Revolution in social networks: the Spanish Tuenti

The huge excitement about social networks has grown in our country with the increase of the famous "Tuenti". Tuenti is a social network created in January 2006 and is one of the most visited sites in Spain. It works by invitation and this website was created firstly for Spanish population and allows, as well as other social networks, to create an user's own profile, upload photos and videos, connect with friends, and more services. 


Its creator was Zaryn Dentzel, an American student currently living in Madrid (Spain). At first it was created to university students and a few people could use it, but after its success, it was allowed to entry more users, but only if you have invitations. This social network currently has 9.2 million active users in Spain (November 2010), most of them students between 14 and 28. Interestingly, Zaryn Dentzel said that the name "Tuenti" arose because it looks like "tu entidad" and because it sounded good, apart from making reference to the range (Twenty-year-olds students) that was directed to. Telefonica is the recent owner of Tuenti, and they try to expand to other countries (mainly from Latin America and Europe). 


Tuenti added in November 2007 the functionality of create events, which allows you to organize important. This function was created with the intention that users can organize parties, meetings or activities, public or private, but most users use it now to make events about publicity, announce different situations, sometimes ambiguous news, of which many are jokes, in which sentences appear funny, entertaining or calling attention to the public to look forward to more users and thus increase the assistance or interest to the event. 

Also released in September 2009, the chat feature, which was expanded on August 10 2010, to incorporate video chat. Web surfers can browse their contacts’ profiles, upload photos and post videos and chat with friends. You can also propose to participate in games with any of your friends from the chat.

Surprisingly, from the December 21, 2010, Tuenti mobile serves as Telefonica OMV has therefore been increasing in popularity, yet their influence among young people. The name of the operator is "Tu", trying to make a clear concept of operations focused on the social network users referred. Like the system of access to the social network, to enjoy mobile operator services, it is necessary to receive an invitation from someone who is already signed as a client to "Tu." Besides, it is found in many types of mobile phones by providing access to applications for iPhones, Blackberry, Android and others. 

According to the latest statistics in January 2011, each week there are about 8,000 new users and each user is estimated that dedicates two hours of use per session, while in other social networks like MySpace is not reached within 45 minutes. In addition Tuenti has a helpline which provides information about privacy and how to report cyberbullying to fight with one bar of internet, anonymously, either through pages, events, or messages received. 


Finally, we can say that the fantastic world of social networking has gained greater popularity with the rise of our Spanish network, thanks to Tuenti.