Only Two Years After It's Launch, A Spanish Networking Site Threatened Facebook's Reign Over Spain's Social Sphere
Commonly referred to as the “Spanish Facebook”, Tuenti is a social networking site native to Spain, whose original purpose was to connect
Spanish speakers across the globe. Though it’s name is pronounced as ‘twenty’
in English, it is derived from the Spanish phrase ‘tu enti[dad]’, meaning “your
entity”.
Founder and CEO Zaryn Dentzel launched Tuenti in 2006 with
access limited to only Spaniards. By 2008, Alexa Internet ranked the site as
the sixth most visited in Spain. Tuenti reached 10 million active monthly usersin January of 2013, which qualified it as the second most used SNS in Spain
behind Facebook. Its overwhelming penetration and popularity allowed for gradual
globalization efforts, which began in 2014 by reaching out to other Spanish
speaking countries.
The nature of a Spanish-only site greatly limited Tuenti’s
ability to expand both culturally and economically. As a result, Dentzel made
the decision to break the mold. Tuenti is now available in the most pervasive
European languages, such as English, French, German, and Italian. Since their
decision to go global, Tuenti has hit 15 million active monthly users worldwide.
Tuenti Is A Facebook Clone In Many Aspects
Tuenti and Facebook are both social networking sites, aimed
at keeping people in communication with each other via the Internet. But they share
more than just their purpose.
Tuenti is very similar to Facebook in its design, down to the blue color scheme and lower-case lettering theme. The Tuenti profile and it’s features are almost identical to the Facebook profile – users have profile pictures, friends, notifications, a wall for posts, a chat feature, and the ability to upload photos as well as see the photos of friends. Tuenti also provides a feature to create events and share links to videos, just as Facebook does.
Along with the traditional computer mediated format, both
sites offer mobile application alternatives. As a result, they have emerged
with a ‘locations’ feature. On Tuenti, it’s called ‘Tuenti Sitios’ (Tuenti
Places), and just like the ‘location’ feature on Facebook, the entire use-base
is able to add any local place, interact with it, share it with friends, upload
images, and write reviews.
Tuenti's Focus on Minimalism and High Security Has Ironically Minimized Chances for Expansion
Tuenti’s interface is much cleaner and minimalistic than Facebook. This is due in part to their decision to forgo banner ads and sidebar ads on profiles, which helps the site feel more spacious and less noisy.
Tuenti is praised for its privacy settings and high level of security. Tuenti is an invitation-only social networking site, meaning you must be invited to join the site and each user only gets 10 invites to send out. This feature alone makes the online Tuenti community feel more personal and safe. Additionally, all users’ settings are defaulted at maximum privacy for personal information.
Some critics argue that the interface and high security have limited the company's ability to expand and globalize. Tuenti’s main demographic is settled in 25-34 year
olds, whereas Facebook’s central audience spans a much larger age range from 18
to 54.
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| Tuenti Users Breakdown by Age |
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| Facebook Users Breakdown by Age |
Though, interface and security aren't the only factors working to distinguish the two networking sites.
Tuenti innovated the ‘best friends’ option. Perhaps as a result of their focus on privacy and security, Tuenti was first to designate real friends from mere acquaintances or contacts. Then, when posting a photo or writing a post, users can choose to share with just their best friends or with everyone. Personal information is also designated for real friends. Facebook has since adopted the idea and introduced it a couple of years ago.
Though they both have mobile apps, Facebook’s app is generally more user-friendly since Tuenti does not offer an app directly. In terms of in-site apps, Facebook offers free and fee-based apps that are developed by Facebook and third-party developers, which Tuenti does not. Additionally, Facebook’s apps give you the ability to play games, create music playlists, and obtain sports scores and up-to-the-minute news. Tuenti doesn’t have any of these. But they do offer data and phone service plans for users – 1 GB of data or 3 GB for smartphones and tablets, and calls cost 3 cents a minute. It’s kind of a cool idea, but it’s also kind of pointless.
Facebook's Revolutionary 'Global Networking Feature' Keeps It On Top
I spoke with one of my friends, Angela Amoros, who was born
and raised in Barcelona, about social media use in Spain. “Tuenti is exactly
like Facebook, but only for Spanish people. It’s difficult to globalize on
Tuenti like we can with Facebook.” Angela’s frustration with Tuenti is perhaps
the reason why it never had a chance against Facebook – it is a Facebook clone
with much less actual networking to offer. Though it has recently started to
expand, it took too long to incorporate the ‘global feature’, which might be
the most important feature of all.
Globalization is one of the most prominent aspects of today.
Through social networking sites like Facebook, social globalization is possible
and easily accessible. Now that Tuenti is expanding, they have sacrificed their
most unique element – something for Spanish speakers to call their own. Facebook is already the most used social networking site in the world, a Facebook clone is redundant and pointless.
