Social Networking

Past, Present, Future

Mark SusterCaltech MIT Enterprise ForumOctober 9, 2010

@msuster

www.BothSidesofTheTable.com

Where Did Social Networking Start?

In our debates we tend to focus too much on technology

It’s about shared experiences & we’ve replicated this online

It’s about meeting people & communicated with those we know

Online social networks mirror offline lives

It’s about the 6 C’s

Communications

Connectedness

Common Experience

Content

Commerce

Cool Experiences (ok, entertainment ;-)

It’s why

Becomes

It’s why

Becomes

Pre Internet had social networks

Pre Internet had social networks

Anyone around then will know what one of these was

AOL bridges gap between pre-Internet & Internet

People advertised “AOL Keywords” not websites

AOL Keyword: Swordfish

Web 1.0 made it easier to have personal pages on “the web” (e.g. not AOL)

And “groups” have been around for ages

Mothers’ clubs

Church groups

Education

Social networks have been around for a long time.

Usability is better.

3rd-party platforms.

More people are connected.

But same old shit.

And then spam-based social networks began

Mostly for professional use / older demo

And it was really about extending your network

Web 2.0 was born and we evolved online social expression

Web 2.0 was born - social contribution

Blogging Photos Video

Web 2.0 went social - skewed back to youth

Teenage

Middle America

Scantily Dressed

Design chaos

Ads galore

Not verified

Up market

University

Exclusive

Urban elite

Clean

Ad free

Verified

Facebook launched. Was exclusive

It started as .edu

And they captured the tech elite

They each captured 100m users, who increasingly wanted to share photos / video

MySpace Bought PhotoBucket & Google Bought YouTube

And MySpace declared war on developers

And this guy (22)

Schooled this guy (75)

He understood software business was different than media business

Within a SINGLE YEAR the game was over

And Facebook went mainstream

And then some !!!

And we’re back to advertising non-web pages

Brands are spending big & abandoning web pages

Social networking then went “open”

Asymmetric

Public

Twitter really is a totally new concept

Marketing channel

RSS reader

Instant messaging

Chat Room

Data mine

Customer service Dept

And perhaps “open” went a bit too far

Social Spending

I think we all know that social is going mobile

And people are building platforms to enable this

Business Logic

Mapping Layer

Points of Interest

OK, OK

But Where are Things Headed Next?

1. Social Graph Becomes Portable

2. We Form Around True Networks

Friends Family

Business Associates

Areas of Interest

NetworkingDating

2. We Form Around True Networks

Friends

Family

Business Associates

Areas of Interest

Networking

Dating

“ I’m coming home for Thanksgiving”

“ Check out how wasted we were ;-)”

“ Why did you choose MongoDB?”

“ I can’t believe we’re working again this weekend ”

“ I love The Decemberists, too!”

“I’m looking for a role as a Director”

It’s ridiculous that these are all combined today

Example: Quora

Example: HackerNews

3. Privacy becomes a bigger concern

3rd Party App

You

Your FriendPictures of your Kids

Personal Info

Date of Birth

3. Privacy becomes a bigger concern

3rd Party Apps Can Access

@ messages

DMs (private)

Tweets

4. Social Networking Becoming Pervasive

So advertising & content curation are instantly more targetable

But most websites don’t know what to do beyond this

5. Third Party Tools (e.g. Meebo Toolbar) Will Bring Social Networks to Websites

Twitter / Facebook

Chat

5. But Also Bring Social “Features” like sharing

6. Social Networking Will Split into Layers

Business Logic

EC2

S3

Mgmt Tools

Mapping Layers

Network Layers

Social Graph / Features

Open Source Data

Totally New Opportunities

7. Social chaos creates new markets

Social Support

Social SFA

Social Analytics

Personal Relationship

Mgmt

Reputation Mgmt /

Authority

Social Marketing

Fuck “Check Ins & Badges” Skate Where the Puck is Going

The definition of social networking will cease to exist in the way that we seldom think

about Internet companies

And for those who wonder if Facebook now IS the Internet, remember ….

Plus ça change

April 2000

Jan 1998

May 2007

It’s why Zuckerberg remains paranoid

And why there’s still a dream for those of you who work hard & innovate

Social Networking

Past, Present, Future

Thank you