The Business of Social Networking - MaRS 2009 Market Snapshot

“If you are not on MySpace, you don’t exist.”
16-year old Skyler Sierra quoted by Danah Boyd
(www.danah.org) at a 2007 presentation at the
Berkman Center for Internet and Society,
Harvard Law School.

The accuracy of this statement may be questionable, but the above quote effectively captures the staggering global popularity and growing ubiquity of online social networking sites. Closer to home, in spring 2007, Toronto was crowned “The Social Media Capital of North America” and “the Facebook Capital of the World”, though the Facebook crown passed from Toronto to London by fall 2007. While popular social networking sites enable individual users to connect and share interests and information, it is also the case that technology and product developers and marketers increasingly view these portals as attractive platforms for conducting business and showcasing their wares - often to a targeted audience. Despite this growing popularity of social networking trends, it is not uncommon for new market entrants to find themselves grappling with questions such as: Just how big is the online social networking market? And what exactly does it take to build a successful commercial venture around online social networks?

This document provides Ontario-based entrepreneurs with a primer on this very dynamic market.

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