Animal charity launches social network for pet lovers

A new social network designed for pet lovers, ‘All About Pets’, aims to challenge generic sites like MySpace when it officially launches today (1 September 2008).  Billed as the ‘Facebook for pet lovers’, www.allaboutpets.org.uk has been developed by Britain’s pet charity The Blue Cross to give pet lovers a new way to communicate and share experiences or advice about their pets. 

All About Pets hopes to fill the gap in the market created when sites like Facebook opened their doors to everyone.  As one of the UK’s oldest animal charities, The Blue Cross has over 110 years of experience with pets and their owners and has drawn upon this to create a site that appeals to animal lovers around the world.

Built by digital agency DVA, the site has already proved its popularity since its beta launch in March this year with 450,000 unique visits from 142 countries and more than 6,869 members signed up to date. All About Pets is being promoted on- and offline by digital specialists Hot Cherry and with the help of an innovative online viral campaign which allows users to send personalised talking pets to their friends. Since its launch at the end of July, the viral has been viewed over 100,000 times – see www.talkingpets.org.

Laura Dobson, spokesperson for All About Pets said: “With millions of members, sites like Facebook seem set on becoming all things to all people.  What sets All About Pets apart is its dedication to pet lovers.  The site offers a huge amount of information on all aspects of pet care and every function is easy to access and highly relevant.  We know pet owners love talking about their pets so we’ve created a fun place for them to come together online and share their own experiences and advice.” 

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