New social networking site Pheed banks on celebrity channels

London - A new social network similar to Twitter and Tumblr, called Pheed has attracted lots of celebrity support in its first week launch.

Pheed is hoping to take on Twitter and other social networks.

Celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown and Slash are using the new service, which allows members to charge for access to their “channels,” either on a subscription basis or a pay-per-view basis, the Telegraph reported.

Launching her Pheed channel, which already has almost 2,000 subscribers, Paris Hilton wrote: “Hey guys! Im about 2 go on a pheeding phrenzy.”

Miley Cyrus, with 20,000 subscribers, posted: “My fans have officially taken over Pheed!”

Pheed lets members post text updates, as well as photos, video and audio clips. Channels can even host live broadcast events.

“That whole model where people pay x amount for a video or song is a bit outdated. What social media is today is about selling bits and pieces of peoples’ lives. It’s not necessarily selling that one song, it’s selling access to me,” O.D. Kobo, the company’s co-founder, said.

The channel owner keeps half the fees their feed generates, with the other half going to cover bandwidth and other overheads, as well as Pheed’s profits.

Pheed’s mobile app will go live next week and Kobo expects the site’s traffic to grow significantly from the current level of 350,000 unique visitors.

The celebrity line-up should draw in some users but it remains to be seen whether they will pay for those who choose to run a subscription channel, having followed celebrities free on Twitter.