Social media has grown so much in the last few years and it shows no signs of slowing down at all. Experts project that its revenues will surpass $15 billion this year alone. For a lot of people who are already upset with social media for treating them as users but also products, there are more things to get upset about. One of the primary ways social networks make money is through advertisements. So, advertisements are not going away anytime soon.
Half of the predicted $15 billion revenue will come from advertising. The $15 billion figure represents a growth of more than 40% compared to last year. A senior researcher from Gartner, Neha Gupta, said that while sales will continue to grow, it will only be at a moderate pace. This is because social media audience has become more mature.
On the other end of the spectrum are sites developing monetizing services. It is not unusual for companies like Facebook to ramp up their efforts to engage users and make their platform more accessible not only for PC users but for tablet and phone users too.
Segments and games
There are various games and segments incorporated in social media and they perform differently from one another. Some examples of popular games in social media are from Zynga, Gree and Wooga. It is estimated that they bring in as much as $6 billion a year in revenues. Subscriptions, on the other hand, rake in a much smaller profit, around $250 million, but it is still money nonetheless.
Users looking for free services and products
Although some of the population is willing to pay money for some services, most are still looking for free content. It is not a surprise that games still tend to get the most money. There is large revenue to be found in social gaming and attracting gamers.
There are very few openings outside social gaming. There are professional networking accounts such as Xing and Linkedin but they only see very little activity. However, because of the popularity of Facebook, even professional-focused sites are searching for alternatives to paid accounts. They want to put more emphasis on professional services and advertising. Even Linkedin has now redesigned their site so that their homepage can attract more users.
It is not a secret that there will be new revenue opportunities when it comes to social media new services. These things will be able to bring significantly fresh revenue but the truth remains that the people who will be impacted greatly by all the chances are the advertisers.
It is of utmost importance to analyse information which interrogate social networks. This will give marketers a more accurate picture of the trends which are capturing the attention of customers, their needs, as well as their preferences. Once these things are known, it will be easier to get the attention of customers and give them exactly what they are looking for. If you are able to achieve this, you will be setting a rise in revenues.