Give a billion in the five-year plan!

RBC quotes Strategy Analytics:

Network revolution
(http://www.rbcdaily.ru/2007/12/21/world/310399)

In five years, the number of users of online communities will exceed one billion
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Actively developing social networks on the Internet come out on top positions in popularity among users, which are already 373 million people. According to Strategy Analytics, the annual audience growth of such communities is about 22%. Industry experts believe that soon the exchange of information within social networks can be left without a significant number of consumers by professional media.

According to Strategy Analytics, in five years users of networks such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr will exceed a billion. Facebook now has over 58 million users, MySpace has 110 million, Flickr has 24 million, YouTube has 57 million. “Niche, small communities, clubs with private membership, professional associations emerge,” Strategy Analytics director of digital media department told RBC daily. Martin Ulausson. “Professional media are trying to take advantage of this trend and create similar communities.”

It is still difficult for researchers of social online communities to answer the question of how to make money on this phenomenon. Users run from resources whose owners are overblown with advertising, but it is also difficult for such networks to exist without advertising content. “The big problem is how to turn networks into money,” says Martin Ulausson. - It all comes down to advertising, but the consumer does not like it. On the other hand, advertising is successfully promoted in all other media. If people ask if they want to see ads on TV, most will say no, but they will continue to watch videos. ” It is important to find a delicate balance between the number of attracted users and the volume of advertising. In the meantime, there is no clear business model that would be successfully applied to social Internet communities.

Many experts see in social networks, if not an alternative, then an effective and almost already mandatory addition to modern media. “Users and consumers spend more and more time on networks, which means less attention to professional media,” says Martin Ulausson. - People read fewer newspapers and watch TV less often. At the same time, it is still 24 hours a day ... ”It becomes easier to reach the consumer through social networking sites than through the media. A person becomes more interested in the information that his friend distributes, and not the mass media.

It is estimated that today every active Internet user is a member of at least one virtual community. In Russia, Odnoklassniki.ru (7 million users), Vkontakte.ru (4 to 6 million), MoiKrug.ru (more than 1 million) are most popular, Western experts are also surprised by the popularity of the Russian-language segment of Internet diaries LiveJournal. RBC Holding recently acquired two social projects, Memori.ru and Aeterna.ru, and also launched a new network, Vspomni.ru. According to preliminary estimates, the total daily audience of these projects is more than 2 million people. “Social networks are growing continuously, it is one of the most actively developing markets. Moreover, Russia is experiencing rapid growth, ”says Evgenia Gaiduchenko, head of the department of sociological networks at Media World. The total number of users of Russian social resources is estimated by tens of millions of people.

You can see the growth in the number of users of social networks in 2007-2012 according to Strategy Analytics here .

via RBC daily