Social Networking Sites – Future

07Apr08

Personally, I think that time of generalist (fits all) social networking sites is over. This is time of vertical social networking websites. As technology progresses and market expands, specialization clicks in. We can see that happening in each market space. Same will happen in social networking sites.

Time has come when we will see a lot of vertical social networking sites. Fropper is already an Indian example of vertical social networking site specializing in relationships/dating. There are already few other websites with vertical focus. We will see more sites coming up with the similar concepts. Following categories will appear in the recent future:

• Social Networking sites made around linguistics and geographical identity
• Social Networking sites made around common associations (schools, colleges, religion, hobbies)
• Social Networking sites made around common need (parenting, education)
• Social Networking sites made around different age groups (Teen, Adults, Baby boomers, Old)
• Social Networking sites made around different professions (physicians, engineers, finance professionals, sales)
• Social Networking sites made around different social groups (lesbian, homosexuals, HIV patients)

All these websites have to create infrastructure so that each group can create relevant content for that group. These websites have to devise a way so that they can verify (for example: sales networking site can ask interested guys to send their business cards) and make sure that only right people join the group. This means that interested users need to know the value that they will gain by joining these vertical networking sites. These websites will be a -dream come true- for advertisers and marketeers ,as, they do not need to do segmentation while doing advertising and websites will command high price per click.

Filed under: Internet, Social networking   |  1 Comment
Tags: vertical social networking websites