studiVZ

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Globe icon of the infobox
studiVZ
Website logo
the study directory
Online community for students
languages German
operator poolworks (Germany) Ltd
editorial staff Ehssan Dariani, Dennis Bemmann
user 600,000 (as of October 2016)
On-line November 11, 2005
http://www.studivz.net/

studiVZ (short for student directory ) is an online community for students. Founded in November 2005, the social network was, alongside the later schülerVZ and meinVZ, a project of the VZ networks , which was a subsidiary of the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group. Until 2009, studiVZ was offered in different languages ​​with separate platforms, but has since focused exclusively on the German-speaking area . The owner, Poolworks , filed for bankruptcy on September 7, 2017 . In April 2020, the operators announced that they would shut down StudiVZ on June 30, 2020, but this did not happen. Instead, it was announced on the home page that operations would continue.

history

The studiVZ portal was launched on November 11, 2005 as a project of studiVZ Ltd. founded. It was an idea from Ehssan Dariani ( CEO ). Dennis Bemmann was CTO . The page was similar to the then exclusively English-language counterpart Facebook both visually and in terms of content - the only essential distinguishing feature was the red color. Because of this, StudiVZ was sued by Facebook and an out-of-court settlement was reached.

The project developed very quickly as a social network and was originally conceived for the 2.3 million students in Germany , Austria and Switzerland . In autumn 2006, offshoots of studiVZ for students started in France (studiQG) , Italy (studiLN) , Spain (estudiLN) and Poland (studentIX) . Due to the great success in the German-speaking countries and the increasing number of non-students, almost identical platforms with a different target group were started with schülerVZ and meinVZ . A platform called meinVZ in English and German was opened on February 28, 2008 for users who have completed a degree or are not studying at all .

On January 20, 2009, the platforms for Spain, Italy, France and Poland were discontinued. Since then, the VZ networks have concentrated exclusively on the German-speaking area .

In November 2009 the project for students had around 6.2 million registered users. In the first quarter of 2008 studiVZ had around 5.5 million unique users , making it one of the most successful online media in Germany.

According to a representative survey published in April 2011, the VZ networks have been overtaken by Facebook in terms of membership figures in Germany. While 27 percent of German Internet users were registered with a VZ network, it was around 47 percent on Facebook. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung saw the end of the VZ networks and wrote that the VZ companies had disappeared.

In February 2012, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the VZ networks recorded a decrease in page views of 80%. This is explained by the low activity of the members. For example, only 5.9 million of the 16 million members were active in October 2011. The average monthly length of visits by users also fell continuously from January 2011 to February 2012, while it increased continuously at competitor Facebook over the same period. While the duration of visits to the VZ networks was slightly ahead at the beginning of the period under review (196 minutes per month vs. 155 on Facebook), in the end users were on average more than five times as long at the competitor (70 minutes per month vs. 383 at Facebook). In August 2012 Comscore only had 2.8 million “unique visitors” on all three VZ pages, with studiVZ recording the lowest proportion with 591,000 visitors. SchülerVZ was shut down on April 30, 2013. In 2015 the VZ pages StudiVZ and MeinVZ had a total of only 1 million active users. In August 2017 SimilarWeb counted approx. 240,000 visits ("total visits") at studiVZ.

insolvency

On September 7, 2017, the owner Poolworks filed for bankruptcy at the Berlin-Charlottenburg district court . As the magazine Gründerszene reports, the public annual financial statements show that Poolworks Germany Ltd. owed its owners more than 45 million euros at the end of 2015. The appointed provisional insolvency administrator Jesko Stark, however, is confident. A day later he spoke to the magazine: "The registration is still very fresh, but after what I've seen so far, I'm confident that business can continue."

Another reason for filing for bankruptcy seems to be debts with the tax office. The StudiVZ statement says: "Unfortunately, the American shareholders have not yet been able to agree with the tax office on the repayment of a sum, so that bankruptcy had to be declared."

development

With studiVZ and meinVZ, two platforms were connected by an interface for the first time, so that - if permitted by the individual member - profiles can be accessed from both sides. With the now closed platform schülerVZ , there was no such connection for reasons of youth protection. There were also no connections between the different language versions. According to the FAZ, meinVZ reached around 3.17 million members in June 2009, but many of them are former studiVZ users who moved there after a large-scale "move".

In the past , criticism of the operators' behavior was expressed in blogs and online magazines in particular , but also in various larger newspapers. This went so far that at the end of 2006 even student representatives warned against using studiVZ. The schülerVZ was viewed even more critically due to the underage clientele.

As a result, studiVZ began discussing a code of conduct in early 2007, which was followed by a change in the general terms and conditions and technical improvements. Since May 2007, studiVZ has also been a member of the voluntary self-regulation multimedia service provider e. V. (FSM).

Functions

The system is part of the social software . It offers the following functions, among others:

  • The choice of a university at which the user is currently studying. The selection is not optional and is also visible when the profiles are hidden.
  • Creation of a profile with the option of providing a wide range of information (contact details, interests, hobbies, courses recently attended, etc.).
  • Function to search for other students, also via the interests and courses stored in profiles (a distinction is made here between general search, profile search and group search).
  • The cross-project search in the meinVZ project
  • Display of connections (contacts) between members registered in the system.
  • Formation of groups with group discussion forums, now over a million. Each member can join up to 125 groups. The topics of the group can be freely selected and vary from specific problems to pure (formulated by the name) funny statements.
  • Create photo albums and upload photos.
  • Photo tagging: Individuals on photos can be linked to their user accounts.
  • Report: Links at various points on the site that can be used to notify the operator of rule violations by other users or groups.
  • Ignore: Certain people can be put on an ignore list. A subsequent contact and view of the profile is then no longer possible.
  • Chat box: You can chat with contacts who are online at the same time as in an instant messenger .
  • Video series “Pietshow”: StudiVZ put a total of 15 four-minute episodes ( webisodes ) of a fictional story about the Berlin film student Piet online for the first time from October to December 2008 . The company Grundy UFA produced the published exclusively on the Internet series. In March 2009, the series was nominated for the International Digital Emmy , but did not win it. Due to the great success of the web series with VZ members, VZ Netzwerk and Grundy UFA decided to produce more episodes. Since October 20, the Pietshow can be seen in the tried and tested format in new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
  • Bush radio is a Twitter -like service that allows messages with a maximum length of 140 characters to be sent. These messages are displayed on the homepage of all “friends”. The function can be coupled with Twitter so that messages from the bush radio appear on Twitter and vice versa.
  • The partner function is to connect one's the purpose of the profile of his partner and.
  • Gruscheln: A defining term for studiVZ is the function of grizzling, which was invented by Ehssan Dariani and which was also transferred to the offshoots meinVZ and schülerVZ . The "shudder" is based heavily on the Facebook function "poke". This is a function for contacting other members. Grizzling has no official definition, but it is often interpreted by the press and users as a combination of the words greet and cuddle . Each user is free to choose their own interpretation. In the space of Franconian dialects , the word in everyday language about as much as dig or burrow in the sense of looking .

criticism

Logo of the data protection campaign of VZ Netzwerk Ltd.

Risk of abuse by third parties

Websites with a lot of personal user data, such as studiVZ, generally harbor the risk of unauthorized third parties doing data mining . Identity theft through combination of the data with other social networks is feared. In fact, on December 9, 2006, it was possible to download a total of 1,074,574 studiVZ profiles and then to create an analysis of the profile information. In addition, a program was published which made it possible to save all freely accessible data after registering on studiVZ and to graphically display friendship connections. Automated access to the site of this kind has been made more difficult with the help of so-called captchas since December 2006.

In February 2007 there was another attack on the website, in which the attacker is said to have succeeded in gaining direct access to the system's database and thus also to gain access to unpublished data such as passwords and e-mail addresses of the users. studiVZ then reset the passwords of all members and had to take the site offline for several hours.

In the course of 2009 a program was published on the Internet with which one could automatically solve the captchas used by the VZ networks; However, this did not lead to any externally recognizable change in the security measures. Three cases became known from October 2009, in which a total of several million profiles of the various VZ networks, especially the SchülerVZ, are said to have been downloaded with the help of a script. By exploiting various security gaps in the VZ networks, it was also possible until July 2009 to access data marked as "private and only visible to friends". A corresponding data collection with over 100,000 data records emerged in October 2009. The exact circumstances and content of the contacts between the VZ networks and the data collector as well as the circumstances and reasons for his arrest and his suicide in custody are unclear.

privacy

The user is offered options that allow access to sensitive information to be restricted; these are activated by default to protect the user. The profile is limited in terms of visibility, changes require active and individual activation by the user. Depending on the setting options for privacy, only certain information (e.g. the name) remains visible to viewers of the profile; further details can be made available to friends (such as links to photos). Anyone with a valid email address can register.

When creating their own photo album, the user can choose whether this album should be made visible only to him, to all people he is friends with, or to all users.

Saved images

Another point of criticism is the management of the images uploaded by users in photo albums: studiVZ saves these images in directories on a web server , with part of the image URL being determined using a hash algorithm . Since the images are otherwise unprotected, all images, including those marked as private, can be viewed by any Internet user who knows the URL. The URLs could for example be passed on to friends or published on the Internet.

literature

  • Jo Bager: Being there is everything. The StudentVZ phenomenon . In: c't . No. 5/2008 . Heise, 2008, Report, p. 92 ff ( c't archive , heise kiosk).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. What is left of StudiVZ - We are exploring an almost extinct network. In: vice. October 13, 2016, accessed June 13, 2017 .
  2. Volker Briegleb: Social Networks: Holtzbrinck repels StudiVZ. In: Heise online . September 11, 2012, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  3. DER SPIEGEL: VZ.net: StudiVZ shut down, successor starts - DER SPIEGEL - Netzwelt. Retrieved April 27, 2020 .
  4. The business with the stolen idea: original and copy , Der Tagesspiegel , September 29, 2014
  5. ↑ Starting shot for meinVZ - the new network for everyone who does not (no longer) study. VZ networks , archived from the original on June 6, 2009 ; Retrieved January 6, 2013 (press release).
  6. StudiVZ closes foreign language offshoots. In: Chip . Retrieved December 17, 2008. Retrieved 2009 .
  7. Ranking of the largest online media. Online Research Working Group , accessed on January 6, 2013 .
  8. The top 10 online communities. BITKOM , April 10, 2011, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  9. VZ Networks - Battle Lost. In: Focus . December 13, 2011, accessed December 16, 2013 .
  10. In the long shadow of Facebook. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . Archived from the original on March 6, 2012 ; Retrieved January 6, 2013 .
  11. Facebook vs. VZ networks - length of stay in comparison. In: futurebiz. February 23, 2012, accessed March 2, 2012 .
  12. ^ Social network charts: Google+ before Twitter. In: Meedia . Retrieved March 31, 2013 .
  13. Social networks: What became of StudiVZ? , Spiegel Online , July 13, 2015
  14. STUDIVZ.NET Traffic Statistics. In: SimilarWeb. Retrieved August 20, 2017 .
  15. Social network StudiVZ is broke. In: Spiegel Online . Archived from the original on September 8, 2017 ; accessed on September 8, 2017 .
  16. "Friends are like potatoes, if you eat them, they die" - the funniest groups at StudiVZ . In: Jetzt.de . September 2, 2016 ( Jetzt.de [accessed September 10, 2017]).
  17. Exclusive: StudiVZ has filed for bankruptcy . In: Gründerszene Magazin . ( gruenderszene.de [accessed on September 8, 2017]).
  18. Frequently asked questions. In: meinVZ. VZ networks , accessed January 6, 2013 .
  19. ^ Stefan Herber: Social networks. Reunion with old friends. In: FAZ . June 23, 2009, accessed March 4, 2015 .
  20. FU warns against using StudiVZ. General Student Committee of the Free University of Berlin, November 29, 2006, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; Retrieved January 6, 2013 .
  21. Caution! Data protection problem at studiVZ! General Student Committee of the University of Frankfurt am Main, December 7, 2006, archived from the original on March 14, 2007 ; accessed on January 6, 2013 (AStA warns to be careful with data).
  22. Is the StudiVZ dangerous? General student committee of the University of Vechta, archived from the original on March 20, 2008 ; Retrieved January 6, 2013 .
  23. StudiVZ - endless trouble ?! General student committee of the Münster / Steinfurt University of Applied Sciences, archived from the original on August 1, 2012 ; Retrieved January 6, 2013 .
  24. The Advisory Council warns of the "StudiVZ". In: Speaker Council. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin , November 24, 2006, accessed on January 6, 2013 (press release).
  25. Peter, Annette: Chat with friends in real time: The studiVZ chat box. In: Newsroom. studivz.net, October 23, 2008, accessed in 2009 .
  26. Pietshow goes online ( Memento from February 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Grundy UFA press release
  27. Web TV: Pietshow - Targeted and Inexpensive ( Memento from December 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). www.sueddeutsche.de
  28. MIPTV 2009 International Digital Emmy Awards . ( Memento from March 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) www.mipworld.com
  29. Blog of VZ Netzwerk Ltd .: "A look behind the scenes of the PIETSHOW Vol. 2" A look behind the scenes of the PIETSHOW Vol. 2 ( Memento from August 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  30. Michel: Answers from Oliver Skopec to your questions. In: vzlog.de - the blog about studiVZ, schülerVZ and meinVZ. August 18, 2008, archived from the original on January 11, 2010 ; Retrieved February 3, 2010 .
  31. ^ Synonyms in OpenThesaurus. Retrieved September 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009 .
  32. Dialect at MundMische.de. Retrieved September 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009 .
  33. Section in article at kurzreporter.de. Retrieved September 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009 .
  34. Texts by Walter Rupp uses the associated noun Gruschel . Retrieved September 5, 2009. Retrieved 2009 .
  35. Ernst Christmann, Julius Krämer, Josef Schwing: Palatine Dictionary Volume 3, 1998, p. 490, Academy of Sciences and Literature
  36. Dominik Birk, Felix Gröbert: Page no longer available , search in web archives: Analysis of social networks (2006, PDF file, 4.9 MB)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / roulette.das-labor.org
  37. Hagen Fritsch: studiVZ - unofficial statistical presentation
  38. IcePic on the topic: Log in to studiVZ with java ( Memento from March 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (December 6, 2006)
  39. Data disaster at StudiVZ. In: Focus . February 28, 2007, archived from the original on March 10, 2007 ; Retrieved January 6, 2013 .
  40. SchülerVZ data theft: "Script-Kiddie" at work. In: Onlinekosten.de. October 20, 2009, archived from the original on September 11, 2012 ; Retrieved January 6, 2013 .
  41. ^ Christiane Rütten: SchülerVZ-Daten: The flourishing market for data collection programs. In: Heise online . October 19, 2009, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  42. Christian Stöcker: Public Prosecutor accuses 20-year-old of attempted blackmail. In: Spiegel Online . October 19, 2009, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  43. Markus Beckedahl: Netzpolitik Interview: Security Gaps in the VZ Group. In: Netzpolitik.org . October 20, 2009, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  44. Jo Bager: SchülerVZ data leaks: also protected information spied out. In: Heise online . October 28, 2009, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  45. Volker Briegleb: SchülerVZ data theft: Suspect commits suicide. In: Heise Online. October 31, 2009, accessed January 6, 2013 .