MAKATI CITY, Philippines -- Acquire, retain and later make revenues. That is essentially what social networking services are meant to do, said Gregory Kittelson, president of Groovenet, a social networking service based in the Philippines.
Groovenet, a social networking service that caters to the local "hip and cool" community which enjoys music and nightlife, is building and retaining members of an online social network community first before it actually thinks of revenues.
Elmar Gomez, chief operating officer of wireless application provider Mobile Arts, agreed.
Gomez believes that social networking service "is an easy way to send your message across" to a lot of people.
Gomez and Kittelson who were attending the social networking forum eBusiness Conference Philippines 2008, said that social networking sites are meant to connect to a community.
There are about 450 social networking sites in the world, said David Jones, vice president for global marketing of Friendster. About one third of the traffic to the website is coming from the Philippines, translating to about 13.2 million unique visitors from the Philippines.
Jones said one of the popular applications in Friendster is known as "fan profiles." It is a small application that allows users to show who they're connected to.
"It's really a good way to connect to your fan base," the Friendster executive said.
Fan profiles can work for individuals who want to connect to celebrities. But it also works for businesses or entrepreneurs who want to literally stay in touch with their "fan base."
"People around the world use Friendster the same way. So while our content is becoming hyper-local, people still use the same features," Jones added.
Jones said one of the interesting observations about people using social networking sites is that there is "little overlap."
Generally, he said people actively check one profile although they maintain several social networking profiles.
Social networking sites are currently making money from advertising. In the case of Friendster, advertising is done through banner ads or brand promotions done within the website.
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