A search on Wikipedia for 'social networking platforms' reveals 202 websites, where users can create accounts and engage with other users, from the most common platforms such as Facebook and Myspace, to the less well known sites such as Yammer, and Xanga. But are we reaching a period of saturation? Could the social media revolution be just a fad, just like the .com bubble, will we see a time when the likes of bigger social platforms burst.
Many of the business models of leading platforms such as Facebook and Myspace are built from advertising streams. Although this maybe true, it is currently in maturity stage with many organisations sceptical about launching there brand or product on a global scale. But when will advertisers learn, that social networking platforms are not the be all and end all of their activities. Common perceptions amongst businesses is 'we must be on Facebook and Twitter etc' but there needs to be caution. Organisations simply cannot just rely on social media as core marketing activity, other activities although still outdated must be utilised as well. As consumers get older and live longer, the older age group become more important and because they weren't brought up in the technical revolution, they are unlikely to be as tech savvy paving the way for additional marketing activities.
Some social networking platforms are launching premium platforms for subscribed users. We are seeing this more and more with the likes of Spotify and LinkedIn offering the opportunity to get more from the generic free version. Whilst this maybe true, people have been enticed into these platforms because they are free, it is difficult to change peoples perception, 'why would I buy or subscribe to something which I can get for free'. Furthermore the majority of the free versions of social networking platforms are good enough to be used on a everyday basis. It is difficult to change peoples perception, if social networking platforms build platforms from the bottom up rather than top down, integrating premium versions as their business expands, they will create potential difficulties in the long term.
According to Social Media Today, Twitter only has a 20% active presence, so what are the other 80% doing? There is no doubt that social networking platforms are encouraging people to engage across the internet, but there is a question of keeping people active. Therefore the likes of Facebook and LinkedIn developing mobile phone apps goes a long way to encourage the use of social networking platforms into their daily life's. But is it enough? Whilst the smartphone market has expanded, there remains concern over the strength of the Battery market powering these devices, the more people accessing app's on there phone, the more the power on the battery is reduced. In essence whilst the Smartphone has gone from strength to strength the Battery market has suffered.
Likewise the younger generation have been brought up in the 'technical age', but have high switching costs, this means that they can quickly assign to a new fad or a new platform. We have seen this with the likes of Myspace, people realised that Facebook was becoming the more popular social networking platform, so switched to Facebook. But what happens when something trumps Facebook. This is a sure reality, but I don't believe it will come any-time soon. We are seeing a lot more services being offered by Facebook to keep users content, and making it become the most used social networking platform and avoiding this high switching phenomena.
With so many social networking platforms, there will come a point in time, that market saturation will occur, leading hedge fund corporations will be sceptical that merely, advertising revenues are not enough to justify there input, pointing to a potential point in time when social media platforms can not supply servers, employ staff and potentially a revolution that will burst.
