Applications

Products and applications are the "cream in the coffee". Their diversity and distinctiveness and important to users, making them want to come back for more. The Social Web experts were surveyed on their opinion as to where user appetites were strongest. Leading the pack by a large margin was C2C commerce (Fig. 30). By now product buying and selling among consumers on Internet marketplaces is commonplace and one of the most heavily used Web applications. In the future it appears that C2C (consumer-to-consumer) commerce will grow even more. The second-most important application involves online communities, followed by file swapping and file sharing applications.

Figure 30:		Future use of Social Web applications (Social Web experts)

But blogs, wikis, user rated review communities and mash-ups will also become increasingly important as part of Social Web. As attractive as these applications may be, none of them is as attractive as C2C commerce. Why is that? The answer is simple: information on products and services provided by consumers appears more credible to fellow consumers than information provided by manufacturers or dealers.

This however will have a considerable impact on future marketing strategies (Fig. 31). The Social Web is becoming evermore critical to companies for reaching their customers. In future every corporation will strive for positive recommendations on customer blogs or in product-focused online communities, in order to attain a good image.

Figure 31:		Statements on social commerce (Social Web experts)

Online communities represent an impressive example of user empowerment. The power shift on the Internet to the benefit of consumers is closely related to the way a part of real life has been transferred to broadband Internet. Over 90% of Social Web experts see a considerable increase in the significance of online communities in people's social life, above all as concerns young broadband users (Fig. 32).

Figure 32:		Statements on online communities (Social Web experts)

The special role of online communities is produced above all by two advantages. On the one hand online communities provide their members with an opportunity to glean specific information and inform themselves on particular topics. Over 95% of Social Web experts agree to a high or very high degree with this statement. On the other hand members of online communities can expand their social network beyond narrow geographical boundaries - an assessment shared by over 71% of Social Web experts to a high or very high degree.

The important role of the Social Web in the future in undisputed. But the question remains: Who is going to pay for it? Social Web experts also have an answer to this question (Fig. 33). The upshot is that the most appropriate financing tools are service-based advertising, followed by commissions, display advertising and small-format ads. The experts perceive scarcely any chance for user fees to gain acceptance on the Social Web.

Figure 33:		Financing models for Social Web offerings (Social Web experts)

By networking people, the Social Web is becoming an increasingly important social communication and action platform. Considerable parts of our "offline" social life are going to be supplemented evermore strongly by online applications. But broadband Internet is also going to precipitate substantial But broadband Internet is also going to precipitate substantial changes over the next few years in other social areas, e.g. education, work and health care. The next chapter contains some scenarios of just what this might look like.