The Social Web Economy: Introduction
I’m not paranoid, I just ask questions. In this industry (the web industry) it is frequently difficult to understand how revenue is being generated and exactly where the money is flowing. As my life has become increasingly reliant on the good health of the “social web economy”, I’ve thought more and more about how the money is flowing. When the Facebook platform launched, many suggested that it was simply venture capitalists paying money to other venture capitalists as a large application install economy ensued.
While that was how things were in the beginning, within a short amount of time large brands and advertisers started investing resources toward social applications. The social web does not just exist on Facebook but the social web economy got a significant boost when the Facebook platform launched last year. This is why I tend to reference it so frequently.
As the social web continues to grow, I think it is important to occasionally step back and see where we’re at. Over the weekend I have been thinking heavily about all the parties involved in the social web economy: the people and the companies. I’ve compiled a list of each of them, who their competition is and how they interact with other participants in the economy. The post started as a short overview but it has since ballooned into an 8 page overview of what I consider to be the social web economy.
I wanted to deliver this initially as one post but there is simply no way to deliver 8 pages (and what could easily become more) as a single blog post. As such, I’ve decided to create a series of posts about the “Social Web Economyâ€Â. I’ll cover the primary individual participants and roles as well as the types of companies that exist. Since just in a weekend this turned into a larger than expected piece, I’m going to build this out as a series.
If you find anything to be inaccurate or incomplete please let me know and I’ll be sure to update the posts involved. Next post in series: “The Social Web Economy: Who Are These People?“
