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Should Social Networks pay users?

Categories: Social NetworkingPosted on September 19th, 2007

Steven thinks that Social Networks should pay us, and Mark agrees. Why should they pay us? For the time, attention, and effort that we put into a system that generates tremendous amount of money, millions in fact. This concept isn’t that much different than when I suggested that online data storage companies should pay users who upload data. The information gathered, organized, and re-used for marketing purposes will generate enough revenue where the users can get a cut.

How much money does a company like Facebook make from Sponsored groups? $300,000 per quarter, includes forms of advertising such as ads, flyers, and whatever else they decide to deploy. (details from Owen) How many sponsored groups are there? My count last week shows 187. There’s some predictions about revenue growth based off these rate cards, attaining a billion in revenue sometime next year.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 7:37 am and is filed under Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Comments
  • Bad idea. Social networks should provide forums for us to do what we want with. They enable us to get value in whatever ways we want. If they annoy us too much by selling our information or marketing badly, then we will just go elsewhere.

    Paying for social network participation will poison the well. Like pay-per-click, as soon as you pay for it you change it forever. And not for the better.

    Tom O'B
  • Yeah, I think this is a bad idea. Does the value of the network come from user revenue (I assume in the form of micropayments/credits) or from services and features. I would rather have that capital invested in the next killer app than in attracting users only interested in clipping coupons. What's next, paying users to be more social and interact with other users?
  • My goodness... please tell me few people take this sort of thing seriously. Why on earth would these services PAY people to do something they already want to do?

    Here's a radical idea:
    I hereby recommend that people share their information with services if and only if they feel they get compelling value in return. Better shopping experience? Good product recommendations? Opportunities to get reunited with old friends? Awesome! So why on earth would monetary bribes need to enter into occasion?

    The whole "I own my attention!!!!1 Pay me money!" stuff is the mumblings of well-meaning eggheads who need a friendly but firm reality check, IMHO.
  • I don't think social networks should pay users to use them. However, they should allow users to make money with their profiles. My website Treasure Friendships is a database of social network users that are interested in getting paid to post content in their profiles. Let me know if anyone is interested in learning more about this new concept I developed.
  • God! A little bit hostile in the comments are we.

    I think it should be up to the social network. And if the one who chooses to give a little back to the users in a similar way that Adsense works is the last one standing, we have our answer now, don't we.

    And drink a little less coffee.
  • For an interesting take on this, read Cory Doctorow's "Eastern Standard Tribe"

    http://craphound.com/est/

    His music sharing system in this book is similar to this idea.
  • Absolutely they should. Every tool that monetizes viewers should be paying their audience - though giving them money is probably the least effective way to do it. Paying your audience means giving them something valuable in return for their attention, be it entertainment, information or some other utility. The networks that will fail will do so because they're not properly compensating their visitors... and that price is getting higher every day.
  • I would think that bribing them is just another form of mockery for the intelligent users that we have today.

    How about if a social network aggregator let you have access for online dollars such as giving webpoints and monetizing your content media such as images, videos, music that you own or have legal right to sell ?

    With that idea, how do you think users will react if you are given free access to prime apps such as websms, shopping cart, affiliate app, etc in return for webpoints but which is actually the total activity, views, content of the user?
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