Good question in The Guardian today, How do you value sites like Facebook and Bebo? We seem to have jumped from one social networking site to another in the past few years. I had a myspace, then a Bebo and a facebook because of uni but didn’t really start using it till a couple years ago. That’s when I cancelled my Bebo, because Bebo is for chavs. You’d think investors would have been a little more careful before they started investing money in those sites like they have been. How can Facebook make money when no its users are not willing to pay for it, nor want any of their data to be marketed or have their profiles inundated with adverts? Imagine if Facebook adopted a Spotify -approach, you get a pop-up targeted advert every 10 mins or you can pay £10/month for an ad free version? No way. With everyone uploading their pics, it must cost a fortune to host all that data. How do they plan to break even, let alone make profits?!?
Social networking will continue to evolve, and its future is mobile. Logging onto your computer is boring, i want to keep in touch with my friends from a mobile device, wherever we might be. If I’m in a park, in a pub, I want to know who else is around. Surely that’s where the money should be invested. I love Android and how the HTC Hero can run several live apps on its front screen, that’s real time networking updates on your if you’re addicted to social networking. Even better is RIM’s Blackberry Messenger, they’re sitting on a goldmine right there and know it. With more of my friends owing a Blackberry I’m actually starting to use it instead of texting them. Even better, i’m getting real time communication to friends all over the world. Blackberry chat has the potential of being the next big social network. It is very profitable too as you have to buy a RIM device to get in. Twitter has proven that people are not too bother about all that multimedia, 140 characters are enough. Not long till I start asking girls for their Pin instead of Phone numbers with RIM soon due to release the £25/month Blackberry Curve 8520. That’s the iPhone’s killer: price.
