The Competition Between Social Networks

Amazing how market rules also apply to social networks. For some time, believed there was a split, even at the level of structure, these laws in order to know (= supply, demand and exchange value), but now I see that there is a split, it's just an adjustment to the new current climate.

Until last month, there was a clear competition between Facebook and Orkut, so in our national (as the only majority Orkut in Brazil and India). Outside, there was a non-direct rivalry between Facebook and MySpace, even though both are, in theory, as different resources. But recent polls showing a drop in the MySpace and Facebook's growth.

When I realize, Facebook has a multitude of possibilities and this range is more attractive than focused and specialized networks such as MySpace. In addition, MySpace is suffering from the growth of Twitter because Twitter walk serving as a conduit / panel of artists / celebrities to drive traffic to their sites / personal blogs, eliminating channel intermediaries like MySpace and YouTube.

And earlier this month, it introduced a clear attempt to migrate to its Orkut social networking: Now it is possible to find out if a contact has Orkut and Facebook so add it. I even used this feature and it works. Almost tripled my friends on Facebook.

The purpose of this is clear: use the most popular social network in Brazil to get more accustomed to use Facebook. Of course, if a social network has more friends, I'll use it more often. And the change of Orkut comes soon: a new look, with features much like the Facebook, as that bar share, in the style of Twitter. And the big attraction is the ability to customize your profile, with new colors and templates.

And why all this investment to garner more traffic and usage? Simple, attract advertising revenue. It's that old law of television: audience = advertising = money.

Yeah, some things do not change.