CS5038 The Electronic Society Lecture: Social Networking Lecture Outline Social Networking Service Social Networking Sites –Bebo –Friendster –MySpace –Facebook Social Networking Feature Business Model The future of Social Networking Social Networking 3.0

eCommerce: Product and Customer In eCommerce the product may be physical or digital. What products does Google offer? Who are the customers? What products does Facebook offer? Who are the customers? How much do you pay for the products?

Bruce Schneier "Don't make the mistake of thinking you're Facebook's customer, you're not – you're the product. Its customers are the advertisers."

Social Network Service A social network service –focuses on the building online social networks –for people who share interests and activities –or for those interested in exploring the interests and activities of others The usual internet things can be done in one place –uploading music, videos and photos, –updating blog No tricky programming to learn, no software to load Contact all your friends –and all their friends' friends –all the friends of friends of friends MySpace, Bebo, Friendster and Facebook

Bebo Blog Early, Blog Often Jan 2005, husband and wife team Michael and Xochi Birch 60 Million users Features : profile, picture, blog,quiz, music Business Model : Advertising, e.g. Google Ads Target population : teenagers (10-20 yrs) Social effects : Ireland acquired by AOL on March 13, 2008 for $850 million Sold June 17, 2010 possibly for less than $10 million

Friendster Designed by Jonathan Abrams in 2002 Considered as the top online social network service until around April 2004 Reasons for drop –Demand too high –servers were very slow –users less interested in logging into their pages every day –Poor human computer interaction (such as tailored to users’ needs) Friendster has over 115 million registered users Over 90% of Friendster's traffic comes from Asia

MySpace Owned by News Corporation Local versions Features : profile for companies Target population : yrs Business model : e-advertising arm of Fox Interactive Media (owned by News Corporation) Concerns : commercialisation Security Was most popular social networking site in US in June 2006 MySpace overtaken by main competitor Facebook in April 2008 (based on number of visitors)

Facebook Started in Harvard Extended to other Unis, high schools, anyone Launched in February 2004 July 2010 more than 500 million active users July 2011 more than 800 million active users October 24, 2007, Microsoft purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million –total implied value of around $15 billion November 2010 Facebook est. value $41 billion Third-largest US Web Company after Google and Amazon

Facebook Social impact: bullying, stalking and murder Education: –Timewasting –Improving engagement  student retention –Help students to cope with feelings of loneliness/homesick –Students surveyed had lower grades if they used Facebook than students who did not use Facebook Political impact

Features Allow users to create and join virtual groups Share common interests or affiliations Upload videos Hold discussions in forums Artists have become their own agents –musicians are their own record labels –video makers their own broadcasters –everyone has become their own publicist

Business Model No charge for membership MySpace and Facebook sell online advertising on their site Huge amounts of data from members –can be utilised for targeted advertising and marketing Other ways to make money: –Facebook’s Marketplace: members can buy/sell products, find jobs and etc. –LinkedIn makes money by charging $10 for each message a user wants to send to a potential employer through the network. September 2009, Facebook started making money

History and Future of Social Networking History of Social Networking Social Networks 1.0 –OneList, ICQ, Evite Social Networks 2.0 –Friendster, Orkut, LinkedIn Social Networks 2.5 –Bebo, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook

Social Networking 3.0 Existing Problems –Each site is independent, does not open onto the world –Users may have identities on different social networks –Each identity was created from scratch Social Networking 3.0 –Freeing up data from independent sites –Allow members to link up to each other at different sites –Use single global identity with different views –Connect to any site using an Open Identity standard (OpenID) and get access to forum, blogs, wiki etc –Also: object centred rather than person centred –Data mining fears…

Looking back: What is eSociety About? Electronic Technology Human Society