KickApps is another dominant player in the field of white label social networking solutions. They currently power communities at sites such as HBO, BET, Proctor & Gamble and Autobytel.

KickApps versus Ning?

They are often compared to Ning, but I believe they aren't truly direct competitors - at least not yet. While Ning appears to have more traction with sites created by individuals, KickApps provides a more fully integrated solution that is suitable for larger, established players. Ning requires individual users to register at their site, while KickApps provides a solution to work with a company's existing membership database. Ning explains how this works on the business help page where they say "When your members register for your social network, they create an account Ning. They can use their NingID to sign in to your network as well as other social networks on the Ning Platform." I first heard at Mashable that KickApps recently announced support for a tight integration with Joomla, an extremely popular CMS that we use here at Social.com. Before leaving the Ning versus KickApps comparison, let's point out that Ning has done their own comparison of themselves to KickApps.

Widget approach

I really like KickApps's widget approach which Mashable covered well when describing the launch of KickApps Version 2.0. Quoting a key point made in that post, Kristen Nicole said "The key to KickApps success has been their branded options, allowing their services to be included (much like a widget) within an existing website without interfering with that company’s brand." KickApps is no stranger to good press which is well illustrated by the TechCrunch post titled "KickApps: White Label Social Networking That Delivers". I was also impressed that KickApps is continuing to push their game including recent support for the iPhone which TechCrunch did a good job of covering.

Strong funding and a strong team

KickApps announced a Series B Financing of $11 million in a blog post dated August 14, 2007. This comes a little more than a year after they announced their Series A round of $6 million. With an impressive team to back up their technology, I think KickApps will be very successful for a long time to come.

- BlueSkies