Rich and looking for an online destination to socialize privately with other e-aristocrats? Welcome to the Netropolitan Club, a new fee-based social network for "people with more money than time," according to the site. The cost is $9,000 to join and $3,000 annually thereafter. Members get a site that promises to never sell their data and to remain ad-free. Plus, there’s none of "the 99 percent that clutter up the rest of social media," said Mark Ellwood, a journalist who appears on CNBC's "The Filthy Rich Guide." Ellwood can't understand why anyone would pay for social media when other sites are free. "What I don't understand is why you wouldn't just do like the rest of us and purge your friend's list?" he said. Netropolitan founder James Touchi-Peters says people will pay for the site for the same reason they'd join a real world country club. "Technically the site isn't different than a standard social network site," said Touchi-Peters. "The difference is you get privacy and access to a global network of people who share a similar lifestyle with you."
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