The Digg model is not working very well in Europe, at least in terms of money. The real time web, mainly Facebook and Twitter, and the crisis are hurting it. To death some times, as happened with the French Digg-like site Scoopeo, which is closing down.

The Spanish Digg-like site Menéame is not doing much better, even though Fon’s king Martin Varsavsky bought a stake two years ago. Its traffic rank in Alexa has been dropping since the beginning of the year and a group of users revolted last week after administrators banned some users who were supposedly trying to nail the system.

The big reaction sparked by this case has also a very positive side. Not just because its administrators have learnt a lot from it, but also because it shows how important this site has become in terms of redirecting traffic. Many sites need Menéame to survive. Unfortunately, Menéame has not yet found a way to monetize the traffic it’s sending to third sites. But it should come.

So where should Digg-like sites go in Europe? I always thought they should create social networks together with news sources. In fact, it would be very easy for them to develop social platforms of news junkies which they could later personalize for any news source interested in developing a closer relationship with its readers.