Is Facebook the crack cocaine of social networking?
Madmusings first e-mail bulletin to me from those crazy guys at MAD, a valuable source of marketing news, certainly grabbed my attention.
So what are those wild cats on about?
Simply that Facebook, far from waning in popularity is still on an upward curve, with new sites being launched specifically for Germany, France, Spain and China. It could be just the start.
As madmusings points out Facebook has been dismissed as a fad, among the number of critics is Rupert Murdoch who said it was “more of a directory.” Well you would say that….especially if you had pulled off a master stroke, worthy of Monty Pansear’s batting (which is not good), of buying MySpace’s parent company for a “cool” £330 million. Better to have invested in Coke, the drink or even the coal derivative, seeing we are using that colourful imagery.
One thing is clear MySpace was in the international market with country specific sites long before Facebook. But who would you bet on to succeed in a couple of years?
Tom Cheesewright of IO Communications told me (I am going to be pulled up on this aren’t I?) that the Internet allows the best sites to succeed even if they are new entrants to the market.
The traditional marketing model is that the first in usually captures the biggest share, I think it is 30% or 40% if I remember all that education. Early followers grab a lot of the remainder and the rest , the crumbs.
As for the attention grabbing headline? It grabbed my attention, even if did not quite live up to its shock value.
Tags: Facebook, MySpace, Social networking
July 8th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Oh yes you are going to be pulled up - on two points.
1. Facebook is losing users and market share in some of the earliest international markets it entered, such as Australia. People are beginning to switch to alternatives. Entering new markets does not mean that it is going to win over users there - especially in places like China where there are strong local alternatives. MySpace was the first to market in most places, and look how FaceBook decimated its userbase with a better product. The next competitor to capture the imagination of the most fickle consumers (teenagers) will do the same to Facebook - especially if it has a stronger mobile element.
2. On another issue entirely, IO Communications has merged with The Digital Quarter to form The Lever - check us out at Http://www.the-lever.com. The IO Comms site will be redirecting there as soon as we have a specific landing page set up.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Tom,
I knew it! But I think we can agree that the traditional marketing model of new entrants dominating markets is less applicable in the online world? Of course it can apply to bricks and mortar, everything is in constant change.
Well done on beating my spam filter with your plug. I will allow it this time.
Rob