Altly is aiming to build an alternative to Facebook because, well, every Coke needs a Pepsi.

Altly’s founder Dmitry Shapiro, founder of Veoh and former executive at Facebook rival MySpace, listed his critiques of Facebook and said that most people believe that no one can possibly create an alternative. So he’s doing it himself.

Remember Diaspora? The open source social network and potential Facebook challenger launched last year and has since seemed to fade into oblivion.

Does Altly stand a chance?

Altly buzz

Altly is already generating more buzz than Diaspora. That’s good for them, right? Let’s add Facebook into the mix…

Altly vs. Facebook buzz

Ohhhhhhhk, can’t even see the little spike anymore.

Mr. Shapiro does have a point. Competition ultimately drives companies to innovate and perform. Somebody has to challenge Facebook. Anyone? Bueller?

Diaspora, the open source social network and potential Facebook challenger, will be ready to launch on September 15, according to the project’s developers. Diaspora is meant to be an alternative to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks allowing you to share content such as photos, status updates, links, etc.

In a blog post on August 26, the developers said Diaspora is working and they’re happy with it, although it’s unclear what the product will look like.

Chatter around Diaspora shot up yesterday after the announcement.

But overall chatter around Diaspora is minuscule compare to Facebook.

Chatter around Diaspora has been slightly more positive than Facebook (although bear in mind the massive difference in overall content).

In the last two days, Diaspora was only mentioned in less than 3% of Facebook related posts. Should Facebook be concerned yet? Google Buzz was mentioned in 4%, Twitter in 17& and Google Me in only .04% of Facebook posts comparatively.