Web_2.0_Comparative_Analysis

A social network or a social networking service is based on the human act of building a social network, or the way we have social relations with people. Sometimes these social interactions can be built on a mutually interest or activity. The aim of a social network service is to represent this relation, usually in the form of an individual user representation (i.e.: Profile) and features that allow the user to “connect” with other users. This connection can be in the form of basic communication (I.e.: Email, Private Messages, Blogs) or a broader sense. (Ie: Groups, Forums, and Online Communities) Social networking websites were started as early as 1985, in the generalised form of online communities, such as The WELL (1985). These early networks allowed interaction through basic form such as chat rooms and forums. Some networks were also formed by linking to other users via email addresses. Classmates.com, which started in 1995, was one of the earliest forms of this type. Social networks can be created with different communities or demographics in mind. Classmates.com is an example of this, the site targets school or military graduates. Xing.com and Linkedin.com both exist with business-focused people in mind. The sites allow professionals to network and view profiles of both users and of companies. There are some that have broader defined communities, such as Digg.com. Digg.com allows users to link stories, news, web pages and videos to their site where other Digg users can view and rate them, either positively (Digg) or negatively (Bury). This is not just aimed at mainstream “news” people, but also users who are interested in other “news” topics, i.e. Entertainment. Some sites do not have a mutual interest but actually allow users to create something of their own, Ning.com allows users to create their own networks, their own websites which other users can join and follow. Finally, general social networking sites exist were anyone can join, and then once they have joined within the umbrella network there are specific interest groups they can join, not being limited to one. These types of sites tend to be quite popular as the user’s interests don’t have to be pre-defined, and therefore there are often a higher amount of members, allowing them to network more expansively. Examples of these general social networks are Myspace.com, Friendster.com, Xanga.com, Twitter.com and Facebook.com. Social network communities can also be based on geographical location. Sometimes this is a result of the website’s designers basing or aiming for a particular region. It can also be due to the popularity of the site in the given country. This is usually based on the user’s ability to be able to network with people that they know, using in the same geographical location as themselves. Friendster.com started out life being one of the first online communities, due to this fact, the site’s popularity was diverse across many countries. With time and the creation of many more different sites, the majority of Friendster.com’s member base is in Southeast Asia with 30.9% of members based in the Philippines. Classmates.com has a limited list of schools that you can specify when joining mainly US & Canada, due to this fact, the site’s main member base hails from the US with 89.3%. Similarly, the purpose of sites, Xing.com and Linkedin.com heavily relies on the ability of users to network with professionals that they would have contact with. Hence if their member base is scarce in i.e. Malaysia, a Malaysian businessman would have little reason to join. Therefore, they have strong member bases in primarily countries that do business with other countries close to them. 78.4% of Xing.com’s members live in Germany and 43.1% of LinkedIn.com’s members from the US. General social networks tend to have a large spread, geographical, of members. Xanga.com, a blogging community, tend to be popular in Asian countries where blogging is very common, 28.9% of their members reside in Hong Kong. The US has a large amount of residents with access to computer and internet services, compared to other countries. Therefore, they generally make up the majority of a site’s member base. This is the case with Digg.com, Ning.com and Myspace.com, with users making up 40.1%, 36.9% and 55.4% of their members respectively. The functionalities of networking sites can vary, from blogs to websites to classifieds. The majority tend to be profile based with additional features available. Classmates.com, Friendster.com, Xing.com, Linkedin.com and Myspace.com are all examples of this. The standard additional features which most sites cover are: Email/Messaging services to other users and abilities to join special interest groups. Classmates.com builds on this by allowing users to create events for reunions and play games. Friendster.com allows users to post opinions on blogs and forums, and utilise their free classifieds service, Olx. Xing.com allows members to search and apply for jobs, write articles and blogs and the ability to sync contacts from Outlook to Xing and vice versa. Similarly, LinkedIn.com provides a job seek service, as well as statistics on a company and a unique service called LinkedIn Answers which allows members to post questions, business-based, and await answers from other members. Myspace.com lets users create music playlists, chat, play games through Applications (Apps), and publish new music and videos. Xanga.com, Digg.com and Ning.com are all types of popular emerging Web 2.0 technologies. Xanga.com allows users to create, in a sense, a personal website. This is called a blog or weblog. Users post information, thoughts, images and videos as a personal representation of themselves, other users can then comment on the blog. Digg.com is not so much focused on the individual user but is frequently used to share news, stories, web pages and videos. Other Digg.com users can then comment and rate the postings, the most popular postings get linked to Digg.com’s homepage. It is a network that allows users to share information. Users create a profile so they can comment and so they can customise the information that they view. Lastly, Ning.com is also focused less on the individual user, but is a social network hosting service. That hosts the user creation of web-based social networking services. These services are also known as vertical social networks. Users can create their own networking service based on an interest of their own. Members can then join these social networks and share information regarding the specific interest. Related to the functionalities of a social network is the source of rich media. Social networks can limit the types, size, etc of rich media posted or upload to their sites via the user. Generally, all networks allow the user to upload images. This is usually because the user utilises an image as a visual representation of themselves on their profile or blog. It can also be a visual representation of the specific interest, in the case of Ning.com. Sites that are more focused on the sharing of information tend to allow users to post multiple images, and larger rich media types, such as Video and Music. Classmates.com, Friendster.com, Ning.com, Xing.com and LinkedIn.com, as not so much focused on media usage only allow users to share images. Xanga.com and Digg.com allow Images and Videos to be posted and then commented on. Myspace.com, as originally aimed at providing musicians and bands a virtual place to exhibit music, allow users to share Images, Videos and Music. Few social networks currently charge for membership, so they need to find other alternatives to finance the networks, usually a major source of revenue for the sites is online advertising. With the amount of information the network sites usually hold on each user, it allows for much better targeted advertising than any other site can currently provide. The large amount of members of the sites, sometimes as high as 150 Million in the case of MySpace.com, or with annual visitors to the site totally 236 Million in the case of Digg.com, it provides advertised businesses with very large audiences. The types of advertising can therefore vary between sites, according to the location where the user logs in, and the targeted audience of the site. Classmates.com, which targets graduates, has ads ranging from CBS Radio, Software and Vacations. Similarly AMP and Olay advertise on Friendster.com, Foxtel on Xanga.com, HTC, Sony and NAB on Digg.com and Abercrombie and Bacardi on Myspace.com. Digg.com also has a special service called diggTV which contains short shows, and recaps of the best videos of the week, these short videos also have sponsors, who would paid a fee to Digg.com for advertising on the video. There are, however, some sites that offer both free and premium membership, which is usually at a cost. Classmates.com offers a paid premium service, as does Xanga.com, Ning.com, Xing.com and LinkedIn.com. By not limiting membership to only just paid or free, they are able to generate a large member base and still gain revenue from members who wish to use the extra features that are only provided to premium paying members. Ning.com has only just recently announced that membership to their site will now be by paid subscription only; current free members will have a certain amount of time to transfer their social network page to another social network hosting service. At the forefront of emerging trends in Web 2.0 technologies is the use of social network services from a handheld PDA, Smart Phone, iPhone or iPad. This is the concept of “real time” and “location based.” Twitter begin the trend for “real time” services, as Twitter members can broadcast what they are doing and what is on their minds, and it is upload as they write it. They also allow members to geo-tag these posts, and upload rich media “on the go.” To compete for users other sites must follow suit. This new area allows sites a way to expand, hopefully gain new members and possibly another avenue for revenue raising. Currently, only 3 of the aforementioned 8 sites have a specially designed mobile web site; Myspace.com, Friendster.com and Digg.com. A specially designed site usually limits the amount of rich media, ads and functionality of the site. This can be a benefit to the user as data allowance to their handheld device may be also limited. It also assists with the loading speed of the site; members will be less inclined to use a site if each page takes minutes to load. This becomes a more important area of expansion for a social network site as more members use handheld devices and less have constant access to a desktop or laptop computer. It can also be convenient to the user, if they just want to check something small such as a post or status, instead of getting access to a computer and waiting for it to boot up. More specifically, is the use of iPhones and their applications or apps. Users of iPhones have access through the Apple App Store to applications or programs that they can load onto their phone to allow them to perform a specific function. 4 of our 8 sites have their own company provided free iPhone App, Myspace.com, Digg.com, Xing.com and LinkedIn.com. For Xing.com and LinkedIn.com this is especially essential as one of the advertised uses of their sites is being able to view and search business connections “on the go.” Friendster.com and Xanga.com can also be accessed on an iPhone but through third party provided Apps that have fees associated; Social Rush ($1.19), Quick Ping ($1.19) and Blog with iBlogger ($12.99). For all the sites there are huge commercial potentials in expanding the scope of services provided to handheld device users. The creation of a mobile web site would encourage more members to join and more frequent use. With the popularity of the iPhone and now iPad, there is also sense in the creation of their own company provided App. The option that seems of greater benefit would be the creation of a Lite Version Application. One that allowed the user access to basic functions like viewing and updating statuses, embedded with advertising. Then providing a Pro Version Application, at a set cost, that allows greater functionality to the user like uploading rich media, creating groups, access to email and the elimination of the hassle of the advertising. One obvious potential expansion technique is the increased scope of the target audience. In some cases, this could mean the damage of the foundations of the network service. For instance, expanding Classmates.com to include non-graduates would allow for a greater member base, but defeats the purpose of the network site. Additionally, Classmates.com could expand the list of accepted schools to join. Currently, the schools listed are from US, Canada, Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, American/Canadian Schools overseas, which limits the joining of someone from i.e. The UK. Also, the advertising that is featured on Classmates.com is not effective as it is not aiming at a particular target audience. It could be aimed at the location of the signing in computer, currently all advertising is very US orientated. Increased functionality of the network sites would also lend to an increase member base. Friendster.com could allow more rich media to be uploaded by the user, such as Videos and Music to compete with Facebook.com and Myspace.com. Digg.com could allow users to upload music and reference movies and provide an ability to review both. Xing.com and LinkedIn.com both need to expand their member bases geographical. As the services they provide are great in theory, but useless in a country where the database is fairly small. They could look at running a campaign for free usage of their premium service for 3-6 months aimed at business professionals in the locations where their members are scarce. Potentially, the users continue to use the service after the free usage time, are used to the premium service so continue to pay for it, and hopefully word-of-mouth will lead to further member joining. Obviously there are some social network sites that continue to be popular. Users will only allocate so much time in a day to use, post and upload content to a site. The ability to be able to upload or post to multiple sites in the one action is becoming increasingly popular. Xing.com is already taking the step and allowing users to link information or actions they perform on Xing.com with Facebook.com, Myspace.com, Twitter.com, Digg.com and multiple other social networking sites. This is creating ease of use for the member and increased exposure to other members on the other social networking sites. Finally, social network sites that have adopted these principles are proven to have more members, which in turn can lead to increased exposure for advertisers, and increased revenue. In general, social network sites that have wider audience scopes also tend to attract more members. But sometimes it can just come down to the “network effect,” in the case of social networking websites, the more people register onto the site, the more useful the website is to its members, and more appealing it is for other people to become members. It can have nothing to do with functionality and revenue but just “luck of the draw.”