Mashable had a post outlining LinkedIn’s plan to introduce APIs on its “business networking platform” in reaction to the growth of facebook and its application popularity. This really got me thinking about how mature social networking is today?
If we consider social networking an industry, then we would assume that it goes through the normal industry life-cycle, with introduction followed by growth, maturity and then decline. We’ve seen social networking sites (companies) rise and fall, grow and now innovate and follow on.
The way I look at web industries is by comparing it to my family and seeing who’s using it. So when my younger cousins are onto something but I’m not, I consider it in it’s introductory phase. When I’m on it but my wife isn’t, it’s in its growth phase. When both the wife and I are users then it’s mature. When everyone, including my mom is on it, it’s probably about to tip from mature to decline.
So by that rationale, social networking is still growing. My wife has resisted the temptation of joining facebook – and for that matter any social networking application/site/tool – to this date, but temptation’s growing and she’s coming close… I think.
Growth is an interesting time in industries; we’re seeing some real innovation and some real problems being worked on. Personally, I’m finding it difficult to see beyond the application and widget noise and see some real value in applications built on facebook. Feels like someone new every day is using a new application – telling me what their mood is or what books their reading or what their toilet habits are like, okay actually that last one is an app I’m developing. The point is I’m not sure which applications add value and which ones are just clutter on my profile. Is this rapid application development on facebook sustainable? Will it filter onto other social networking sites? Will LinkedIn be able to create a similar buzz around its api and applications built by the community?
My gut instinctive reaction to all of these questions is no. But I’m definitely enjoying the ride. It will be really interesting to see where social networking is at this time next year or even in three years time. Maybe by then the wife will have joined.