Halikana.com was founded in January 2010 in Manila by Paul Jones, an American expatriate. Once back in his homeland, he fully developed the idea taking into consideration multiple aspects of Philippines Overseas Foreign Workers' life. He then built the social network targeting their needs. Because it initially targeted the Asian community, Halikana has had a huge impact on Asia’s Internet culture. Many renowned Filipino and Chinese socialites and celebrities have accounts where they update fans on things such as upcoming tours and pending works. Halikana has networks in the Middle East, Europe, Brazil, and Argentina and is gaining popularity across Scandinavia and the Caribbean islands. Halikana allows people to use networks of online friends and group memberships to keep in touch with relatives, friends, reconnect with old friends, co-workers or create real–life friendships through similar interests or groups. Besides establishing important social relationships, Halikana members can share their interests with other like–minded members by joining groups and forums. Charities and social causes use the platform to spread their influence. Halikana also aim to help members find a job or establish business contacts. The site has allowed many non English speakers increase they vocabulary and grammar through the interaction with ESL teacher from around the world.
Social networks are nothing but groups of people or organizations linked together by social exchanges between them. A knitting club or bowling was a social network before its time! Technically, social networks use today are platforms for business community to create a personal space of presentation (profile) through which to develop a network of "friends", live chats, share pictures, photos, videos, links, join groups, publish articles, and comment on publications by members of its network. Personal accounts opened on social networks can be synchronized with other services (account email, micro-blog or another network) and suggest additional applications provided by third parties, such as games or contests online. New generations (Halikana, Google, and Facebook) also offer location-based features allowing users to see which friends are nearby at all times. Halikana now tends to monopolize the uses teenagers (three-quarters of adolescents have an account and an average of 130 friends), well ahead of MySpace and Facebook, the first being used primarily for purposes of expression, the second related to the opening or reading of blogs. If the use of social networking is for over 13 years for U.S. sites, Halikana seems to have the upper hands with Asian teenagers. Social networks now account for the first use of teenagers on the Internet. 85% of 13-16 year olds have a Halikana account, and 91% of 17-21 years also! (Internet Forum, April 2012).
Halikana also offer additional features unseen in other sites. Members can book airline ticket and send money through secure third parties. Its venting features is much similar to twitter but offer more choices. In addition live news, members can express themselves through blogs and forums. The most popular extra features include the high quality chatting and the ability of each member to protect their privacy. The connection with every aspect of life makes it clear that Halikana is here to stay. The organization has already announced plans to include more features to enhance the website's standing. The very impactful phenomenon of Halikana, obviously made extremely popular by members , has evolved to include previously isolated countries such as Bhutan, where it ranks first ahead of Facebook. Around the world, many people of all ages and backgrounds have discovered that they can enrich their lives through the contacts they make on http://www.halikana.com