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Summary Shtyle.fm is a social networking service which incorporates elements from social virtual worlds. Users can create profiles, add people as friends, and send messages and news to them. There is a currency system which rewards users for using the site. Each user gets a “room” on their profile page which they can decorate by buying items from a catalogue. The site also offers a number of content sharing features. Anyone over the age of 13 can become a Shtyle.fm user.

Shtyle.fm was started in October 2007 as a social network for sharing songs produced by amateurs; the initial concept did not meet with much success and by mid 2008 the focus shifted away from song sharing to a general purpose social network. In June 2010 the site was ranked amongst the top 1500 sites globally and had 8 million visitors a month. (Ref 1 & 2). The site is operated out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Social network with virtual world elements Shtyle.fm has a number of concepts borrowed from virtual worlds. A virtual economy exists with a currency named “Piso”. The currency can is earned by participating in the network, e.g. when a photo uploaded by a user gets rated, he/she earns Piso. Piso can be used to purchase virtual gifts and items for Shtyle Rooms. In addition to Piso, "Gold Coins" can be collected by users, the use of gold coins is currently not known.

Shtyle Rooms is another concept applied from virtual worlds. Each user gets a “room” which is basically a block shown on the profile which has a users avatar and can contain individual items, e.g., furniture items. Room items are bought using Piso from a catalogue called the “Shtyle Shop”.

Photo Sharing All accounts on Shtyle.fm include the ability to add an unlimited number of photos. Photo albums can be made private so that only the user’s friends can view them.

Flash Games The website offers a flash games section. Most games have leader-boards which show the top scoring players. Games can be searched or browsed by categories like action, puzzles, driving.

Communities Users can create communities about topics of their interest. Communities do not have categories but are searchable; it is also possible to browse communities by language and country.

User Contributed Songs The original concept of the site was to share songs produced by Shtyle users, although this is not central to the site any more users can upload original songs to share them with other users. To prevent copyright infringement there is a limit of adding two songs per account, after which approval is needed to upload more songs.

Diaries Shtyle users can write in their diary, which is very similar to blogs. They can choose to keep their diary entries private, accessible by friends only, or readable by everyone.

Other User Contributed Content Users can also contribute writings, polls, and quizzes. Each of these has its own section on the site where the content can be sorted and filtered by country and language.

Updates Users have the ability to share their news with friends. The updates feed form is central to the user’s home page and shows news and activity from their friends. Each update can be “liked” and commented on.

Finding People Shtyle.fm has an integrated search and browse feature. Users can be searched by name & location or browse online users by country, location, and age.

See Also • Social network service • List of social networking websites

Reference 1. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/06/prweb4104534.htm 2. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/shtyle.fm

External Links http://www.shtyle.fm

Categories: Community websites | Online social networking | Internet properties established in 2007

Right sidebar info Available in: Multilingual Registration: Free Commercial? Yes URL: http://www.shtyle.fm Type: Private Headquarters: Tulsa, Oklahoma Area Served: Worldwide Alexa rank: 1,408 (June 10, 2010)