Social Networking Finds A Business Model: Crime!

Scams

from the ok,-not-really... dept

Okay, the title is a bit of a joke, but since the whole “social networking” bubble first came about, there have been plenty of questions about what exactly the business model really was for those sites. While some have started to figure it out (or sold out trying), others are still struggling. One of the big question marks has been Google’s Orkut, which has been pretty much taken over by a huge Brazilian user base — some of whom apparently found the site quite useful for one thing: drug dealing. Brazilian police apparently used Orkut to monitor and track down a Brazilian drug ring who used the site to deal drugs. Of course, considering the very public nature of Orkut, you have to wonder what those using it for this purpose were thinking. Either way, how long will it be until some uppity politician starts talking about the evils of social networking sites because they heard that they’re used for drug dealing?