Social networking sites may impact how traditional businesses work

Channel NewsAsia 20 Jan 08;

SINGAPORE: Social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, have been around for less than five years, but they are already very much part of the Web 2.0 revolution taking place right now.

Not only are they changing the way people socialise, they are also making traditional businesses sit up and take notice.

It is estimated that about 194 million people around the world are managing at least one profile on a social networking site.

And with 800 million internet users still not registered with such sites, the potential for growth is overwhelming.

A recent study showed Friendster leading the race in the Asia Pacific region, followed by Facebook, Orkut and MySpace.

As proof of its popularity, 14 per cent of Friendster's global traffic comes from Singapore compared with only 3 per cent from the United States.

Friendster's global marketing vice-president David Jones said, "We started in the San Francisco Bay area in California where there are several Chinese, Asian communities. And it quickly vectored to Asia like four or five years ago, and it has just taken off from there."

And according to a UK report, the phenomenon of these sites is set to go bigger with more commercialisation of services.

The report also suggested sites like MySpace and Facebook will make tremendous improvements in being able to send out branding messages according to profiles of users, making it a goldmine for marketing companies.

The various applications on such sites also allow for better advertising.

Google's Open Social platform, for example, is being used by developers to create one-size-fits-all applications or widgets.

The Web2.0 fever has even caught on with highly successful bands like Radiohead, who has ditched traditional record label and used social networking sites to promote its music. And the band has topped the US and UK charts this month. - CNA/ac