Commercial radio leader GCap Media (LON:GCAP) will buck the trend by not launching social network features when it relaunches the websites for its 43 regional stations in October. Galaxy stations recently launched a not-outstanding dating network, GetMyMateADate.com. But GCap new media head Tom Laidlaw told NMA: “We thought about developing a social network to go on these sites and it was tempting, but we decided against it. Everyone is doing it and we doubted people would go on a social network on a radio station as opposed to others.”
GCap’s websites get 1.4 million unique users a month and the company announced an additional £2.1 million online investment, on top of £2.5 million for 2007/08 and £5.4 for 2008/09, to create sites including artist databases, video, communities, customizable content and recommendations. Next month’s web relaunch comes as part of a wider rebranding exercise.