Which leisure activities are losing out to Online Social Networking?
If anything justifies the use of the word ‘phenomenon’ it is the growth of online social networking seen in the UK over the past year to 18 months. Metrics data report triple-digit annual growth in traffic and ‘Facebook’ made it into the 2008 Collins English Dictionary as both a noun and a verb. As it says on the PG Tips monkey’s T-shirt: “I Facebooked your mum.”
Following this period of explosive – and truly ‘viral’ – growth, the online social networking sector finds itself at a fascinating point in its development. The expansion graph has now levelled off to leave the main players competing for market share rather than new users, corporate activity increasing and the first signs of market fragmentation beginning to appear. In short: the market appears to be already mature.
If anything justifies the use of the word ‘phenomenon’ it is the growth of online social networking seen in the UK over the past year to 18 months. Metrics data report triple-digit annual growth in traffic and ‘Facebook’ made it into the 2008 Collins English Dictionary as both a noun and a verb. As it says on the PG Tips monkey’s T-shirt: “I Facebooked your mum.”
Following this period of explosive – and truly ‘viral’ – growth, the online social networking sector finds itself at a fascinating point in its development. The expansion graph has now levelled off to leave the main players competing for market share rather than new users, corporate activity increasing and the first signs of market fragmentation beginning to appear. In short: the market appears to be already mature.
What happens next is less clear, but potentially just as exciting as the growth period that has just passed. Mobile represents the great frontier, but remains tantalisingly out of reach; newly open development platforms look certain to enhance the sector’s reputation for application innovation, and investment in back-end technology will push back the boundaries of what is possible: a personalised social operating system pulling together the user’s presence on all their preferred online media – the ultimate open platform.
This report takes a snapshot of the current shape of this fast-moving sector and assesses the direction it may take in future by testing the hypothesis that “the emergence of online social networking is transforming the way we communicate and how we spend our leisure time, on- and offline”.
Key themes of the report:
How has the rise of social networking affected traditional leisure activities?
Is social networking affecting the time spent on other Internet activities, like email?
What are the differences between users and non-users of social networks?
What are the differences between users of leading social networking sites?
Is social networking necessarily limited to the young, technology-savvy consumer?
What is the commercial appeal of social networking for advertisers?
Which factors have been most important in driving up levels of social networking?
Where are the main competitive pressures for social media coming from?
Britain has emerged from the recession but is faced with a long and lingering period of uncertainty. Consumers remain wary about the future, and this is reflected in spending habits and attitudes about what is 'essential'.
With further cuts ahead, the general mindset is one of caution, with the biggest question of all being 'what next?'
However, there is positivity too - people seemed to have moved away from the fear that pervaded much of the last 12 months.
A new breed of online retailers are leveraging the power of existing social networks.
Brands go beyond using Facebook
Brands go beyond using Facebook
How advertisers are using their own brand of social network to extend their appeal to a broader range of internet users.
Social networking is increasingly important to sell brands
Social networking is increasingly important to sell brands
Online interaction between brand/retailer and customer is proving to be a strong force within fashion. So much so that some are relying entirely on design ideas from their online members.
How has the rise of social networking affected traditional leisure activities?
