E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of March 31, 2008

Surprise, surprise:  A recent article suggests that children are using social networking sites designed for adults.  "Research into internet use has found that, among children with internet access, more than a quarter of eight to 11-year-olds claimed to have a profile page on a social networking website. This is despite nominal age restrictions aimed at preventing pre-teens from using such sites."

(Link:  Adult social networking sites attract young users at guardian.co.uk)

Equally surprising is the suggestion that social networking sites don't generate large amounts of revenue when compared to other equally popular websites.  Fox Interactive, the Internet division of News Corp., may fall $100 million short on its $1 billion revenue forecast.  Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have tens of millions of users but generate relatively little revenue.  For example, the 80 million unique monthly visitors to MySpace generate well under $1 billion in revenue for News Corp. whereas Yahoo! has just over 50% more visitors and generates more than seven times the revenue.  Virtual communities don't generate substantial revenue, e-commerce sites that sell real-world products and services do (e.g., Amazon).

(Link:  News Corp. (NWS) Finds Out Social Networks Are Bad Business at 24/7 Wall St.)

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

Comments

[Brogan Keane]

This is an interesting article, it really highlights a problem with adult social networks.

There's been a lot of growth in adult use of social networks in the past few years, but what's interesting is that the majority of adults tend to use social networks geared towards teenagers. Look at adoption of Boomj.com versus 35+ users on Myspace or Facebook.

There needs to be a fundamental shift in what adults look for in social networks, we as a demographic and age group want different things out of social networks.

Read my post at fuegonation.com/blog to find more details. I broke down the problems associated with current social networks and why they are not fundamentally appealing to social networks.

Hope this helps Jonathan!

Best,

Brogan Keane

[Chris Lockwood]

It shouldn't be too surprising that kids are going to places meant for adults. When they see "Must be 18" or "13 and up only", that just increases their interest.