Social Network Bubble Officially Burst

from the that-was-fast... dept

It was just about a year ago that it seemed like the social networking craze had reached the height of its frenzy when Barry Diller stepped in to buy ZeroDegrees. Just one year later, very few people are talking about social networking any more. Friendster has more or less disappeared from the news and (as if to prove social networking is long gone as something worthy of buzz), Yahoo has finally jumped into the game. So, it seems fitting that Barry Diller is now looking to dump ZeroDegrees, after the me-too social networking site pretty much went nowhere at all. Once again, it’s looking like social networking was a bubble where those involved got confused about the difference between investment and revenue.


Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Social Network Bubble Officially Burst”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
7 Comments
Dan Semaya says:

thefacebook.com

One social networking site that is actually on the way up is thefacebook.com. Thousands of college students are becoming increasingly addicted to the site because it builds upon real world relationships at school and offers tools that have useful benefits for students such as showing you all of your neighbors and everyone in your classes. It also makes it easy to find old high school classmates as well.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: the heat is totally gone

I was big into Ryze, and excited to get into Orkut eventually, too.

Ryze was pretty interesting at first – I met at least 70 new people.

Pretty soon, we all realized that none of us could really help any of us. I made good friends/business relations out of 3 of the 70 at Ryze. And that was that.

Then Ryze changed their requirements for contacting people. I soon learned if you weren’t over there posting in the forums often, people wouldn’t check you out.

I think a place like 43things.com – which has no revenue stream right now – might be a more logical, potentially revenue generating site. And it might work better because people are gathering around an idea, motivated to come back regularly. If its just “meeting friends” – eventually you’ll have so many you can’t keep up with them, and if it’s like Ryze – “looking for business” – if the business doesn’t come, its of no use.

I’m not saying these won’t be successful, or generate revenue. Ryze does.

It’s just not the break-through product people expected.

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...