Ever since Hi5's OpenSocial-compatible developer platform launched back in late March, usage and installs have been going on at a breakneck pace. As of the first week of April (one week into the existence of the platform), the developer platform was fully deployed, 100% OpenSocial compatible, and with over 150 apps developed and deployed. The number of installs on these applications, in many cases, far exceeded the number of installs on the top MySpace applications.

This rapid development and rapid adoption is largely due to the multi-national userbase of Hi5, and the strong sense of involvement and development community they've cultivated since the inception of the service.

I had a chance to grab some insight on how this social network has become a Web 2.0 success story from  Lou Moore and Anil Dharni, two developers at Hi5.