Social Networks Will Be Tomorrow's iTunes
We all know by now that social networks aren't a passing fad. They're no longer used solely by early adopters, young adults, or tech enthusiasts - social networks are now mainstream. However, a recent UK study conducted by media research company, Entertainment Media Research, reports some figures that point toward the fact that social networks could do even more. In fact, social networks have the potential to be the content distribution platforms of tomorrow. See you later iTunes, I'm gonna sync with MySpace now...
The January 2008 findings come out of a large, 249-page survey, where 1600 UK consumers were polled on everything from behavior, to trends, preferences and attitudes to all forms digital entertainment across the board.
Although the poll features UK users only, it's easy to extrapolate some commonalities from the answers they provided. UK users are a subset of networks in question, but just as digitally invested in their social connections as any other demographic of users.
Who's Online and What Are They Doing?
The survey shows the top five UK social networks to be, in order, Facebook MySpace, Friends Reunited, YouTube, and Bebo. MSN Spaces falls just behind Bebo, if you're not one to count YouTube as a social network as they do because of its community element.
In the UK, social network usage does correlate with age, but even 1 in 8 of 45-54 year olds regularly use them, as do half of teenage males and two thirds of teenage females. Looking at the younger demographic (under 25 years old), 60% are using social networks.
Usage levels
This gain in popularity comes from the expense of other activities and media. The main activities showing a decline in time spent doing are doing work/homework, watching broadcast television (-12%), reading print (books are -10%, magazines are -8%, newspapers are -7%), visiting other web sites, and playing games. Among teens, the decline is even more pronounced with -32% less time spent on homework/work, -21% less time spent on TV, and -14% less time spent reading books. However, female teens show a +19% increase in listening to music.
Other activities suffer
And while many of today's social network offer the ability to stream content, the survey points towards their potential to become more significant players in the media and content distribution business. In fact, 1 out of every 4 users (27%) said social networks could be the main way they would access video and music if these features became available and the player was good. And for the under 25-year-olds, acceptance was even higher: for example, 40% of males, 20-24, agreed that the social networks could be the main way they would access content if available.
Beyond just accessing music and video, the potential for other types of content distribution is present as well. 26% of the social network users (1031 out of the survey's 1600 respondents) are interested in the ability to chat about the video streams, 23% are interested in using the network as a "serious" media player to stream music, 22% are interested in using the network as a serious media player to view TV programs, 21% would stream movies, and even 13% would be interested in using embedded online gambling. (Imagine if you could play Scrabulus for money!).
Moving Beyond Content Discovery
Social networks currently excel in content discovery, with 30% of users responding that they occasionally use them to search for new music, and for teenage girls this figure was 1 in 2. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 said that they would find out about movies and TV shows via peer recommendation within the network.
The telling figure is that 1 in 5 reported that they purchased music based on peer recommendation and have searched a social network to find new music to purchase.
If social networks chose to become more than content discovery tools in this area, they would already have a built-in customer base ready to buy, as long as the process from discovery to purchase remained easy and intuitive.
This idea is something that MySpace seems to already be working on. Last month, news was leaked about the upcoming MySpace music service, which may even be offering mp3 downloads and possibly via an Amazon partnership. If that's the case, then it wouldn't take long for MySpace to take over the media distribution game and become the number one online music retailer, beating iTunes with ease by sheer number of users.
MySpace the next iTunes? It's coming.
FOLLOW RWW ON TWITTER
RECENT JOBS
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
Very true that social networks will be the content distribution platforms, belong long.
Posted by: 113.com | March 19, 2008 12:01 PM
>Very true that social networks will be the content distribution platforms, belong long.
..before long.
typo
Posted by: 113.com | March 19, 2008 12:02 PM
I disagree. We will see how current closed social networks like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. will be overrun by open, distributed social networks, such as provided by the DiSo Project or NoseRub.
From that point on, the internet becomes one large social network - it's all about the semantics, anyway.
And then your analogy is just not working anymore.
Posted by: Dirk Olbertz | March 19, 2008 12:51 PM
While reading this article, and I was struck that it probably was relevant to a social networking site, HumanBook, which has over 250 million profiles of people, including you, your friends, classmates and relatives.
The HumanBook is a mutually managed people directory. People list their own real-life connections, and other connections they have awareness of, to create a lifelong network. The network houses the connections, and then the collaboratively updated address book nurtures them, assuring that they need never be lost. HumanBook is the tool that will allow you to cherish and sustain all of the connections of your whole life. So if you're interested, go to http://www.HumanBook.com and find your profile today!
Posted by: John | March 19, 2008 1:07 PM
For content discovery and distribution in social networks, there is an open standard called ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards) that is worth reading.
Posted by: Nick Vidal | March 19, 2008 1:08 PM
For content discovery and distribution in social networks, there is an open standard called ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards) that is worth reading.
Posted by: Nick Vidal | March 19, 2008 1:09 PM
It makes a lot of sense for social networks -- especially MySpace -- to get into the music and content distribution biz. They've already got a captive audience with a high interest in listening to and discovering new music, so it would be a wise business move to have the purchases just a click away. I can't imagine that the music industry wouldn't see the logic in this, unless the social networks don't address the industry's copyright concerns in the way that iTunes has.
However, I don't believe that this means the end of iTunes, not by a country mile. There's a lot of people on the social networks, but there's even more people outside of them. Many of us have no interest in putting up a MySpace profile. I like my music online, but I prefer to keep my social life offline!
Posted by: Marcello | March 19, 2008 1:18 PM
Agreed. Last.fm is one of my favs for this. What if you could purchase and sync up your latest playlist onC Last.fm. We're banking on this kind of concept too as we develop our features for podcasts at DailySplice.com.
But I don't think it's time to say goodbye to iTunes. I think it's just time for iTunes to become more social. This seemed like the game plan for Zune when it came out. What if the iTunes store was more like MySpace or Last.fm where you were given a little corner of the store and could even promote your favorite bands? Hmmm... even make commissions off your sales... haha, ok, maybe now I'm dreaming.
Posted by: Rian | March 19, 2008 1:31 PM
I agreed friend... and also like your way of explanation.
Posted by: Prashant Vikram | March 19, 2008 1:54 PM
Social networks will become more focused towards specific interests/needs and those that appeal to the mainstream will need to find mainstream value adds - music services make sense. iTunes won't die as its the easiest way to get music on and off the most common player. Maybe Apple will just partner with AOL and smash iTunes into Bebo...?
Ian Hendry
www.wecando.biz
Posted by: Ian Hendry | March 20, 2008 5:10 AM
"23% are interested in using the network as the serious media player to stream music" - Qbox.com is a way to stream music in different social networks such as MySpace, YouTube, and Bebo at one place.
Posted by: Qbox | March 20, 2008 2:29 PM
The idea of a social network as a content distribution tool makes sense – but especially so if that content isn’t monetized. One thing to note about the report linked to above is that it was commissioned by Wiggins & Co. LLC – a law firm that has represented the music industry in trying to control peer-to-peer file sharing. I’m not saying the data is biased, but the company sure is.
Posted by: Matt | March 21, 2008 7:42 AM
I think the growth will be in the use of smaller, more focused, niche social networks that cater to a particular interest, hobby or vocation. These smaller sites will allow like-minded individuals and groups to connect, exchange ideas and receive genuine and useful support.
These kinds of sites will also be attractive to advertisers as they get targeted demographics to spend their online advertising budgets on.
Thanks to sites such as ning, anyone can start a niche social network about anything. There's also a search engine to help find niche social networks that lists thousands of networks for a whole range of subjects, http://findasocialnetwork.com
Posted by: Douglas Gray | March 22, 2008 1:05 PM
This piece of research is just one more validation social network marketing is evolving - from Facebook to LastFm/linked in. Niche social networking communities....with real revenue models.
We're an online health and fitness social network and we deliver free and paid digital content. What we've done (in Beta Now) at MyPypeline, since inception, is to develop a comprehensive platform that marries free tools, niche community engagement and the power of referral in social networking with the delivery of paid niche digital media.
Great post - we've been referencing the research ever since.
Posted by: bogart.myopenid.com
|
April 17, 2008 12:27 PM