Well social networking is going to be the next revolution in the business like walk man did or DVD player did or for that matter cell phone did. Its what everyone want but is scared on privacy issues. If privacy issues are haldled with utmmost care then there is no limit.
I guess my main concern is we seem to be moving in the direction of an unsustainable business model, as the Internet was in pre-2000. The VC industry was supposed to have learned it lesson, investing in companies with a proven market and a proven track record. It seems VC is latching on once again to a tool--social networking--without knowing what it is going to be used for. So we'll see a few multimillion-dollar success stories, but a lot of failures as well.
The technology has offered us oppportunity to use initiatives to create and effect our environments with new ideas but what makes a differnece is the extent at which it is widely accepted. Facebook for instance is like a jackport in connecting people and enhance socialization. Family tree is like a rocket science when it was freshly introduced to the tech system. More will still flood the market. Some of these innovations are based on fame and strife for fortune
I find it rather humorous that every day I read or hear something about the next great app for any of the major platforms that’s going to change the world. I myself have a few apps that I find rather helpful. I also find plenty of them useless. These small startups or apps without significant capital investment should be fine if their sales or installs don't take off. What about the ones with millions of dollars invested? Everybody is trying to become the next Facebook. It would seem like many of these apps are headed for the same fate as the startups from the dot com era.
It is a common knowledge that more than 50% of users on any social networking site are one time users. They accept somebody's invitation to join and may visit the site often initially and later may just forget that they ever signed in on that site. Though the site may claim to have so many millions of users signed in, only a fraction of these are really active and out of these active users only a fraction use this medium for some meaningful purpose. So any new developments and offerings in this field , in my opinion have only a gimmick value.
Majority of people like to be on the bandwagon. Facebook has done pretty well in social network scene as well as Google who distinctly has special apps making search easy on the net. Indeed, they will continue to be ahead of other new social network websites.
@Barbara "How many days have gone by this week without a new app or smartphone hitting the market? The market is quickly becoming saturated with products for the Great Unknown -- the social network"
They are many new apps trying to make something similar or a bit unique to Facebook and Google; their success and magics are overshadowing other new social network inclined apps. In my opinion Facebook and Google will be ahead until people get bored.
DennisQ--good point about restraunts--didn't think about that! The more I thought about Color's niche, the more perplexed I got. If you are on a NYC subway platform, do you really want your social network distributed for you by your cell phone based on the proximity of people also on cellphones? Not me...
Sure does sound familiar. If anyone wants another take on the social networking scene, I found a great interview Charlie Rose did back in January with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Check it out : http://www.charlierose.com/search/?text=twitter
I read about the Color story earlier. I can't believe they got that much funding for such a questionable, unproven concept. Yes, I understand that they apparently have some cool technology... but it sounds to me like it's the type of thing that only a very small amount of people would use for any extended period of time. Maybe if you were an aspiring photographer in Brooklyn, it would be a cool thing to use for a couple of months. But for your average person? Maybe you'd check it out just to see how it worked, but it seems like the type of thing you'd quickly forget about and stop using.
And I'm sure shortly after launch there will be some story about a creepy person using Color to share obscene photos and/or stalk people.
You said it, "Back in the heyday of the Internet, anyone with a PC could start up an Internet business. The same appears to be true now for apps." I think that's a perfect analogy.
But I wonder what has a higher failure rate? Social media/smartphone app start-ups... or restaurants?
This isn't the only industry where the success rate is low. Maybe that's how it'll always be. I certainly don't think this time will be any different.
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