StudiVZ the most successful German Facebook clone has sold itself to the mother company of venture investor Holtzbrinck Networxs. StudiVZ has around 1 Million users (as far as I know active and non-active counted in that statistic) - EUR 100 per user is not exactly cheap but also not star like.

The deal is rumored to be worth between EUR 80 and EUR 100 million depending on which sources you rely on.

While StudiVZ was not the only Facebook clone it, it has gotten critical mass - something hardly any other Social Networking company in Germany got. Early 2004 saw the first clones of Friendster and later that year a Facebook clone. Also OpenBC started in 2003 largely inspired by LinkedIN.

As it is often in good old Germany things take way longer to attract a critical mass. However once the critical mass has formed there is very often just one real player in the market and almost earns a monopoly rent on its operations. Such success stories include alando.de/ ebay.de, openBC and now StudiVZ.

I wonder who will be Germany's Youtube?