Fropper.com has launched a social networking (SN) zone in beta called Fropper Zones. A members’ -€œZone-€ is essentially a dashboard, with space for photos, scraps, tags and a friend list. Blogs, Events and Groups are planned, but have not been launched yet. The top bar and the right column both have google ads. According to the press release, Fropper Zones was created after a survey conducted among Fropper.com members.
Fropper Zones looks like more of an add-on for feeding the dating portal (rechristened Fropper Relationships). It also gives Fropper users an alternative to other popular SN sites like Orkut and Hi5. This could also be a means of preventing migration to other portals. Conceptually, this is a case of going from specific to general, since dating sites could be considered a subset of social networking.

I think Orkut made in big in India after Google offered a Google Account sign-in across services, including Orkut. In the future, expect similar cross-portal integration from other companies with multiple Internet properties, for retaining users on their properties. In India, expect The People Group (which owns Shaadi.com, Fropper and Astrolife) and TV18‘s Web18 to follow suit.