Ken’s Take: I finally joined one of the social networking sites -– mostly to see pictures of my granddaughter. I wouldn’t describe myself as hooked – but my interest in the social networking phenomenon is elevated -– so, I’ve been doing some digging. Here’s the first post.
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Excerpted from AudioTech Trends, May 2009
Some stats:
Facebook has 125 million members worldwide.
On a typical day, MySpace adds 250,000 members, and draws 4.5 billion page views.
Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion.
News Corp bought MySpace for $580 million.
Microsoft purchased just 1.6 percent of Facebook for $240 million.
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Social networking sites usually fall into one of five categories:
The egocentric sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, allow a user to create a profile and develop a network of friends. They are also a medium for creating a new identity — or multiple identities — and for the publication of songs, videos, photographs, writing, or other artistic expression.
Community-based networks bring together people of the same race, religion, or nation. They tend to mirror real-world communities. BlackPlanet, for example, is a site for African Americans.
Opportunistic social sites, such as LinkedIn, attract members who want to leverage the Web for business reasons, such as people looking for work, managers seeking job candidates, or free-lance consultants looking for clients.
Passion-centric networks are organized around a hobby or pursuits of some sort, such as people who like dogs or restore antique cars. Almost any hobby or specialty can spawn such a site.
Media-sharing sites, such as YouTube and Flickr, exist so that people can share videos and photos. They are more about the content than about interaction.
Source article:
http://www.trends-magazine.com/trend.php/Trend/1914/Category/42
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