Well – now that Red Herring Europe is over and the dust is settled, I have yet to post my comments and thoughts on one of the best panels there – Social Networking: Trends and Opportunities. The reason is that I think that what Andrej Nabergoj from Noovo and Yann Motte, CEO, Webjam were saying was SO important - and it was not cloaked in any support of their own companies, rather they were in earnest talking about where the industry really is and more importantly, what will the next billion users want from social networking – certainly not the balkanized maze of choices today – even Andrej said that he is tech savvy but it took him days to try and connect all the pieces of the puzzle. And this new wave of users from China, Pakistan and India – what will they want or what will the expect from what is out there? In other words, what will they inherit and what will they demand. 1 billion users is a staggering number. With Bebo’s acquisition by Time Warner – we still don’t really see any companies that are working towards unification or rather a “one ring to bind them all” application.
Yann put it so simply when he said that right now – social networking is in the middle ages – from here will spring forth a new tool or way to not only use social networking in a way that is easy and intuitive for users but also will be able to generate money. No one really knows the answers at all – a recent article in the Economist basically implied that social networking is everywhere and no where. This certainly echoed the comments from Andrej and Yann at Red Herring Europe and I can only hope that we will be able to hear more about their thoughts and other companies that are working to figure out how to move it all forward.
