We'll be honest: the idea of creating a Facebook for rich people sounds like a bad joke. However, Affluence.org is no joke. In fact, it seems serious about its niche positioning. To get friendly with this group, you're going need the money to prove it.
No longer will the rich and famous feel obliged to accept friend requests from the poor and starving middle class. Affluence.org solves this common dilemma by soliciting only members who earn a decent living. And by decent living, we're not talking $50,000 - that's chump change to a site like this. You'll need to earn at least $300,000 per year, or have $3 million in net assets to join.
So, unless you have the cash and the specific papers to prove your imaginary Monopoly earnngs, you'll need to join the hundreds of millions on Facebook and MySpace. Affluence.org only wants to hear from people worth giving a damn about, financially speaking.
According to this report, Affluence.org is attracting up to 500 wealthy individuals a day and numbers over 20,000 members since its inception late last year, which is chiefly supported by high profile advertising clients, including corporate jets companies - perhaps not the most popular business to be right now.
And while Facebook has expanded the number of friends you can have from 5,000 to an unlimited number, Affluence.org has gone in the opposite direction by prohibiting those who don't fit 'club' criteria. And that's essentially what the site is: an online country club for rich people destined to live inside their wealth bubble, online or off.
Affluence.org isn't alone in the global recruitment drive to pair wealthy human beings with one another. A number of dating sites such as Seeking Millionaire.com and SugarDaddy.com ("where the classy and affluent meet") have similar ideas to pair the money-minded, and in other cases, those who are uniquely attractive and successful.
Perhaps in some distant future, people may learn everything they need about another by simply asking..."What website affiliation do you belong to?".
The era of web based social-engineering is already here.
 |
| Tagline: Make life better. That's easy when you're worth $3 million. |
