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Entertainment Trends in the News:
Social Networking Sites: Hot Trend Offers Stellar Revenue Opportunities
Social networking sites are one of the hottest growth areas in e-commerce. The number of users who have signed up and created social networking profiles literally numbers in the hundreds of millions. The top ten social networking sites (a prestigious club that include MySpace and Classmates.com) reported 47 percent growth rates in 2006. Obviously, the revenue opportunities of social networking sites are enormous.
While the profit potential of social networking sites is great, it's apparent that users don't wish to pay subscription fees to access such sites. Users expect that the site's major features, games, and activities, be free to all. On-site advertising, while certainly a steady source of income, is not enough to make a social networking site profitable.
One very profitable alternative to advertising, which the successes of Xbox Live and Second Life have proven effective, is the concept of virtual merchandise. Many social networking sites allow users to construct avatars, complete with virtual hairstyles, clothing, and accessories. Some sites go so far as to include virtual houses for avatars, with virtual furnishings in virtual neighborhoods. Avatar accessories are "bought" buy earning credits on site games, posting in forums, and other site activities. Some sites also host "special events" such as Halloween or Christmas parties, and even provide news and current events related to the site's "world." Mkain a social networking site fun to use is one of the best methods of ensuring regular use by users.
People become attached to their avatars, and are quite willing to spend real money to buy accessories, furniture, and other virtual products. None of these items cost huge amounts, but micro abstractions add up very quickly. So high is the demand for these items that some users defy site terms of service and even sell their virtual products on eBay and at other online auctions. Second Life cannily avoided this problem by allowing users to make and sell their own virtual merchandise within the social network itself.
While MySpace and other giant social networking sites dominate the general interest market, there is plenty of room to grow in niche social networks, which target people with similar interests, be those interests entertainment, travel, health, weight loss, music: the possibilities are endless. With niche sites comes the possibility of more targeted advertising, or of social networking sites including online stores where products related to their niche topic can be purchased.
Analysts have noted that for many younger Internet users, social networking sites are the most important aspect of online life. As these users associate social networking with their early use of the Internet, they are likely to continue to use social networks in later years, indicating that social networking sites, far from being a passing fad, are long term investments for companies wishing to target large demographic groups.
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