Exclusive Web site keeps out the plebeians

A handsome Paris-based marketing director, photographed in a preppy blazer with a perfectly tousled head of curls, posted a message asking, “What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word Mykonos?”

One woman answered about the glitzy Greek isle: “Beautiful and cool people, nightlife, breakfast in the port early mornings.”

A Portuguese man, who resides in Istanbul and London and listed bon vivant, businessman and yachtsman on his resume, asked for suggestions for the top three destinations in the Middle East and North Africa. “I like glamour (not bling), history, art, and it must be fun,” he noted.

And a dark-haired fashion consultant who divides her time between London and Athens announced that she would be in New York City for Fashion Week and inquired about parties.

Thus went the conversations on aSmallWorld.net, an exclusive online network where young jetsetters mingle. They connect with friends and friends of friends and trade advice on places to sunbathe, drink and dance.

Launched in 2004 by a Swedish businessman, aSmallWorld is akin to the popular Friendster.com and Facebook.com--online communities where people post profiles and meet strangers.

The gates to this site, however, are guarded by a strict invitation-only policy that ensures it remains an intimate world of “like-minded individuals who share the same circle of friends, interests and schedule,” as stated on aSmallWorld's login page. Its founders take such pride in its exclusivity that they temporarily froze invitations in January in response to a fast-growing membership.

“We provide a closed corner on the Web,” said Louise Wachtmeister, the site's Stockholm, Sweden-based marketing director and wife of aSmallWorld's CEO, Erik Wachtmeister.

Members include British supermodel Naomi Campbell, movie director Quentin Tarantino and French VIP hairstylist Frederic Fekkai.

Erik Wachtmeister, who at 50 is double the age of the average member, founded aSmallWorld as a way to connect the expansive group of acquaintances he had made while traveling around the world as a banker, his 28-year-old wife said.

He began by inviting businessmen, socialites and entertainers to become investors, on the condition that they invite their 100 best friends. Such financial backers include Alexander von Furstenberg, son of fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, and Robert Pittman, creator of the MTV and Nickelodeon cable channels.

The network quickly spread from Stockholm to London, Paris, Rome and Manhattan. It now has 128,000 members. About 13 percent come from the United States and 60 percent from Europe. The typical member is 20-something, well traveled and holds a high-status job, Louise Wachtmeister said.

Until the doors shut in January, only 15 percent of members had the privilege of inviting others to join. To keep numbers down, overzealous members can be booted out if they are rejected too often when trying to connect to other members.

“When you ask to connect to someone, they can either accept or decline or ignore you,” Louise Wachtmeister said. “People who receive too many declines can be terminated. It’s a self-cleaning procedure.”

Closed online communities could be the next step in social networking, following the backlash from the openness of sites like Friendster and Facebook, said Collin Brooke, an assistant professor at Syracuse University who studies technology and social networks.

Anyone can register with Friendster, which boasts over 24 million members. Facebook, with 12.4 million users, requires a university e-mail address to register. Members can upload photos, search each other’s profiles and message one another. Referring to recent stories of university officials using the sites to identify crime suspects and track parties, Brooke said, “My sense is, as that crackdown occurs, there will be a draw toward privacy, whether it’s invitation-only sites like aSmallWorld.”

ASmallWorld's strict entrance regulations give members credibility, said Linn Tonsberg, 21, from Norway, who landed a job interview with a Norwegian water company in New York by messaging its CEO over aSmallWorld.

Still, the site has a pretentious quality, added Tonsberg, a senior at Tufts University. “It's kind of a snobbish thing,” she said. “Certainly people take it to ridiculous measures.”

Michael Smilovitch, 24, a financial analyst in New York, agreed. He said he would not join, even if tapped, explaining, “It’s superficial, so I don’t see any great outcome in joining that instead of Friendster.”

One person who never thought he’d enjoy such exclusivity, but does, is Can Bakir, a Manhattanite originally from Istanbul. Bakir, 24, an assistant manager at an international textile trading company, said he normally hated cyber communication. He rarely logged on to a Turkish social network site that he belonged to.

But he happily joined aSmallWorld in August, after being turned down for nearly six months. “You feel special that you’re there and other people can’t get in,” Bakir said.

Not so lucky is Mona Chatila, a Boston University sophomore from Lebanon who regrets having ignored her invitation to aSmallWorld last year. Most of her friends are now on the site, but they cannot get her in.

“I just disregarded it because I didn't know what it was,” said Chatila, 20. “And now there’s this craze about it.”

E-mail: ses2138@columbia.edu