• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, March 6, 2012

Facebook may be the 800-pound gorilla of the social networking world, but it faces challenges from a number of aspiring, 50-pouns gorillas -- and I’m not talking about Google+ (which is more of a 200-pound gorilla anyway). The new contenders have some advantages on their side, including launching in high-engagement areas like social gaming.

Perhaps most threatening for Facebook is the new social gaming hub launched by Zynga this week. The move by the maker of Farmville, Mafia Wars, and other epic time-wasters is intended to give users another means of accessing Zynga games, thus lessening the company’s dependence on Facebook, which (not coincidentally) takes 30% of revenues from Zynga’s virtual goods sales. At launch, games available on the new hub include CastleVille, Words With Friends, CityVille, Hidden Chronicles and Zynga Poker. Considering that Zynga games rank among the most popular independent applications on Facebook, a separate gaming hub (if successful) might actually draw users away from Facebook, or at least result in less time spent on the social network.

Meanwhile another social gaming hub is being launched by Alex St. John, the former president of Hi5. The site, Magi.com, employs many of the staff who worked for Hi5 before it was acquired by Tagged.com several months ago, and has received backing from Hi5 investors, including Mohr Davidow Ventures and Crosslink Venture Partners. Magi.com has been explicitly described as a Facebook rival in the trade press, and with the cred and experience of the Hi5 team behind it, this isn’t an empty threat. That said, the focus of Magi.com is 100% gaming, minimizing the social network aspects -- giving users just the “red meat,” as it were (apologies to vegetarian gamers).

Closer to the social end of the spectrum, a new social network called “Social Live” is being launched by the promisingly-named Warrior Girl Corp – which says the new site is intended to respond to growing concern about Facebook’s privacy issues and other failings, including the proliferation of fake friends. According to the company, “Social Live is guided by a philosophy of building genuine online relationships, where quality over quantity is the watchword, and user privacy is paramount. It is a response to the view that Facebook has become unwieldy, unsympathetic to its user base, and a data-mining operation in which the business interests of Facebook often take precedence over the community and the individual.”