Snobs on the Internet

Vladimir Yakovlev will open a VIP zone in RuNet

Snob.ru, a Russian-language social network for millionaires and top managers, launches in July. The ideological inspirer of the project is the founder of the Kommersant Publishing House, Vladimir Yakovlev. From the Internet resource, he plans to grow a multimedia holding, which, in addition to the website, will include a monthly tabloid magazine and a TV channel.

The team led by Vladimir Yakovlev came together last year, when the owner of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov invited them to work on the Stream Content project. However, the namesakes soon separated. The now former head of Kommersant has started a new project.

“Our target audience is united by success, professionalism, and an advanced lifestyle,” says Snoba General Director Andrey Shmarov. -- An advanced lifestyle is an affinity for sports, an interest in literature, and a desire to be on the cutting edge of news and cultural events. Our audience is not those businessmen who gloomily crack vodka in their free time.”

An important component of the resource is the interactive Who is Snob database. In it, the millionaire will be able not only to add information about himself, but also to edit what has already been posted, and also, if desired, to comment on some facts of his biography. The creators of the resource call the database unique. In their opinion, uniqueness lies in the publication of non-standard stages of the biography and characteristic imprints of the personality of the “snob”.

“The idea of ​​a social network for millionaires is quite popular, over the past year and a half I have heard about it several times. But the potential of this idea is doubtful. I’m not sure that millionaires experience a lack of communication and they need to huddle together like this online,” says Igor Ashmanov, general director of Ashmanov and Partners. Mr. Ashmanov is not aware of similar projects on the Western Internet.

According to Andrey Shmarov, the online resource will launch almost simultaneously with the tabloid magazine in early July. The TV channel should start operating in a couple of months. By the end of the year, it is planned to attract up to five thousand “snobs” to the project, who will be offered entertainment content.

“Attracting three to five thousand people from a multi-million army of middle managers is not a problem,” says Vladislav Kochetkov from Finam. -- Another question is how possible it is to maintain their active communication? It is difficult to predict the popularity of the resource among top managers. As a rule, they have very little free time.”

Igor Ashmanov shares a similar opinion: “I can attribute many of my acquaintances to the imaginary audience of such a project. But they work a lot, their phones are ringing off the hook, they have dozens of contacts a day, they don’t participate in the offline parties of the rich, and it’s unclear why they would do this online. Among businessmen I know many fans of Odnoklassniki, but the idea there is clear - to restore contacts lost in youth.”

It was not possible to find out the degree of transparency of communication between members of the Snob club. There may be two options - a nickname and your own name. “Much depends on how clear it will be who is hiding behind the nicknames and how homogeneous the communication environment will be,” says Yuri Barzov, who created the largest community of E-xecutive managers. -- Among online communication activists, there is an opinion that anonymity devalues ​​the quality of discussion. Therefore, on the Internet there are well-known characters under well-known nicknames. The Internet communication platform is not something unique. This is just another opportunity to connect with people. And sometimes it resembles a masquerade, when some people came wearing masks, and some didn’t.”

It is not yet clear whether the “snobs” themselves will be able to decide who they want to see in their ranks and who not. Becoming one of the first members of the club will only be possible by invitation of the founders.

Rumors have spread in the Internet media that Mikhail Prokhorov is an investor in Snob.ru. The businessman’s assistant, Sergei Chernitsyn, said in a conversation with our correspondent that “this is complete nonsense that we read in the yellow press and have fun.” Andrey Shmarov confirms what Mr. Chernitsyn said. According to the general director of Snob, the name of the investor is being kept secret for now. It will be declassified in early April. However, according to our information, the employees of Snob itself have been hearing from the very start of the project that it is Mikhail Prokhorov who is investing.

Help from Wikipedia

A popular version of the origin of the word "snob" is a slang name for students at Eton University in the early 19th century, where "nobs" (students of noble birth) were contrasted with "snobs" (ignoble). But sometimes it is argued that the word comes from the abbreviation s. nob. (from the Latin sine nobilitate - ignoble origin).

Pavel VLASOV-MRDULYASH, Victoria MUSORINA, iToday.ru, - specially for Vremya Novostei