I find it amazing that there are so many companies trying to make money by providing online community services such as message forums. Yet many of these operations have paying customers, which refutes the conventional wisdom that community can't be profitable.

Each company, of course, claims a better model than the others. For example, Alain Hanash, CEO of Multicity, tells us that Multicity has several advantages. First, it offers a collection of services, including message boards, live chat, and auctions, to its customers (businesses). Second, the products are all integrated with translation tools, so people who speak different languages can chat with each other.

Third, Multicity elements optionally can be shared across sites. This by itself is not revolutionary, but coupled with translation tools it enables companies with global brands to foster worldwide communities to support them. Finally, all these capabilities can be embedded in emails, Zaplet-style.

Despite the failure of community sites like TheGlobe.com and the difficulty that publications have profiting from community, businesses keep spending money on community services with the aim of turning their customers into emissaries. This works especially well for entertainment products, which have fans, but can work for almost any other business as well.

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