Social media must show "enduring value"

Social media websites will have to find a way to bring in more revenue, because advertising alone will probably not suffice, according to an industry insider

Social media websites will only continue to succeed if they show "enduring value", because otherwise people will not want to pay for them, according to an industry expert.

Neil Stapley, founder of Dadooda.com, pointed out that online companies will find it hard to survive on advertising revenues so there needs to be some other form of income.

He claimed it is fine to establish a brand through free access but eventually it will need to either switch to a paid-for service or sell the whole company to another big firm, which may see potential in acquiring the user list.

Mr Stapley suggested that of all the social networking sites, Twitter may be one which has the ability to start charging for content.

"The key is to have a product which people perceive to have real and enduring value and for which they are therefore prepared to pay," he explained.

Twitter increased its number of unique users from 2,612,058 in August 2008 to 23,579,044 in the same month this year, according to siteanalytics.

06/10/2009