Creative Capital got ahold of the December 2007 ComScore numbers for the top social networks in the U.S. -- and they are, on the whole, not good. Engagement -- average minutes spent on the site per... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]... lire la suite
Lien du post: http://valleywag.com/350783/comscore-says-social-networks-growth-is-slowing
Creative Capital got ahold of the December 2007 ComScore numbers for the top social networks in the U.S. -- and they are, on the whole, not good. Engagement -- average minutes spent on the site per... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest. Google announced it’s intent to build a profile system, which will allow social networks to be built anywhere, and used by anyone. Coupled with OpenSocial, this could break down any silos that many are concerned about. The ’socialization’ of the web (all the web) continues to be a theme. The root of any social network contains two major features 1) an individuals profile 2) The connections they have to other profiles. Google is launching part one with their individual profiles that allow users to upload their identity and preferences. Expect them to make their entire web experience (from search to docs, to picassa) more of a social experience where people share with others, comment, and collect. Insight: People not brands lead social networks Platform: Wordpress could be a Social Networking Platform Chris Messina suggest that Wordpress could be a Social Networking platform, while currently a publishing CMS tool. The first thing to do is look at the technographics of a community, and identify does everyone want to be a creator? Not likely. Platforms: Social Network Platform Wars Great graphic from Dave McClure showing a visual representation of what the platforms are starting to look like. With many platforms emerging and APIs don’t give up on opensocial (but recognize the challenges) Cisco recently acquired Tribe and Five Across and are now starting to consolidate these one off acquisitions into real products. EOS is supposadly supposed to provide media to social networks, as well as a potential platform. The challenge? Does Cisco know media? even social media? The upside for Cisco? More bandwidth for their infrastructure products. Usage: Social Network adoption continues to rise eMarketer has some useful stats that indicate that the growth of social networks will continue in terms of adoption and monetization. Interesting to see the saturation of the teen market already. Acquisition: Penthouse buys lifestyle social networks Penthouse expands it’s online reach by acquiring Various, which owns adultfriendfinder, Italianfriendfinder.com, gradfinder.com and bigchurch.com. Smart move for a media company. Projected price? $340 million. Not uncommon to see, as iPhone serves up a very nice Facebook experienece, Sprint and MySpace are working to serve up a mobile experience. I can’t wait for the day when mobile devices all render the same experience from a single browser. A whale is a person with more than 1000 contacts on a social network, this article suggests that some of them insecure. While this may be true for some, for me it’s a business networking tool, i’s my rolodex, a listening tool, and a way to reach thousands. Nearly limitless business opportunities. For those who are trying use this as a social tool (college, dating, etc) I can see why this may make sense. What else should be on this list? Leave a comment, feedback, or suggestions, I’m listening.
I’ve created a new category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest. Busy Week: LinkedIn, Bebo, and Friendster launches their platform the opportunity to build a business platform and expand it’s value is at hand. Facebook withdraws the Beacon feature to make it more of an opt-in capability, although users continue to use website and media starts to simmer. It’s very clear the trend for social networks to become ‘containers’ for ‘widgets’ to be deployed on top of them is at hand. The challenge is that OpenSocial has not arrived and multiple APIs are being delivered. Every community is different, so apps wont adopt consistently regardless. No one has done a great job figuring out how to most effectively monetize, expect more experimentation to occur. Boasting over 50 million users, Friendster launches it’s widget application platform with 180 applications, this is clearly a trend as many social networks become ‘containers’ for developers. They’ve also localized the site for Japan, Korean and Chinese. The challenge of course is that there are multiple APIs and datasets for each app. LinkedIn, popular business social network launches new homepage, modules, and most importantly a platform that let’s approved third party developers, I’ve done some analysis looking at pros and cons, start there. A minor at best ‘partnership’ MySpace and Facebook team up to offer Voice Over IP (free telephone calls) to MySpace members. Huge reach for Skype, and excellent opportunity for MySpace to ‘get into’ the instant messaging space. Funding: European Social Network for students raises funds Small (300,000 members) but early Facebook like social network Bahu raises funds, 1 million dollars. I’m hearing more news of widgets (which are deployed to affinity groups) on single networks and even a single widget can be placed on multiple platforms can be a great source of viral advertising. Expect to see more examples of successful widget developers offering advertising packages to brands. The American Marketing Association (AMA) has released their findings from a recent survey showing the value that buyers have for seasonal shopping, in context of social networking sites. Ask reveals that users queried MySpace very frequently, in fact, the most frequently. Social Networks, at least for ask.com users are top of mind (or hard to find). Compete also has data on ‘time spent’ on social networks; MySpace 6.3 hours per month and Facebook 2.8 hours per month. Lastly, Compete has numbers on the increase in usage of Facebook over the past term. Growth: 10,000 Application growth in two quarters Facebook’s amount of applications hits the 10,000 mark. Just opened this summer, the platform has had rapid growth as developers can now launch web products on top of existing communities. Mobile: Social Network allows singles to flirt LimeJuice, (watch the entertaining demo) a social network aimed at the mobile medium lets members flirt with each other, and for singles to connect. For the active socialite, these types of technologies are springing up everywhere. A majority of the time, the end result is proximity (location) and profile (interests) matching which results in real-world meeting. More on this evolving industry. Alex over at RWW gives some analysis on the effective ability of contextual ads in Facebook and other social networks. He draws the conclusion that they are really not that accurate. I’ve had some situations where the ads served as very, very targeted and accurate. (salsa dancing teaching in SF, which is what I like to do and where I live...all in my profile). On the other hand, there’s direct proof it’s not working at all. Weblo, a company swimming upstream helps users to advertise based upon their popularity using Facebook profiles. This is just the start, network based buying and selling will increase over time as people connect to online networks. Messages in Facebook can now be read in email email, this saves users a few extra steps from having to click on each email. I find the timing of this feature release interesting, was it coincidence it was launched after the series of privacy blows they were getting, or was this a tactful way to garner positive press? It’s my job to be aware of this industry, I cover it as an analyst. Leave a comment if you’ve interesting articles to submit, they may make next week’s digst.
Friday on Twitter I posed the question, should brands join existing social networks (like Facebook, MySpace, etc) or build their own social network (like these many white label tools)? I asked my Twitter network: “Should brands Join or Build their own Social Networks?” Within minutes of posting the question to Twitter (an early adopter social media crowd) yielded 31 responses, many which came in to my email account. It’s very clear the responses are all over the map, the market needs clarity. In the last segment, some folks chose to ask questions or suggest that it depends on the situation, so I lumped them into one response group. Although just a small informal sample of the social media elite (Most Twitter users are early adopters) that the responses are dispersed. I’ve started a discussion in the Web Strategy Group in Facebook (I choose Join instead of Build) where you can further the conversation. I look forward to your thoughts over there, a place where you can network with others (4300 of them that care about web strategy) and where you can control the topics rather than reading me over and over. If you’re a vendor from either camp, kindly identify that in your response and continue to build trust by demonstrating your knowledge and helpfulness.
Every so often as an Analyst I get numbers from some of the companies I cover (I’m mainly covering social networks now), here are some that I’ve received from Reunion, I feel it’s helpful to share this with my readers. The ones from MySpace are handed to me from a member of the press, someone I have no reason not to trust, and the Facebook stats are from their own site. Quick Analysis: The hot talked company Facebook has the highest growth rate, and at Forrester we predict it to achieve the same number of registered users as MySpace in Q4 of 2008, or early 2009 given the current growth rates. The widget platform, which launched summer 2007 has had strong growth as more than 13,000 applications have been launched. Please don’t call this the MySpace killer as each of these sites serves a different demographic, with a different purpose, and different tools. Facebook is more of a ‘lifestyle’ play that allows members to connect to each other. General Growth * An average of 3% weekly growth since Jan. 2007 * Maintain 85 percent market share of 4-year U.S. universities International Growth * Remaining top 10 countries in order of active users (outside of the U.S., Canada and UK): Australia, Turkey, Sweden, Norway, South Africa, France, Hong Kong Quick Analysis: MySpace the largest Social Network in North America maintains a dominant position as media site, primarily aimed at youth, giving them the opportunity to relate to brands and bands, as well as self-express. This site will continue to do with advertisers and marketers. Expect to see more TV and video networks to integrate and work with MySpace, who has the new generation that Generation X was to MTV. have a MySpace as it is to own a dog this month we broke a record and had 4.5 billion page views to the territories: U.S., UK, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Quick Analysis: This quiet company is profitable already, and is making some strong growth with repeat users that are buying services from the company, as well as advertising. Reunion caters to an older crowd that is seeking to connect with each other from school, childhood, work, or locations. It’s surprising that this company has 32 million registered and is already profitable. ·Profitable Revenue Growth of over 100% every year without any external capital ·Recently took 1st outside investment of $25M from Oak to accelerate growth I’m thinking about publishing these numbers once a quarter or once a month, if you’re a company that’s in the social networking space, you can send me some valid and confirmed numbers at my email, listed on my contact page. These are not really centralized anywhere in the industry, and I think it could be of a service to everyone.
I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest. The biggest concerns this week are privacy concerns, both of Facebook’s Beacon, as well as data portability and scraping. Community requests ownership of data, although the infrastructure to support this is not yet available. The trend over data ownership and personal privacy on social networks continues to hot topic. The following stats were sent to me from a reporter: “Launched in L.A. by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, acquired by Fox Interactive Media in October 2005, has 110 million monthly active users around the globe, 85% are 18 or older, 1 in 4 Americans is on MySpace, On average 300,000 new people sign up daily, localized and translated in more than 20 international territories, 100 Billion rows of data, 14 Billion comments on the site, 20 Billion mails on the site total, 50 Million mails per day (more than Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google), 10 Billion friend relationships, 1.5 Billion images, 8 Million images being uploaded per day, 60,000 new videos being upload to MySpaceTV each day, More than 8 million artists and bands on MySpace Music.” Megan McCarthy, new journalist at Wired documents the ongoing concern of users that are endorsing brands, without their full knowledge of what that means. I provided my recommendations to companies deploying social ads within the article. On a related thread, Robert Scoble has scraped many of this contacts using an automated script causing Facebook to remove his account and banning him, issues over data portability and ownership are questioned. Analysis: Visualization of a social graph Great analysis of actual social networks, and what they look like. These diagrams show how observers and those that are highly connected differ based upon their location on the concentric circles. Link via Patrick Lambe. Crime: The many dangers of Social Networks Criminals are now targeting social networks as an information rich repository to steal data, impersonate, or be mischievous. Users should be aware of who they connect to, as org charts, birthdays, and relationships are much for the public eye. Privacy: A Roundtable discussion on User Privacy David Berkowitz, who has recently been unknowingly endorsing Blockbuster is captivated with his privacy and the privacy of others, and has assembeld a roundtable (myself included). Great perspectives from different users. Red Herring asked me for my predictions on the future of social networks MySpace and Facebook regarding cross-over of applications and social graph. While Fuser is a signal that there will be more ‘bridges’ to come, it’s not the beginning of the end, as demographics differ on each network. Fuser let’s members check MySpace inbox on Facebook, aggregated on one spot. Rodney Rumford, Widget expert, does analysis on why Sony’s snowglobe application failed, and what could have been done to prevent this. A must read if you’re going into this space. Trends: Social Networking goes small Kim Hart of the Washington Post writes a well researched article with many examples on how social networking is getting more refined and focused in addition to the growth. The article also points out that advertising will increase 75% in the next year Facebook: A year in review The San Jose Mercury tells why Facebook has become so key as a social network in 2007, but of course, outlining the pitfalls and challenges. I add my insight in the article, so look for my quotes. Research indicates 32% of Americans consider themselves broadcasters, and they use mobile devices, social networks and web tools. eMarketers reports in that teens use mobile devices, and social networks, some of these stats are from 2006, although likely accurate. What else should be on this list? Leave a comment, feedback, or suggestions, I’m listening. The next digest will be in the near year, kind of exciting!
I’ve created a category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest. Many are watching Yahoo’s promise to make Yahoo Mail it’s core platform as it adds additional social features around it. The move for open data and the movement of it, are making headway as Google, Facebook, and Plaxo join a working group devoted on this concept. These are both announcements, the actual work has not happened, so look past the buzz and wait for the action. Announcement: Yahoo to add more social features to mail The big announcement in the social networking space is Yahoo’s intention to create more social features around it’s network. They will tie together the various other social tools using the mail platform. Of course, some risk comes with this, as getting users to adopt these new tools will be a long and slow process. New features for an email client need to happen slowly, with options to opt-in for the first couple of phases until things are right. Members from these three web companies have joined the working group, who’s agenda is to allow user data to freely move from one website to another, at the control and management of the users. While just an announcement, it’s an indicator of what could come, but until we see actual changes, it’s a big challenge for these large web companies to make these changes and let go of customer (and potentially revenue) data. The trick is to understand that by letting go, and building a website users want, they’ll come back...with their friends. Content: Porn social networks emerge on Ning Marc Andreessen has addressed the growing commentary of social networks forming on Ning around adult content. While certainly a passion interest, there is no stopping this from happening on some social network. Ning pleasds “we’re a host” and remains with an agnostic viewpoint, letting it’s communities grow. This will be interesting in the future as other social networks need to address this same issue. Rankings: Bebo named “top” social network Although the methdology of the survey and ranking isn’t clear, Bebo scores a top placement, barely over Facebook, in this survey by a group known as “Computing Which?”. Brand: Managing your image on social networks Alibbaba, one of the largest social networks in China for SMB businesses is reaching to expand to India, another large population in hopes of becoming the commerce platform for businesses to trade, buy and sell. Media Platform: Cisco to unleash EoS social network for big media Recently, Cisco acquired Five Across and Tribe, both social and community software companies/websites. They’ve now started to repackage this (on top of their networking infrastructure) as a play for big media to get into the social networking space. It’s called entertainment operating system (EOS) could be a brilliant move. Case Study: American Football teams use Social Network Submitted by the vendor The Port, the Atlanta Falcons have launched a social network for it’s fans called FalconsLIFE. According to a recent press release the features include: ” fans can develop their own unique profile pages, publish blogs, upload and share videos and photos, initiate surveys, participate in online discussions and more.” I hope to see features like this integrate with the rest of the NFL site, in addition to franchise owned and managed websites, the community is larger. Expect to see other teams to launch similiar social networks. What else should be on this list? Leave a comment, feedback, or suggestions, I’m listening.
Social media ad platform Lotame says it reaches 53 million users through a bunch of social media sites that aren't any of the one's you've heard of or use, such as Fotolog, Meez, Flixster, and PalTalk. But that didn't stop Battery Ventures and Hillcrest Management from funding the company with $10 million in February or from announcing a further investment of $13 million along with new investors from Emergence Capital Partners today. Lotame says through its "Crowd Control" product it can help advertisers reach those 53 million uses by serving ads in social networks where users have recently shown interest in their products. It's a pitch that gains traction with investors because Lotame probably told them its product is "intention-based marketing," just like Google search. Ludicrous. While people do Web search when they want to buy something, they don't typically go back to the social network where they talked about the product a week before. We're also eager to see if ComScore's new ad network measurement tool will show a great disparity between Lotame's "potential reach" and the amount of users to which it actually displays its ads.
Inside Facebook has a terrific interview with $uperRewards, one of the two major CPA ad networks for social networks (and increasingly outside of social networks as well). [Offerpal is the other major CPA ad network for social networks]. In the interview the $uperRewards team give some great stats and advice for game designers: ...Also, keep in mind at that a majority of the revenue generated per user is generated early in the lifetime of the users' interaction with the games. People spend money developing their characters, climbing the leader board, and unlocking new elements of the game. Once their character is strong, they have many prizes, and have unlocked all the levels - naturally there is less desire to complete offers and pay. It is those top guys though that motivate the little guys to climb and thus spend. On what monetization a game developer can expect: The core metric we use is dollars per click. We hope our developers can get 25% of their daily active users through a Super Rewards page at some point. Of those, if the economy is balanced correctly, you should see a 40-50% click through rate, and ultimately a net 8-10% conversion rate. Developers get about $1.00-$1.50/conversion for US users, but less for international users. We're lucky to get $0.06/conversion in China, but we have games operating in Europe and other parts of Asia at $0.25 and up. So assuming all of a developer's traffic is US traffic, the developer could see up to $83 per day per thousand DAUs. However, on an average basis across all geographies, we are about half that number. It goes without saying that there is a wide distribution around the average based on quality of app and balance of virtual currency economy.
Sheryl Sandberg's right! We've teased Facebook's overserious COO for talking up Facebook's need to sign up more users before figuring out how it's going to make billions of dollars off of them. But analytics firm eMarketer says only 42 percent of the Internet-using world knows about social networks. Translation: A lucky 58 percent are not burdened with worrying about whether they've made anybody's top friends list. Heck, while we're at it: Less than a quarter of the world's 6.6 billion people have access to the Internet. That means 5.97 billion people have no reason to have ever heard of Sandberg, let alone blame her for global warming, violence in the Middle East, and cat allergies. Not yet, anyway.