Article by: Ethan Long
A new social networking website created by Suffolk students plans on doing what many see as Facebook’s failure. In 2006, Facebook, which previously allowed users to register only with a .edu email address, opened the registration up to anybody. CollegeSUMO, a brand new website launching this week, doesn’t plan on becoming the next Facebook, but instead plans on helping enrich the college experience.
“We’re not really trying to become another social network like Facebook, but we’re trying to kind of be a more integrated social network that’s solely focused at college students, and we’re really playing on this hyper localization right now,” said Roman Wunderlich, one of the four members of the original SUMO team, which started in March, 2009. “The idea came out of an Entrepreneurship 300 class. We came up with an idea called Velvet Sumo, which was a similar concept for nightclubs, and then we created a spinoff. We realized that we could control colleges better with students and what they were doing. We were a group of four in the entrepreneurship class, and we took on one more who took the class the year before us.” The entrepreneurship class is taken by students who want to become entrepreneurs. The website’s business model includes profit from advertisements on the site’s pages.
The team then contacted Moonrise Design, based out of San Francisco. Moonrise Design was pitched the VelvetSumo idea, but opted for the CollegeSUMO idea instead.
“They were very interested in following that aspect of our business idea instead,” said Wilfred Hurst, another member of the team.
The website requires a .edu e-mail in order to prevent the site from becoming overrun with users who aren’t college students, unlike Facebook which now let’s everybody in. CollegeSUMO, aimed towards college students, wants to keep it that way.
“That’s kind of where part of the inspiration came from. It’s four years of your life and you don’t want to share it with everyone. You know, you’re aunts and parents; everyone’s on Facebook now,” said Wunderlich.
The website, which currently features a countdown to the eventual release Wednesday night, will feature profiles for every user. Users can interact with others in their college networks, as well as their region networks. Students will be able to see events listings, put up by students of the school, and figure out whether they would like to attend or not. Events listings can be filtered, so that if a user wants to see a certain kind of event only, for example—sports event, then only sports events will show up. Other types of events include nightlife, on campus events, and Greek life.
“You can go on the site and know everything you need to know about your area’s social events for college,” said Hurst.
Locations in the college’s area will also have pages with a picture, information, and reviews for students. One example of this is the Super 88 in Packard’s Corner, which can be reviewed by any user on the website. The events features will also be connected with the places, so when an event is hosted at a certain venue, a user can click on it to find out more information.
The website also includes features such as school info, which will include information about the school as well as a tour of the school made by students. “It’s not like your typical campus tour. Not just classrooms, but you’ll see the nightlife and also what the school’s really about,” said Wunderlich.
CollegeSUMO is holding its first event on Thursday at WunderBar in Allston for its official launch.
