Future Homogenisation of Social Networking — Updated 25th Feb
Social networking is a business dominated by trends. There was Bebo, MySpace and now there is Facebook. As Facebook becomes more and more mainstream (as I write it is ranks as the 8th most visited site in the world and its growth is outstripping MySpace ) people are already beginning to wonder what the next major step will be. Where will people move to and what will be the next emerging social market.
The answer is in niche social networking. Facebook started life as a college-only network and grew from there. Indeed, it wasn’t until 2007 that it lifted the requirement to be in an educational establishment.
The fact still remains that people will go where their friends go. But the barriers to entry are reduced significantly with the introduction of data portability (allowing you to take your friends with you wherever you go). Facebook has ‘Facebook Connect’, Google (who is trying to build a social network based around its email client) has ‘Google Friend Connect’ and MySpace (quickly becoming known as the ‘Me Too Network’ has its own equivalent. These services allow small, upcoming networks such as ‘Wiggio’ to establish their site and draw users in quickly. No need to sign up (log in with your Google ID) and all your friends are instantly there.
We are already starting to see sites spring up that fulfil a particular niche . The building of ‘Apps’ on various social network platforms is all well and good but in comparison they are severely limited when you consider the virtually limitless scope that you can have with your own site. As social sites occupy more of our time it makes sense that people want to engage with them wherever they go.
My prediction is that any site which could benefit from a social networking aspect will begin to embrace this data-portability model and that social sites as mentioned above will start to become more homogenised. The real value in these businesses is in the people they hook in. When users can have the same benefits and experience as they get on Facebook on their favourite forum, in their RSS reader and on every blog they visit, individuals will see no need to go back to the social network which provides the base service. Value is being added by other sites and the requirement to the user for the Facebook’s, MySpace’s and Bebo’s of the web is severely diminished.
Update
I read an article in ‘Fortune‘ magazine (Suzanne Kapner Issue 3:Europe Edition: Pg 17) today which mentioned Facebook Connect and how there could potentially be a revenue stream by utilising ‘Connect’. I also had a twitter conversation on the issue, discussing whether Facebook would continue to offer the service if it started losing unique visitors due to it’s ‘Connect’ system. Both came to the conclusion that Facebook is, if anything in a better position thanks to connect. It can now track users and gather data about the sites they visit and what they do on them. This turns Facebook into a really powerful ad provider. The real power of facebook is the data that it gathers and what it can sell on to marketers. Information about browsing history and browsing habits is even more useful and, if anything enhances the offering to advertisers. This is something I had not considered.
References
- Alexa Top 500 Sites Globally - http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global&lang=none
- Facebook Outstrips Myspace - http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/facebook-no-longer-the-second-largest-social-network/
- Data Portability Organisation - http://www.dataportability.org/
- Wiggio ‘a work in groups network’ - http://wiggio.com/
- MoveOn ‘US Political Action Group’ - http://www.moveon.org/
Tagged as Bebo, Facebook, Facebook Connect, Google, MySpace, Social network, Social network service, Wiggio + Categorized as Business, Commentary