WebProNews

The idea of 100,000 social networks is enough to give anyone pause; personally, I’m content to participate in three or four.  Yet this huge number has been reached, and what’s more, it’s been reached by a single entity: Ning.

Ning allows users to create their own networks, and Marc Andreessen, who cofounded the company, announced its accomplishment on his blog.  70,000 of the 100,000 networks actually materialized during the last seven months, so his company would appear to be on a roll.

Yet amidst the celebrations, Andreessen was quick to answer one possible objection, writing, “[I]t is our goal to have a meaningful number of throwaway, or unused, networks on Ning at any point in time. The whole point of Ning is ease of creation -- how easy it is to create your own social network, and play with ideas around that concept.”

Andreessen also asserted that the number of Ning’s users is “growing as an even bigger healthy multiple on the number of networks.”

A request for specifics on that point went unanswered, as did questions about Ning’s plans for the future (Andreessen promised “an incredibly aggressive slate of product development projects,” which certainly sounds interesting).  You can’t blame the company for being uncommunicative, though - 100,000 social networks would keep anybody busy.