Facebook and Twitter may lose some of their ultra-posh users as The Netropolitan Club opens its doors to social networking socialites. The online country club began selling memberships on Sept. 16 at a hefty price tag of $6,000 one-time initiation fee plus $3,000 annual membership fee.
"Netropolitan: The online country club for people with more money than time," the site's landing page reads. It also says, "Connect with people within your social status, but outside your social circle."
While ordinary humans may find it hard to believe that anyone will ever dish out that much money to join a social media site, the company says it already has several hundred members. But, like any high-end country club, membership information is strictly private.
"We simply cannot stress enough how important preserving our members' privacy is to us," the company says in its website. "Other than announcing that at our launch we already had several hundred members, we will never publicly state the exact number of members in the club. And especially, we will NEVER release or verify the identity of any of our members – ever."
Netropolitan basically works like other free-to-join social networks, but the pricey membership fee does have its perks. Other than being exclusive to the rich, the site also allows members to virtually rub elbows with other users – to connect and see status updates of all other equally-rich members. They can also form little groups within the community.
As for privacy, the company says that all transmissions and messages are automatically encrypted, the site is not indexed by search engines, and it is not accessible to the public. Furthermore, no advertising is allowed in the site other than in the dedicated classified ads section.
The Netropolitan Club was founded by James Touchi-Peters, an American symphonic conductor and composer. In an interview with CNN, he said, "I saw a need for an environment where you could talk about the finer things in life without backlash – an environment where people could share similar likes and experiences."
And while there is a Member Service Associate to help users with the system, the site emphasizes one important thing. It says, "Please understand that Netropolitan is NOT a concierge service. Our Member Service Associates will not book you a charter jet, or find you tickets to a sold-out Broadway show. They exist solely to help members technically navigate and find their way around the social club."
