On Corporate Agenda

Today, social networking is the biggest application of the new generation
collaborative web. It is used for personal as well as business applications and
it is still evolving as a pervasive mass communications platform.

Social Applications

The social networking fad gained momentum after the entry of Facebook in the
online social sphere in 2004, though MySpace was already there in the market.
Other sites include Orkut, Friendster, and local hosts such as Bigadda in India,
CyWorld in South Korea, Mixi.jp in Japan, and so on. However, public social
networking has, in fact, become synonymous with Facebook, as it hosts nearly 400
subscribers. And Twitter is a leading social network in the microblogging
category.

One-to-one chat is still among the most popular applications on social
networks and it is believed that nearly one-third of the active users come only
for chat. Moreover, social gaming has emerged as another major pastime for
consumers. Recently, Facebook and gaming company Zynga have entered a five-year
strategic relationship that increases their shared commitment to social gaming
on Facebook and expands use of Facebook Credits in Zyngas games. FarmVille and
Mafia Wars are among the popular games.

Tech Temperature: 99 on a scale of 1 to 100

Business Applications

Today, major corporations are not only using public social networks for
their brand messaging, etc, but they have also built their own dedicated
networks for communications with all types of stakeholders. The idea is to build
and manage different communities around the brands.

IBM, for instance, introduced LotusLive, a cloud based social networking and
collaboration services, that serves as a single destination for all IBM Lotus
online collaboration tools, including social networking, email, file sharing and
web conferencing. It helps businesses simplify and improve the way they interact
with their customers, partners, and suppliers. LinkedIn joined hands with IBM
Lotus to integrate LinkedIns functionality and networking capabilities with IBM
Lotus Notes, IBM Lotus Connections, and LotusLive.

HP also created an online consumer support community having an online support
forum, customer care site, online classes, etc as part of its community centric
initiative. Microsoft and Infosys launched an online supply chain center of
excellence to serve as an online community for manufacturers and trading
partners. SAP AG has introduced SAP EcoHub, an online marketplace that will
allow customers to select partner solutions for SAP installations.

Hot Trends

Social networking is becoming increasingly popular on mobile devices. A
comScore study found that 30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking
sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5% one
year ago. Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112% (25.1 mn users) in the
past year, while Twitter experienced a 347% jump (4.7 mn users).

IBM and RIM have decided to bring advanced social software features to
BlackBerry smartphones, that will help business users worldwide to find
expertise, form teams, share information and stay in touch in real-time. Social
networking is all ready to make its mark in the virtual world. Linden Lab has
introduced upgrades to its 3D virtual world, Second Life. Second Life is a 3D
online social world in which the users (Residents), create the experiences and
content. Each month, Residents spend an average of forty hours each in Second
Life, where they extend and enhance their daily lives with avatars.

With these developments, social networking is poised to herald a paradigm
shift in the way consumers and businesses communicate with each other.

Rakesh Raman

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in