What is Hyves?
Hyves is a social networking site popular among the Dutch. In fact it is more popular than Facebook and MySpace in the Netherlands. It has more than 10 million registered users, with most of them Dutch. The site’s users practically represent about two thirds of the entire population of the Netherlands.

Hyves was created in 2004 with founders Raymond Spanjar, Floris Rost van Tonningen, and Koen Kam. The original name was supposed to be “Hives” but a similar domain name was already registered during that time. “Hives” or now “Hyves” was supposed to represent the beehive nature of social networking sites. Registration to become part of Hyves is mostly free. Others may opt for premium membership for upgraded site features. Most of Hyves registered users belong to the younger market with the average age at 30. Though competition is stiff with Facebook and MySpace, to date the Dutch still prefer Hyves based on penetration and membership.

Similar to other networking sites, people also have their profile pages. These pages are usually open to the public and the user decides on what information is posted. In this section of the website, users may have a specific section for gadgets and gizmos. Hyves also has welcome pages for every user which they call “Hyver”. This page generally shows what stuff is being shared by friends and colleagues on the site. This page is visible only to the owner of the account unlike the Profile page wherein every Hyver can view. Another part of the Hyves website is the Canvas view in which advertisements and comments can be posted.

One good thing about Hyves is that users can create their personal profiles even without any knowledge on webpage design or HTML. Users are just asked to fill out a series of questions and upload chosen content to make their personal profile pages.