Social networking and video sharing are getting bubblier

Posted on May 1, 2007
Filed Under Venture News |

Social networking and video sharing, two favorites of venture money, are getting more and more hot air. How many video sharing sites do we need? How Veoh is different from Brightcove? How Revver, Metacafe, Grouper, iFilm and Break are different from each other and thousands of Youtube clones? The amount of US venture capital flowing into video-related startups of all types jumped by 95 per cent last year to $682m, according to figures compiled by Dow Jones/Venture One.

What niches are not yet filled in social networking? Soon every kindergarden will have its own social networking site. Well, I know it’s long tail but the only recent development in these two sectors is getting into narrower and narrower niche. No more new features. If I love exotic fish, I don’t necessarily need exotic fish social networking site. I may socialize with exotic fish groupies on My Space.

Recent study from Forrester Market Research Social Technographics suggests that share of active users on social networking sites is relatively small - only 13% of surveyed group are “creators”.

Still considering that most of funding come from venture sources and not from IPO’s, the social networking/video sharing bubble will hardly explode into our faces like dotcoms of 2000. The bubble will gracefully deflate into a sustainable number of feature rich websites with loyal user communities, until next tecnological advance will give boost for growths.

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