The Trend Will End by 2012

According to a recent report conducted by Datamonitor , growth in registration on social networking websites is expected to plateau to a more “realistic rate” by the year 2012 or earlier.

Research suggests that although profits will rise from $965 million to nearly $2.4 billion, growth in all regions will have already peaked by 2009 and will level out in the next three to five years.

Mike Stopforth, CEO of Cerebra, a social and mobile media company, says that, “Every technology innovation has an adoption curve of around seven years, and the social networking phenomenon is no different”.



The slowing of the social networking trend can be attributed to over saturation of the market. With more and more social networking sites entering the market, it is becoming harder for each site to stay independent. The explosive growth in social networking right now is due to the fact that many users have multiple memberships. With so many different sites, most people are still in the experimentation stages of usage. However, within a few years people are likely to adopt a single site and terminate the use of all others.

What does this mean for social networking sites? Specialization is key for success in the future. I think that users are going to start preferring sites that are uniquely specific to their interests and needs. Sites that are closely tailored to members’ career paths or personal hobbies, as well as sites that offer exclusive tools and applications, will be able to withstand the decrease in growth.

This post is in response to the article found at http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2007/0710191038.asp?S=Business&A=BUS&O=FPTOP