Bill Gates Joins The Growing Social Network Exodus
from the nothing-lasts-forever dept
Extrapolation of what's happening "now" is one of the most dangerous things in trying to predict the future. If something is growing quickly today, it doesn't mean that will last. Take social networks for example. Historically, they have a pretty standard pattern. There's a huge rush of growth, as people think it's new and neat, and they sign up all their friends. Then there's a flat period where people are still using it, but some begin to question why. Then people start to realize that, beyond reconnecting with some old friends and acquaintances, there really isn't that much to do there -- and that realization may come even sooner if they're getting bombarded with advertisements. It happened way back in the '90s with Six Degrees. It happened with Friendster in the first half of the decade. Yet, some people and companies believed that MySpace and Facebook would be different. Certainly, both companies recognized this problem to some extent, and have worked to add more things that you can "do" on their sites. Both still get a ton of traffic and usage and aren't going anywhere soon. However, there are some worrying signs. Google recently noted that the ads it's put on MySpace don't perform very well (which is something of a problem, since Google has guaranteed at least $900 million in ad revenue to MySpace). And, now, reports are coming out that users are, on average, spending noticeably less time on both MySpace and Facebook, with some leaving it behind. And, what better way to amusingly drive that point home, than to point out that even Bill Gates has killed his Facebook page just a few months after Microsoft dumped $240 million into the company?![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: bill gates, growth, social networks
Companies: facebook, myspace
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
very true
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's not the "where" but the "what"
Also, your bit on Gates' leaving Facebook is a bit misleading, suggesting that he is leaving the site because he lost faith in the idea of social networking when, in fact, it was because it was bringing too much attention on him (it's his business whether or not he wants to be popular); it had nothing to do with his opinion of the strength of social networks. bad form.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gates leaving Facebook != End of Social Networking
Its more likely to me it was just a hassle. Its why most people stop using MySpace. Trying to network is a pain in the ass when you have spammers sending out invites on day old accounts. I say spammers, cause as sure as I am women dig me I'm pretty sure there are not 73 hot babes moving into my area that need a "friend with benefits," though they use a different phrase for it.
Facebook is a little different than MySpace, but I imagine it was just annoying. No point keeping something like that if you don't keep it updated constantly.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: It's not the "where" but the "what"
"Also, your bit on Gates' leaving Facebook is a bit misleading, suggesting that he is leaving the site because he lost faith in the idea of social networking when, in fact, it was because it was bringing too much attention on him"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
get off your butt
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's the lists, stupid
yes, there are people that i wish to be notified when they add photos/links/posts etc. but there are definitely much less than 500 people like that (I would say ~20-40)
Facebook's late-coming lists feature will address exactly that. the big question mark is how easy and accessible it would be.
-e
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's a fad
It's great to have a centralized place to keep track of your friends, but is it where we are going to spend our next 5 years, no way.
The next MySpace, the next Facebook is already out there -- just a matter of time until we all know it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I used to have a MySpace account...
I still got messages from people saying,"I think you are cute!! Please ad me to your Friends List! With pictures like that, how can they tell how 'cute' I am? They were just fishing for friends and I didn't want to add them just for that. It didn't take me long to realize that it would do nothing for my social life under those circumstances.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Social networking, not shopping
I would guess Bill Gates might benefit from people in his company who keep an ear to the ground and stay in the online conversation in THEIR social networks, which frees him up to do other stuff. Our CEO is the same -- we keep him updated.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
SN's with a purpose
[ link to this | view in thread ]
They have not figured out how to effectively monetize these networks? They will. A life without MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Bebo, etc... don't hold your breath.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tom Dickson
Your right, and using that same logic, seven years ago there existed only a tiny section in the video store that rented DVDs
Other interesting facts:
48% of people who watch series-based television watch it online, and don’t watch it on the television.
My favorite: 42% of 18-29 year olds will use the internet as a primary news source when they vote in the 2008 election, and they will vote...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxn5Qh1YW8M
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Social Networking Sucks!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
reports that social networking traffic is down
the data: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+myspace.com/?metric=uv
[ link to this | view in thread ]
IM? Lame.
For technophiles, we still used old school technologies called "email" and "irc". They are quite effective, thank you very much.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: reports that social networking traffic is down
First off, how can you not include LinkedIN in that mix?
When you dig into usage patterns on LinkedIn, you'll see a huge fluxuation of usage on a day-to-day basis, usually topping out on Wednesdays, which makes sense... It's been a week since I looked at the graphs, but I seem to remember a substantial traffic increase of (30+% ??) which was interesting..
Additionally, it seems that LinkedIn is the largest opportunity in the social website arena, as their usage is very low. But I still have privacy concerns after I dropped off of LinkedIn last year... Going from one or two pings a week to having 80 people pull up my profile a day for two weeks straight was concerning. There are a lot of privacy issues that should be addressed in the whole Social Networking arena.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+myspace.com+linkedin.com/?metric=uv
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Who Cares?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
What made these sites good, and why they fail
Xanga: Back in the day I was on Xanga (I can't really speak for what it is today). THE GOOD: You got *your* own web page, it was easy to set up, it had a blog. Probably the best feature was the "about you" section, but that was severely limited. THE BAD: Like all blogging sites, the over-proliferation of blogs lead to very few people reading each one. Social-networking features were few, so after you realize that no one reads your blog there's not much reason to stay.
MySpace: I was never on MySpace, but I've seen enough I think. THE GOOD: A lot of bands were on MySpace. THE BAD: Just about everything else. No privacy. Spamming. Poor web design. Annoying auto-playing music.
Facebook: The best iteration of social networking I've seen yet, but still with problems. THE GOOD: A nice profile page, easy to set up, some privacy. Good social networking features like photo-tagging your friends, groups, the wall (comments on your profile), words linked to show people with common interests. THE BAD: Privacy getting worse. But mainly: social networking has taken a back seat to "applications." Applications spam you with notifications to get you to add them. The newsfeed is filled with the applications people added instead of things they did. Profiles are impossible to navigate because people added 100 applications to their profile. The message Facebook is sending now is that playing Scrabble on Facebook is more important than finding your friends' interests and communicating with them.
I imagine that another site will come along with better social-networking features and the people tired of wading through all the junk on Facebook will move to the next big thing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Short term interest
It seems more people are follower's these days. They just follow the trends and never really are satisfied with the offerings. These social sites try too hard to be all things to all user's. They often fail when going this route and it would be better for them to just remain on the original path. Eventually like AOL they will be replaced by another popular ideal. Cell phone texting is going this direction too. It's very popular now but it will eventually make people isolated because they will not have as much actual face to face contact. I find we have fallen in love with the technology and not necessarily the ideal.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Everything is Changing...
" Everything is changing, exept the change itself...". Just as those companies (especially the computer or technology related products' company) that tend to merge with others to increase their power in the more competitive world.
The big question is not about the existance of social networking websites, but about how websites always creatively and innovatively change to provide services that suit the people's dynamic needs.
More example, can we notice the difference between computer (PC, notebook, tablet-PC, etc.) that has communication capabilities with smartphone that has powerful computing capabilities (wordprocessing, spreadsheet, media player, etc.).
For me, the boundary is not so clear anymore, which one is social networking, e-mail, chat or news websites, when everyone try to provide everything... One Stop Shopping they said...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: It's not the "where" but the "what"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
sports
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Goal vs. Social websites
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bored
I opt for the latter
[ link to this | view in thread ]
what's important to note
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Not enough Johns
[ link to this | view in thread ]
All useless.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Predictable
There'll be people who can monetise them effectively, and those who can't. Their usefulness for targeting particular segments is undoubted, and their contribution to overall online marketing effort is unquestionable - anyone know a better way of understanding a potential contact prior to contacting them?
I don't think the fact that Bill's killed his profile is any indication of any type of downwards trend in Social Networking - it probably just got completely unmanageable, and he has no time to update it anyway.
Rob
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Web 2.0
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Web 2.0
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Sounds like you need to grow up and leave the pot smoking friends behind
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ad revenue down!?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
poop butt
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Social Networks Need to Get Serve a Greater Purpose
Social Networking tools for business have multiple applications for getting real work done. Social Networking tools need to be integrated with business applications to help you with the task you are working on. For Example: I need to find out more information about the new employee benefits at my company. Who do I go to? Who is an expert? Who do they know as well who can help me. Enough with Social Networking tools for socialization outside of work!
Let's use these tools to help us get answers to questions, to find information which will help me get my job done.
[ link to this | view in thread ]