Playboy (PLA) enters the social networking business

Posted Aug 22nd 2007 8:00PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Advertising

Playboy (NYSE: PLA) has been struggling for years, as evidenced by its inability to sustain revenue growth and profitability.

Now the leading purveyor of porn has a new idea: a social networking site. The site is exclusively targeting college students, and is hoping to provide something "hip" to help reinvigorate the brand. The magazine is currently selling half as many copies as it did more than 30 years ago.

Will the new social networking site work? Not unless it can offer something substantially different from Facebook, which has been creaming Myspace of late. Facebook is also pretty entrenched, and it remains to be seen whether students will really want to join another social networking site.

Check it out at http://www.playboyu.com/. It seems like a longshot but, if it's special, it could finally be the thing that bring Playboy back in the sense of generating revenue.

Tags: Facebook, featured, Myspace, PLA, Playboy

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-22-2007 @ 10:57PM

Michael Schneider said...

Playboy, in our view has already started a substantial turnaround that has set the company of the right course. they have added many new sources of revenue and have strenghened the brand. Recent results are telling as many print media companies are floundering and competitors like New frontier turned in weak results.

Find many items on Playboy at the Playboy Channel (white label, near top) at http://www.Barrelomoney.com. Expect steady progress and a rising stock in the years ahead with the new club at the Palms in Las Vegas and the new operation in Macau creating interest.