Godtube offers believers their own social networking site By Cheryl Heckler After the success of social networking Internet sites such as YouTube and Facebook, religious leaders and hopeful entrepreneurs have launched what some experts consider to be the next generation of online communication for believers. Internet sites such as Godtube, Jewtube and Mecca.com have been launched with goals ranging from profit to prophecy, and from worldwide networking and marketing to live webcasting of religious services. "Youtube opened our eyes to the model, and then Godtube filled a particular niche," said Rick Colby, assistant professor of religion at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Still, Colby noted, "It surprises me there'd be a need for it when you can get anything from Youtube." GodTube is said to be the world's most-trafficked Christian Web site. Given that its users watch at least 1.5 million hours per month, it is also thought be the world's largest broadcaster of Christian video. It is reputed to be the first religious-orientated Web site to offer three elements at once: user-generated video (such as YouTube), social networking (like MySpace and Facebook) and live webcasting. Mecca.com focuses its commercial efforts on Haaj tourism, centred on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and selling branded products such as Saudi Arabia's Mecca-Cola. Jewtube combines religious, social and political commentary through videos and group networking. GodTube's business model includes selling religious and secular advertising, charging subscription fees to ministries that want to broadcast more frequently and selling anonymous demographic data. Some say it offers marketers and media producers a clearer picture of users. Its major business partners include the 10 000-member Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Virginia and Christian publisher Thomas Nelson Inc. of Nashville. Based in Plano, Texas, Godtube became the fastest-growing Web property for August in the United States, according to ComScore's Media Metrix. Its 1.7 million unique visitors represented a 973 percent increase in traffic over the previous month "When you consider that the majority of people around the world who have access to the Internet live in Western culture, it means they are likely Christian," Colby said. "That could explain part of Godtube's popularity. But perhaps religious people want their own space online." Still, said Colby, such social networking sites offer the ability to bring like-minded people together. No matter the religion, people long for the ability to say, he noted, "This is a connection to my people, my harbour of safety." Ecumenical News International
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