A French example of Social Shopping site: vozavi.com

Quite interesting, but imho the main problem with this site, is the passive attitude of the user, I don't really see where is the so-called "social" dimension here. It's too much of a black-box to me. The rating in itself could even be a randomly generated number between 50 and 100 (though this statement is obviously a bit provocative, isn't it?)... The lack of transparency is far far far away from what I think should be the web 2.0. To me Vozavi is more about user aggregation than anything else, you can license the technology from Datops (acquired by LexisNexis) and build the same business in a very short time. Pardon me, but I don't see where the innovation is.
I wish the best to the Vozavi guys anyway, it's alway easier to critisize!

Alessandro,
Thank you for your comment. Your analysis touch a very interesting aspect. I agree with your statement in which you declare that the "social dimension" here is different from other social sites because here the social dimension here is not directly expressed by the user but it is expressed by a semantic algorithm.

In my opinion Vozavi.com has a prerogative that makes it innovative and different from a normal user aggregation. I think that Vozavi.com has the characteristic of a Web Mashup site (see Wikipedia). In this way Vozavi.com gives recomendation in a denotative way.

The difference between Vozavi.com and other Social Shopping site is that here the social dimension is indirect and more denotative because it is generated in an indirect way and it is the sum of what people socially think in a more universal way.

Other Social Shopping site have a more Connotative way of expression of Social Shopping opinion because opinion are directly expressed on a topic and are localized in one Social Shopping site.

These are two different Approach of Social Shopping communication and both are in relationship on equal terms.

In my opinion two model of communication are raising from social shopping site and I think that more than two will raise.

I thank you for your very interesting comment and I am very curious to read your opinion and of course other people opinion.

What do you think about?

In my opinion Enrico's analysis is right, but I agree with Alessandro. Vozavi.com can acquire more interaction with people.

In a general way I think that Social Shopping site will be an important marketing tool. Unlikily only few European nation has these tools. Others are late to develop these application. In my opinion a nation with only Contestual Ad services cannot develop a significant e-commerce strategy.

Thank you for your interest in the company I chair.
First, the license we have is exclusive in the B to C, so you cannot do the same, as you write.
Secondly, even with the license and an intimate knowledge of the technology (I use to be a board member of Datops and our CTO comes from Datops) it still requires a huge work to produce these data.
You are right, we are not an interactive community of opinion writers, there are many existing ones that do a great job abd were created before our company. They are the 2.0 socila networking.
Does it mean we are not 2.0 or social or UGC?
Our value proposition is to aggregate this UGC (User Generated Content) in order to produce a summary of this collective intelligence that brings 2 advantages to the user:
- a gain of time (no need to go to 10 communities and read 400 opinions)
- the fiability of the average perception (no risk to read just a few opinions, where some are written by a product marketer, bringing the wrong picture)
we aim at being an entry point to consumption, a complement to price comparison engines that only use the price as a criteria.

Collective intelligence is most interesting and should counter-balance the expert view, but in its current unorganised form (social networking), it is difficult to benefit from the crowd wisdom. Who should you trust apart from the overall quasi-exhaustive average?

I did not know your website and find it very interesting and I have now bookmarked it. The contributors and comment writers are adding value and are more respectful than in France. Bravo.
Jerome Camblain, President of Vozavi

@jerome camblain,

Dear Mr Camblain,
Thank you for your post and for your compliments.

I think that the two plus, which i put in bold of User Generated Content, are the killing application of this model of Web communication.
It would be interesting for me to ask you how do you see your site in the various nation and culture of E.U.

In my experience there is a lot of differences from different approaches to Web Communication among E.U. Nations.

Enrico,
I am not sure I am qualified to answer your question as we only operate in France currently.
You are right about country differences in approaching the web
I think it is difficult for small companies like ours to be "glocal" as they say (think global, act local).
Our only alternative is to replicate our model in other countries, as the cost is bearable, and see how viral our development gets or tp negotiate content distribution partnerships.
Larger companies are succesful with a "one site (or size) fits all" strategy, even when they could afford specialised developments. For us, we do not have the luxury to hesitate; we can only replicate.
We will use the proceeds of our fund raising exercise to open up 3 new countries as a test.
I will let you know how it goes.

Jerome Camblain