You’ve got a couple of million in the bank and you want to make new friends – but Facebook’s a bit common. Now there’s social networking for the rich

THE GLOBAL DOWNTURN has not deterred a crop of international firms looking to become the Facebook for the wealthy.

London-based Diamond Lounge is a dating site for “successful, professional individuals who appreciate the benefits of an exclusive and private environment”. If you want to join you need to create a profile which is then reviewed by Diamond Lounge to see if you are a suitable singleton.

A Small World is a classier affair, if the articles on its front page about the Art Dubai fair and Milan Fashion Week are anything to go on. Membership here is only by invitation from an insider and those seeking to join are advised to “please be patient and continue to ask around in your own personal and professional circles”.

The latest site hoping to become MySpace for the Malibu set is affluence.org, which insists members must be worth at least $3 million (€2.2 million) or have an annual household income of $300,000 (€233,000). Fixers are also welcome – suggest five people who are accepted in to the fold and you will also get the nod.

Unlike its European competitors affluence.org doesn’t take any chances when checking potential members’ credentials. The Affluence Corporation pulls information from consumer-marketing and credit-checking firms to try and build a picture of your true wealth. It also looks at the value of your home and will even do phone follow-up interviews to make sure you aren’t trying to spoof your way in.

Despite launching in the depths of the worst recession for almost a century, affluence.org has signed up 30,000 members despite knocking back about one in 40 of those who try to gain access to this exclusive corner of the web.

Those who do gain access get the chance to rub virtual soldiers with their fellow wealthy – a rapidly shrinking band as evidenced by the recent publication of the Forbes rich list which suggests the number of billionaires in the world shrunk to 793 this year from 1,125 in 2008.

Other perks for members include free access to a dedicated Affluence concierge, invites to exclusive parties and events and priority access to nightclubs, hotels and restaurants.

Affluence makes its money by organising events for luxury brands, financial services and others who want to court the wealthy, and then inviting their members along.

Scott Mitchell, the 37-year-old founder of affluence.org, believes that in the current recession even rich people will be willing to listen to a pitch from bankers in exchange for tickets to an executive box at a basketball game.

Mitchell is a successful dot-com entrepreneur – he sold his internet business Tunes.com to e-Music for $180 million (€134 million) in 2000. As a result he suffered from what he described in one recent interview as “sudden wealth syndrome”, ie not having a network of rich buddies to tell him where he should be eating, holidaying and partying. Having spent years building up a network of equally rich friends he decided to fast track the process for others through affluence.org.

All of which suggests that affluence.org is an exclusive online fortress for people with more money than sense and who don’t want to mix with the hoi polloi. But in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mitchell claimed that the overwhelming theme of conversations on the site is the environment.

“The green movement is the overwhelming theme, which was a little surprising to me because that was never my intention,” said Mitchell. “Some members have even started forming green companies on the site. Social responsibility is also a big theme.”

But even the rich who want to save the planet are not safe from the economic meltdown. Mitchell admitted that members’ disappearing wealth is also a common topic of conversation and a whole group has sprung up to discuss Bernard Madoff, the New York financier accused of running a massive pyramid scheme that defrauded wealthy investors.

Not that Mitchell’s company has shown much sympathy for those with diminishing wealth. Members’ criteria are regularly checked to see if they are likely to have had a reduction in circumstances. As a result the site is cutting off between 50 and 60 members a day.

No doubt they will be welcomed back on Facebook with open arms.