Thursday, June 11, 2009
SodaHead.com Morphs Towards Social News
Los Angeles-based SodaHead.com, the social question-and-answer and polling startup headed by former MySpace VP of Operations Jason Feffer, is morphing its focus towards the social news area, saying last night that the company is looking to become a "social newspaper." According to SodaHead.com, the site is looking to create a forum to discuss breaking news and "hot topics" which are important to users on the site. The site--which originally started as a question-and-answer site along the lines of Yahoo Answers--said it now has a community of 2.5 million people who visit the site monthly. Among changes to the site to support the shift in focus, the company said it has changed its layout to prominently display breaking news and news-based polls and discussions; added social media features to make news discussions more user-friendly; and more features to find and connect to people with similar opinions. Jason Feffer, the firm's CEO, told socalTECH that the evolution happened because its users were blogging and asking questions about breaking news and hottest topics of the day. He said the firm "fills the void created by traditional news publishers", by allowing users to "actively engage in the news, learn from each other and connect in ways other sites cannot." SodaHead is venture backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures, Mission Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels, as well as angel investor Ron Conway.