It is easy to wonder who in the world would make another social network now, for there are already tonnes of them around and to top it none of them are making any significant money.
In my opinion, Buddypress gives options that large blogs didn’t have before, that it is to build a community around itself. The network is essentially a mini community of users, contributors in that particular niche. For instance, a few food bloggers can come together and make afood community filled with blog recipes, profiles, photos of their food, etc. using Buddypress. While they used to earlier connect using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. for these, having a community site simplifies things and is more engaging. Of course, this is just an example, and it’s scope if limited only by imagination. And that is the major USP of Buddypress.
Running a community oriented site is a lot more hardwork than running a blog. The success of Buddypress has to be tied in with the success of publishers because that is how Wordpress grew, and that is how the developer community will take notice which makes WP what it is.