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A real social networking site designed for high school students is favored by many investment companies for its pristine style. (Information photo)

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Catherine Cook, a young woman in New Jersey, is 18 years old. Three years ago, she worked with her brother to create a social networking site for high school myyearbook.com. Today, the site has become the darling of all American high school students and is rated the third largest social networking site in the United States. Catherine, also known as a Teenage millionaire, has become the founder of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg of Harvard dropout.

The creators of such a network social world say they are "not gregarious".

Creative

One day 3 years ago, 15-year-old Catherine and her 16-year-old brother Dave went through an old school yearbook and stumbled upon a girl that both knew.

But the pictures on the yearbook look nothing like the girl.

"I told Dave that these old albums were so lame," Catherine said, "that the photos were so old and yellow that they couldn't find anything valuable about a classmate." ”

Catherine was studying at Montgomery High School in New Jersey. She was wearing a pair of big glasses, admitting that her character was "somewhat antisocial".

As Catherine said, the Yearbook of high school graduates was tedious, and only a few magazines and tabloid editors were occasionally turned over to look for embarrassing pictures of celebrities as kids.

The Cook's brother and sister suddenly came up with an idea. "We thought, why not put their own situation online?" Why not create your own homepage on the Internet, write about what kind of TV shows you like, what kind of music you love, what you do in your spare time? Catherine recalls.

At that time, the "My Space" (MySpace), created in 2003, and social networking sites such as "Facebook", created in 2004, have become famous in the United States.

But Catherine wants to create a world that belongs to high school students. Her imagined website is that high school students can create their own online yearbook, upload photos, and exchange notes with students and teachers in their classmates, school and even other schools.

Start

Catherine and her brother Dave didn't have a Greek website to create, but the family helped her a great deal. Jeff, the eldest of the family, was a top student at Harvard, who had dug up the first bucket of gold on the Internet. He designed two websites to help students write papers and revise their resumes and sell them.

When Catherine and Dave said their ideas, Jeff immediately realized the flash of the idea. He immediately wrote a 250,000-dollar cheque to his younger sister and younger brother, allowing the website to start. Jeff is now the chief executive of Myyearbook's website.

"Jeff is more than 10 years older than us," said Catherine, "who runs his own web site in Palm Springs, California State, where mother sometimes sends me and Dave to play with him." Jeff's office was so cool that when I first saw that office, I said to myself, "I don't want to find a good job and just want to be an entrepreneur." ”

In this way, when other 15-Year-old girls are keen on shopping or worrying about a boy's ignoring her, Catherine has started contacting a website design team in Mumbai, India, to ask them to create a website.

"It's nice to have a relative like Jeff," said Catherine, who knows how to hire Indian programmers, rent cyberspace and negotiate with Silicon Valley venture capitalists. ”

The website of the Cook Brothers and sisters was officially born in April 2005. At Catherine's suggestion, the website is named Myyearbook. Catherine became president of the website, and the website of "deputy director of marketing" called "Dusty", in fact, brother and sister at home a pet dog.

Entrepreneurship

After the site was established, the siblings did not want to treat it as a new "toy" at home. They started to advertise for the website. They give free promotional T-shirts at school, saying, "Are you the prettiest girl in the school?" or the most reticent person? Find the answer on the Myyearbook website. ”

The next development proves that Catherine's Web site is desperately needed for high school students across America. In only 9 months, the website registered users reached 950,000.

Of course, an idea that was only three years old could not support the development of a network empire.

Cook brother and sister gradually in the site to join the game and competition, users can spend and earn virtual money through these projects, "make money" most people can go to the website "most popular person." Soon after, the Cook and his brother and sister merged a website which provided the psychological test of self creation.

Catherine insists that all of the site's design styles revolve around high school students ' interests, such as easy humor. Dating is always the most popular topic for high school students, and the high rate of psychological tests on the website include "Are you a popular lover in the eyes of a boy?" What kind of breakup would you choose? And so on.

Development is not smooth sailing, when the Cook brothers and sisters want to further, they are in trouble. Some potential investors want the site's headquarters to move from their home country of New Jersey to New York, and some investors want Mr. Cook to add ads to the user's homepage. These are contrary to the intentions of siblings.

Good luck has been coming since 2006.

Myyearbook won a total of 4.1 million U.S. dollars in venture capital funds. In the same year, the Internet traffic monitoring agency Nielsen company named Myyearbook.com as one of the most popular websites for 12-17-year-old teenagers. In 2006, Cook and his siblings cooperated with the education website CliffsNotes to provide free tutoring to website users.

Success

Catherine may not have realised three years ago that her flash of light created a new Internet empire.

Myyearbook website now has 10 million registered users, more than 1.5 billion people a month to look at the site's personal homepage.

Myyearbook.com is now the third largest social networking site in the United States, ranked only after "My Space" and "Facebook", the US internet research Agency reckons. However, the latter both are for adults, Catherine's website is high school students.

"Our site is designed for high school students, and we actually listen to user advice," said Catherine.

The website popularity expands, causes many big-name enterprise attention. Myyearbook Advertisers now include companies such as Disney and ABC, which have an annual advertising revenue of more than 10 million dollars.

Some advertisers say they just like the pristine style of the site. "The site provides a place for teens to feel free and they won't be judged here," said Alisa Smollers, new Media marketing manager at the New York City brand advertising company Iconix Group.

Cook and brother have been silent on the company's market value. Myyearbook, a website investor, told Forbes magazine in August this year that his brother and sister are now "certainly far more than million dollars". The big media have already called Catherine a 18-year-old millionaire or even a billionaire.

Success

Catherine also began to face new problems. She is now a second-year student at Georgetown University. But she found it was not easy to balance the time between running a Web site and seeking education.

"I want to graduate," said Catherine, "but I may have to leave school for a year or two before busy my website." ”

Website management also appeared new topics, many people are willing to buy myyearbook. But Catherine did not want to give up because she had "not had enough."

"A lot of people are buying websites and some proposals are good," Catherine said in an interview with the British Sunday Times in August this year, "but we are not interested in that now." It's so much fun for me to run this website. ”