Those of you involved in social media - you're looking at it - might be interested
in this article about the profitability of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg - doesn't mention LiveJournal, one of the oldest and original Web 2.0 sites (it almost isn't Web 2.0 and is Web 1.0, apart from the friend interaction...Web 1.5?) but the problems still apply, how do you make money from social media?
Which in one sense is not my concern, in another it is because if these sites fail the networks and data goes with it - and it's very true, these sites are not making any money, they are losing it in large amounts...not a sustainable position in this economy.
Anyway it's an interesting read, especially for those who think the mighty cannot fall (can I say one word: Enron?)
In the comments, in reply to paddbear I created this personal New Media deadpool (top is most likely to go in 2009, bottom is less likely ie. profitable)
- Digg - does anyone really use social bookmarking anymore?
- Delicious - ditto
- Mevio - what used to be Podshow. Oh dear.
- Multiply - was good 2 years ago, now, no
- StumbleUpon
- Odeo and Podomatic - after the demise of Podango, I'd not give these much time
- Orkut - who? Exactly.
Pownce, Jaiku - Twitter copies, less popular though- Ustream, Justin.tv, Qik - streaming content is very expensive
- Blip.tv, Vimeo, Phreadz, Viddler - the lesser known video sites - all that storage is mega$$$s
- Second Life - all the tier changes are pissing the members off; expensive - others are popping up
- Livejournal - not going to go yet but obviously feeling the pinch
- Upcoming.org, Eventful, Meetup.com all those sites - again who uses these still?
- Bebo - I know no-one on Bebo. Do you?
- Libsyn - I hope not, I use them. Quite small, and well used, but podcasting has had it's day
- Seesmic, 12seconds - the more cooler video kids, but not with YouTube's pockets
- Friendster
- Blip.fm and Last.fm - music legal issues could make these go the way of Mixwit and muxtape?
- Twitter - small, yet makes no money
- Friendfeed - see Twitter but newer and has A-list blogger support
- LinkedIn - used professionally quite a lot, look after their own - did Facebook buy them?
- Facebook - big sponsors
- Youtube - ditto - big pockets
- Flickr - ditto - big pockets - Google
- Wikipedia - just had a funding drive - or does that mean it's in trouble?
- Myspace - has Fox's money, innit, and big with music industry support
- Ebay - profitable
Oh and to paraphrase my recent Twitter -
I hate lists. They are lazy blogging and journalism and are just Google link-bait and comment bait. So I do apologise.
#1 should be 'Posts with lists on blogs' but that's not a social media service, but
Top Ten Lists of Pointless Things Cos I Have Nothing To Write And Want Link Referrals is blog-spawn and twitter-spawn at the moment. STOP IT. I mean people are compiling 'Top 30 list of people I Like on Twitter' and such shit.
Does it remind you of school? FFS. Lazy, lazy, lazy - and these people are so-called A-list bloggers and 'stars' of Social Media. I do hope it all crashes and takes their little highschool fiefdoms away. Grrr.
EDIT: First victim of 2009 -
Jaiku. Given the comments about Google video, starting to reassess their 'big pockets' - could YouTube, Flickr or Ebay fail?
EDIT2: Apparently Pownce was already dead - LOL