Andrew Orlowski takes Facebook to task today, saying its “marketing goldmine may be crock of shite.”
Thirty-one per cent of users of social networking services enter false information into the sites to protect their identity, according to Emedia.
Much of the hype surrounding Facebook – and it’s tipped to be the biggest tech IPO since Google – is founded on its ability to monetise those 150 million users. For if at the cold, cold heart of Web 2.0 is a data collection and warehousing exercise, then Facebook has the most valuable database outside the Googleplex. Evidently lots of marketers agree – and activity around the Facebook API is frenetic today.
But what if that information is worthless?
It depends on what you’re trying to do with it. If you’re selling tangibles directly – such as concert tickets or photo prints – it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. For example, iLike boasts 850,000-odd users for its widget which lets you see what concerts friends are going to, then offers you the chance to buy tickets. TicketMaster is an investor to the tune of $15m, and must be one of the best investments it’s made. As a retail channel, social networking sites are good, as long as the audience is there.
But if you’re looking for “market intelligence”, then you’re going to be sorely disappointed. The web can tell us what we already know, the bleeding obvious – people get more drunk at weekends, for example, or talk about Harry Potter books more frequently when there’s a new Harry Potter book out. But if you want to infer anything more sophisticated, the Hive Mind is no help at all.
MediaVidea offers an interesting take on social networking sites today…
Recent research done in England suggests that the number of close friends you have is mostly a result of your face-to-face interactions in the real world.
Researchers at the Sheffield Hallam University say that your online friendships on social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook, Myspace, Hi5 and others are ‘shallow’ in nature.
Researchers got more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires and found that most of respondents had around 5 close friends and many (90%) said their close friends were results of face-to-face meetings.
So, it seems that soliciting and clicking friend request on social sites is nothing but an ego trip.
He also writes about the difference between online tools, networks and communities.
There has a been a lot of debate online about communities and networks and many, including startups riding the web 2.0 wave have run into the habit of claiming that their startup is a community. VCs are also prone to this community fever.
So, it is important to note what Joshua Schachter of del.icio.us said about the pioneering social bookmarking site, a site that I think has more value than social news sites such as Digg, for great archival and research uses.
Joshua has said, Del.icio.us is a tool, not a community.’
This is very important. Most online services are first tools and the community of people who got together while using the service, comes later on.
Joshua Porter of Bokardo advocates a focus on ‘personal value over anything else’.
Differencing between communities and networks, Chloe Stromberg from Forrester Research says that ‘while communities are bound by emotion and passion, networks are simply communication links between people who have something in common.’
Interesting to mull over. I think Front Porch Forum is used as a tool by some (receive and spread information), a network for others (e.g., need 20 people to sign a petition to get a stop sign installed), and a community of neighbors for most. Many report that their FPF neighborhood forum has helped created a neighborhood environment where they can more easily establish and maintain genuine friendships.
Matt Richtel wrote yesterday for the New York Times about the growth of websites aimed at older audiences.
Older people are sticky. That is the latest view from Silicon Valley. Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users.
The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya’s Mom, Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook — with wrinkles.
And they are seeking to capitalize on what investors say may be a profitable characteristic of older Internet users: they are less likely than youngsters to flit from one trendy site to the next.
And the money is flowing…
Last week, VantagePoint Ventures, an early investor in MySpace, announced that it had led a $16.5 million round of financing for Multiply, a social networking site aimed at people who are settled.
In August, Shasta Ventures led a $4.8 million financing round for TeeBeeDee, a site coming out of its test stage this month. The name is short for “To Be Determined” (as in: just because you’re not trolling for a mate on MySpace doesn’t mean your life is over.)
Also in August, Johnson & Johnson spent $10 million to $20 million to acquire Maya’s Mom, a social networking site for parents, according to a person briefed on the deal. The site has been in existence about a year.
Thanks Damien for the heads up.
How much would you pay for the rights to the web address localsearch.com? Really… take a guess.
Well if your bid is anywhere south of $3.3M then you would have lost out to today’s winner who paid just that much. From New England Tech Wire today…
Fairfield, Conn. — AmericanTowns.com, a Fairfield-based network of local community-oriented websites, has received a strategic investment of undisclosed amount from Idearc Media, the Dallas-based publisher of Verizon Yellow Pages. In connection with the deal, Idearc has acquired the LocalSearch.com URL for $3.3 million. AmericanTowns.com was founded in 2000. The company plans to use the investment proceeds from Idearc to continue growing its database, which is projected to feature over 10 million local events this year. AmericanTowns.com will expand its hyper-local offering to more than 22,000 U.S. towns this year, Idearc announced.
Thanks Lee.
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more