Social Networking
Past, Present, Future
Mark Suster
Caltech MIT Enterprise Forum
October 9, 2010
@msuster
www.BothSidesofTheTable.com
Where Did Social Networking Start?
In our debates we tend to focus too much on
technology
It’s about shared experiences & we’ve
replicated this online
It’s about meeting people &
communicated with those we know
Online social networks mirror offline lives
It’s about the 6 C’s
 Communications
 Connectedness
 Common Experience
 Content
 Commerce
 Cool Experiences (ok, entertainment ;-)
It’s why
Becomes
It’s why
Becomes
Pre Internet had social networks
Pre Internet had social networks
Anyone around then will know what one
of these was
AOL bridges gap between pre-Internet & Internet
People advertised “AOL Keywords” not websites
AOL Keyword:
Swordfish
Web 1.0 made it easier to have personal pages
on “the web” (e.g. not AOL)
And “groups” have been around for ages
 Mothers’ clubs
 Church groups
 Education
Social networks have been around for a long time.
 Usability is better.
 3rd-party platforms.
 More people are connected.
But same old shit.
And then spam-based social networks began
Mostly for professional use / older demo
And it was really about extending your
network
Web 2.0 was born and we evolved online
social expression
Web 2.0 was born - social contribution
Blogging
Photos
Video
Web 2.0 went social - skewed back to youth
Facebook launched. Was exclusive
 Up market
 University
 Exclusive
 Urban elite
 Clean
 Ad free
 Verified
 Teenage
 Middle America
 Scantily Dressed
 Design chaos
 Ads galore
 Not verified
It started as .edu
And they captured the tech elite
They each captured 100m users, who
increasingly wanted to share photos / video
MySpace Bought PhotoBucket & Google Bought
YouTube
And MySpace declared war
on developers
And this guy (22)
Schooled this guy (75)
He understood software business was
different than media business
Within a SINGLE YEAR the game was over
And Facebook went mainstream
And then some !!!
And we’re back to advertising non-web pages
Brands are spending big & abandoning web
pages
Social networking then went “open”
 Asymmetric
 Public
Twitter really is a totally new concept
 Marketing channel
 RSS reader
 Instant messaging
 Chat Room
 Data mine
 Customer service Dept
And perhaps “open” went a bit too far
Social Spending
I think we all know that social is going mobile
And people are building platforms to enable this
Business Logic
Mapping Layer
Points of Interest
OK, OK
But Where are Things
Headed Next?
1. Social Graph Becomes Portable
2. We Form Around True Networks
Family
Friends
Areas of
Interest
Business
Associates
Networking
Dating
2. We Form Around True Networks
Family
“ I’m coming home for Thanksgiving”
Friends
“ Check out how wasted we were ;-)”
Areas of
Interest
“ Why did you choose MongoDB?”
Business
Associates
Dating
Networking
“ I can’t believe we’re working again this weekend ”
“ I love The Decemberists, too!”
“I’m looking for a role as a Director”
It’s ridiculous that these are all combined
today
Example: Quora
Example: HackerNews
3. Privacy becomes a bigger concern
Pictures of your Kids
Your Friend
Personal Info
Date of Birth
You
3rd Party
App
3. Privacy becomes a bigger concern
Tweets
@ messages
DMs
(private)
3rd Party Apps
Can Access
4. Social Networking Becoming Pervasive
So advertising & content curation are
instantly more targetable
But most websites don’t know what to do
beyond this
5. Third Party Tools (e.g. Meebo Toolbar) Will
Bring Social Networks to Websites
Twitter /
Facebook
Chat
5. But Also Bring Social “Features” like sharing
6. Social Networking Will Split into Layers
Business Logic
Mapping Layers
Network Layers
Totally New
Opportunities
Social Graph / Features
Open Source Data
Mgmt Tools
EC2
S3
7. Social chaos creates new markets
Social
Support
Social SFA
Social
Marketing
Personal
Relationship
Mgmt
Reputation
Mgmt /
Authority
Social
Analytics
Fuck “Check Ins & Badges”
Skate Where the Puck is Going
The definition of social networking will cease
to exist in the way that we seldom think
about Internet companies
And for those who wonder if Facebook now IS
the Internet, remember ….
Plus ça change
Jan 1998
April 2000
May 2007
It’s why Zuckerberg remains paranoid
And why there’s still a dream for those of
you who work hard & innovate
Social Networking
Past, Present, Future
Thank you