1. THE RISE OF THE SOCIAL
NETWORKING SITE
RYAN SNEDDON
C3092346

2. CONTENTS
 What are social networking sites?
 Types of Social Networking
 Features of SNS
 History of Social Networking
 Reasons for Social Networking
 Concerns
 Privacy
 Famous cases
 The business side
 Future implications

3. Defining Social
Networking Sites
“We define social network sites as web-
based services that allow individuals to:
1) construct a public or semi-public
profile within a bounded system
2) articulate a list of other users with
whom they share a connection
3) view and traverse their list of
connections and those made by
others within the system”
(Boyd & Ellison, 2007)

4. Types of Social
Networking Sites
 Broad-range social networking sites
 Those social networking sites that facilitate the greater
population by accommodating all interests and backgrounds.
E.g. Facebook
 Niche social networking sites
 Those social networking sites have a focus on a particular
niche and facilitate a specific group of people. The focus of
the website can be based on
ethnicity, culture, music, sports, hobbies, dating etc. E.g.
Flixster (niche focused on film)

5. List of Social
Networking Sites
 www.facebook.com – 650,000,000+ registered users
 www.twitter.com - 175,000,000+ registered users
 www.bebo.com – 117,000,000+ registered users
 www.flickr.com – 32,000,000+ registered users
 plus.google.com – 50,000,000+ registered users
 www.myspace.com – 100,000,000+ registered users
 www.qzone.com – 480,000,000+ registered users
 www.tagged.com – 100,000,000+ registered users
 www.delicious.com – 9,000,000+ registered users
 www.blackplanet.com – 20,000,000+ registered users

7. Features of Social
Networking Sites
Features are integral to the success of individual social networking
sites as they try to incorporate unique tools to get a step-up on
their competitors. Here is a list of commonly used features on social
networking sites:
 Profiles – A customisable page to exhibit the users
interests, opinions, photos, videos and communication with other
users
 Search – A tool used to find other members, pages and groups of
interest
 Tagging – The ability to “tag” or link another user with a particular
picture, video, comment or post

8. Features of Social
Networking Sites
 Privacy Settings – The ability to restrict the availability of content
to the public
 Friends – A modifiable list of people of interest, through “adding”
people or “removing/blocking” people
 Messaging – The ability to communicate with other users through
a private mode
 Integration with other websites – A feature used to interact with
material outside the confines of the networking site
 Applications – A feature that allows third-party programs to be
incorporated and used within the networking system

9. Timeline of Social
Networking Sites
1995 – 2002 –
www.classmates.com: www.friendster.com:
A platform designed to A system used for
connect people with their dating, discovering
acquaintances from events, bands and
school hobbies
1997 –
www.sixdegrees.com:
One of the first layouts
now seen in modern day
social networking sites

10. Timeline of Social
Networking Sites
2003 – 2006 –
www.myspace.com: www.twitter.com:
Launched after Regarded as the SMS of
discovering the the internet, sends
success of Friendster. “tweets” as a unique form
Most popular SNS in of communicated to
2006. networks
2006 –
www.facebook.com:
Originally limited to
Harvard students, quickly
became the most
popular SNS in the world
(650+million users).

11. Why Use Social
Networking Sites?
Social networking sites allow for
communication among ever-
widening circle of contacts. For
many, social networking sites are
vital for managing their
identity, lifestyle and social
relations. These sites provide
opportunity for self-
expression, creativity and
sociability.
(Livingstone, 2008)

12. A Global Trend
Many western societies are unaware
of the massive scope of success social
networking sites have had across the
world. As Google have presented the
top regions for Facebook consisting
of Tunisia, Turkey, Italy, Indonesia and
Venezuela. The Chinese QQ
messaging system was the largest
social networking site in the world as
soon as they introduced profiles to
their system.
(Ewers, 2006)

14. Concerns
 Data mining – Third party applications obtain information from users on
social networking sites predominately for marketing purposes.
 Harassment – This is mainly concerned with cyber harassment but there
have also been cases of physical harassment sourcing from social
networking sites.
 Sexual solicitation – Mainly regarding sexual predators who use social
networking sites as platforms to mislead people into performing sexual
acts.
 Content – With the limited restrictions on material shared on social
networking sites, there is a large amount of objectionable material available
for the public.
 Privacy – Privacy issues stem from the availability of private information to
the public, with the potential to lead to identity theft, assault, abduction
etc.

15. Privacy
There have been increasing concerns
over how protected personal
information is on these social
networking sites. Privacy of
information for children is a primary
concern due to their vulnerability and
nature of sharing information without
properly evaluating the consequences.
Should we be punished with the likes
of identity theft or harassment due to
a lack of knowledge of technology as
children?
(Thierer, 2007)

16. Famous Cases
 $100 million lawsuit against founder of
Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, by the Winklevoss
twins.
http://www.inquisitr.com/116835/winklevoss-twins-
drop-lawsuit-against-facebook-mark-zuckerberg/
 $1 billion lawsuit against Facebook for negligence in
removing the ‘Third Intifada’ page.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/04/03/3086686/f
acebook-sued-for-1-billion-over-third-intifada-page
 Legal action taken out against Twitter over privacy
issues.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/20/twitter
-sued-by-footballer-over-privacy

17. Social Networking Sites:
The Business
The potential of social
networking sites as a
marketing tool has quickly
been realised. It has now
become a multi-billion dollar
industry with world wide
social network ad revenue
expected to reach $5.54 billion
this year and expected to
reach $10 billion by 2013.

18. “Social Networking Sites
and Privacy”
Here is a video that clearly demonstrates the business
element of social networking sites and why they value
data over individuality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UFW_v0G45M

19. Future Implications
Many have expected the rapid
growth of social networking sites
to plateau, however they continue
to report massive growing
numbers. This shows that social
networking sites will be a major
part of our lives for the
foreseeable future. There is an
expectation that these platforms
will gradually evolve into a more
object-centered environment as
the demand for information
continues to increase.
(Breslin & Decker, 2007)

21. References
• Boyd, D., M., & Ellisons, N., E. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history
and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13 (1), 210-
230.
• Thierer, A. (2007). Social networking and age verification: Many hard
questions; No easy solutions. Progress and Freedon Foundation Progress on
Point Paper No. 14.5. Retrieved on March 21, 2007, from
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=976936.
• Breslin, J., & Decker, S. (2007). The Future of Social Networks on the
Internet. IEEE Computer Society, 86-90.
• Ewers, J. (2006). Bigger than YouTube? U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved
July 30, 2007 from LexisNexis.
• Livingstone, S. (2008). Taking risky opportunities in youthful content
creation: teenagers’ use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and
self-expression. New Media Society, 10(3), 393-411.