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The problem I see facing social networking startups in general is that they are only useful when there are others using it. You have to reach a "critical mass"
by jsjenkins168 19y ago
The problem I see facing social networking startups in general is that they are only useful when there are others using it. You have to reach a "critical mass" to be desirable, and getting there is difficult when there are already other bigger social networks with more people. Why would someone join a new social network when they can just join facebook and be connected with more people? The new features would need to be compelling enough for the earliest users to sign up. Because people are intrinsically lazy, those features need be extremely compelling. I think the evolement in this space will stem from new ways that social networking is used rather than simply providing niche slants on existing ideas.
- diabloernest 19y agoI agree that people are lazy. The user acquisition by these new social networks is far more intrusive. Asking for gmail, linkedin, yahoo, your-favourite-mail-app passwords, and then spamming all. i receive 5 such invitations daily, which are part of intrusive practices. With this, they build up users and seek more funding, giving a false impressions that they are "popular" amongst people. They should improve features, but as of now , features are not visible. Most of them are just theme based social networks. Which makes me inquisitive about the number of social networks each user joins on an average.
- ahsonwardak 19y agoI think that the answer to the future of social networking websites is somewhere between the two you present. It could still explore a million different niches, and Ning is enabling that (Think the long tail!). On the other hand, social networks should begin to offer more than keeping track of friends, their lives, our own lives, and the overlapping areas like events and blog posts.