everyone else wrote messages, and you could read what others had written. There were thousands of groups discussing everything from politics to child care. Users were moderators or volunteers, while Nettby itself had nine employees. Over 800,000 people inhabited Nettby; it was a solid success. Its main shareholder, VG, exported Nettby to Sweden and laid out a plan to expand to the rest of Europe. But in 2010, Nettby closed. Everything started to go downhill and users left Nettby in favour of other social networks. In the long run respect for privacy and the right to control one’s own data will become key parameters to gain a competitive edge.
