There is a great deal of conversation around the social media bubble at the moment. If you have not heard already, the social media bubble is a topical debate about whether social media websites like Facebook, Groupon, Linkedin and Twitter a actually worth the values that they have been estimated at. The values are outlined in this infographic.
The concern is that if they are overvalued then we may be repeating history when we experienced the technology bubble with many start-ups going bust after securing large start-up investment deals. Is this a valid concern or are we just getting into another stream of hype?
Facebook for example makes most of its money from advertising and although this is a tried and tested business model it may not survive in the long run. Facebook advertising is much like billboard advertising, eventually Facebook users won’t see the adverts and this will result in lower click-through and thus lower revenue.
I believe that the best revenue models will come from innovation in the social media space and not the replica’s of traditional media and PPC/CPM technology.
I am very interested in the move the Facebook is making at the moment with the integration of Facebook places (a foursquare replica) and Facebook Deals (a Groupon replica). Creating a social platform that combines geolocation data and sales specials could be a great innovation towards a viable business model. Facebook also has the opportunity to include psychographic and demographic data into this model which is not available to Foursquare and Groupon.
Back to the bubble. The effect of the social media bubble will only be felt by those social media companies that fail to find new revenue streams that leverage their large databases of consumer data. At the end of the day this is why they are getting the investment in the first place – consumer data that is so rich it is not available in any other industry, medium or channel.
I think one other thing to consider is whether the social media hold a database of active or inactive heads. My experience is the are scores of people that are listed and counted in Facebook but are no longer active or have lost purpose or interest. I am one of those who just could not find reason to be in facebook, its just not catering for my needs. Others are just for fruitless chats. The potential of earning is huge provide they make sure the estimates take into account the false membership and deduct it from all the published data. Only then I will believe any of this information. Mu
Hi Mu
I hear where you are coming from but the statistics in South Africa at the moment prove otherwise. The average South African on Facebook visits the social network twice a day. These stats come from a report conducted by the very reputable research company TNS Surveys.
You are right that if people don’t actually use the network the network will cease to exist.
If Facebook does not work for you, have you found a social network that does?