Business 2.0, Social media & networking

Social media bigger than email, and advertising ain’t the model

Two interesting posts came across my Twitter stream today.

The first: How To Monetize A Social Network: MySpace And Facebook Should Follow TenCent looks at how Chinese social networking company TenCent totally gets the “because effect” and raises more $$ through non-advertising revenue than Facebook or MySpace.

This was followed by the news that Social networking is bigger than email – with 10% of “internet time” devoted to social media. (I’m still digging to find what the other 90% is used for…)

According to that blog report (I haven’t had a chance to read the full report yet): “The search for a workable ad model is even more urgent now that social media has broken out of the youth demographic, Nielsen found.”

Perhaps, then, Nielsen are looking in the wrong place?