Stardoll and Piczo social networking sites merge

Greater indication that social networking sites are also being affected and having to adapt in the face of the current economic climate can be seen as the teen sites Piczo and Stardoll are merging international operations in order to be more appealing to advertisers.

It is being described as a merger of equals and will bring about a combined monthly unique user base of about 20 million as the Stardoll team will take over running Piczo both will continue to run as separate social networking websites.

As advertisers are having to reassess budgets it has mead it harder for smaller websites outside of Myspace and Facebook to attract advertisers.

With many websites struggling to monetise their traffic Stardoll is planning to launch a new brand, Paperdollheaven.com that would also become part of the Stardoll Network.

The merger will help provide greater scale in a competitive market, as each website still has a different functionality the breadth of the audience will make it more appealing to advertisers.

It is a move that has been used to consolidate operations in the off-line world just as Viacom does who operates a range of youth brands.

Story link: Stardoll and Piczo social networking sites merge