Tribesports, a social network for sports buffs, expands to Singapore

Tribesports, a social network for sports buffs to improve their skills and meet like-minded folks, is making inroads into Singapore.

The site allows users to create online profiles for over 1,400 different types of sports and counting. They will be able to share their experiences and motivate one another through sports challenges.

They are in the midst of securing partnerships with sports event organizers and cycling clubs that will encourage participants to sign up on the social network. One of the incentives they’re using are freebies.

The company also hopes to secure more users through sign-up booths setup on location at places where participants collect their race T-shirts.

Tribesports, a London-based startup, has raised US$400k in seed funding and US$2.8M in series A investment to fuel global expansion, reported TechCrunch.

The CEO and co-founder, Steve Reid, said that power users visit the site over 200 times a month, with activation rates up 300 percent month-on-month in February.

Heading expansion into Asia is business development manager Nicholas Ng, who is focusing on user acquisition in Singapore. He sees the country as a good testbed for Tribesports, a “middle ground” to facilitate expansion into lucrative North Asian countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China.

He plans to reach out to more schools and educational institutions soon.

“A lot of students are doing sports. But they’re often a neglected bunch,” he says.

Currently, there are a couple of sports-oriented social networks in Asia.

One of them is NextGoals, a startup that is developing a “social fitness tracking” tool. It is a part of Chinaccelerator. Another one is SixReps.com, an Indonesia-based startup that was a finalist at the Echelon 2011 Launchpad (read: Three startups that make staying fit more fun).

It is basically a social network that allows users to track their fitness goals and workout routines, and connect with other users who have similar pursuits. Users can also use the site as a platform to organize their own activities.

There appears to be room in Asia still for such interest-based sites to take-off, as broad-based social networks like Facebook and Twitter may not be sufficient to meet the needs of niche groups.