"Social Web" trends

"The Internet is going to develop into a medium that is marked to a high degree by user interaction (e.g. blogs, photo and video swapping, communities - i.e. the Social Web)." Just under 84% of the international experts queried agreed with this assessment to a high or very high degree. This result makes clear just how strong a future dynamic is anticipated for the Social Web.

The Social Web is particularly advanced in the United States. Here is where users make their own self-created content available to a large number of people via different platforms on the Web. The Social Web experts involved in the survey felt that the opportunities to offer self-created content to a large audience on the Internet will expand considerably in the future. A correspondingly high number of Social Web experts expect the volume of offerings on German Social Web-sites to go up considerably over the next few years.

At the present the volume of Social Web offerings in Germany is limited. It can already be seen however, that many Internet providers are working on marketable offerings and that a number of platform offerings will be going online in 2007. This situation is being driven primarily by a strong need for interaction among users. Two thirds of all Social Web experts believe that the already existing potential of the Internet as an interactive medium will be more strongly exploited in the future. Blogs, podcasts and photo or video file sharing will become increasingly commonplace.

Figure 28:		Social Web prognostications (Social Web experts)

But not only the degree of interaction among users via the Social Web will go up dramatically. Over 57% of Social Web experts estimate that Social Web applications will greatly facilitate interaction between institutions (e.g. companies) and users (e.g. product-based communities).This finding shows that the Social Web has a significance for corporate direct marketing on the Internet that is not to be underestimated.

The Social Web will also precipitate major changes in the social environment. The key word here is user empowerment. More than 50% of the Social Web experts surveyed believe that economic and social changes may originate to a larger degree than up to now through the influence of a networked community. This includes suggestions on product and content design by consumers as well as constructive criticism on improving existing offerings. Consequently it should come as no surprise that an ever higher degree of social activities and interaction will be transferred to the Internet in future - a prognostication supported by over 52% of Social Web experts.

The Social Web promises a considerable number of advantages. But what is the actual development state of the Social Web in Germany? The answer is relatively sobering. In a comparative study involving six countries, only Great Britain and France lagged behind Germany in terms of their state of development (Fig. 29) - a situation which leaves considerable room for improvement.

Figure 29:		International Social Web comparison (Social Web experts)