Fourtune Hunters CBC

The Facebook Factor Trend - 14 Feb 09


Log on, sign in, and cash out. That seems to be the business model for the multitude of social networking sites that have taken over cyberspace in the past few years.

Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter dominate the dot com world. More than that, a recent study shows they dominate our free time as well. Canadians spend an average of 43 hours per month online and with Facebook and MySpace amongst the top ten most visited sites in the country, you can bet a good part of those 43 hours are spent tagging friends and updating their status.

The founders of these sites can make a pile – MySpace sold to NewsCorp (you know, the Fox People) for a whopping $580 million back in 2005. Facebook’s has a couple of mega-million offers, but rather than sell, they’re happy to sit back and cash in off the marketing revenue they make selling ads on their uber-popular site.
And most of the people running social networks and interactive sites aren’t going to sell their site for millions – they’re following the ads for cash business model. Just think - the first online ad was purchased in 1994 – and by 2008, the online ad industry topped $653.9 billion US.

Not every online venture is making money, but with growth like that, it’s no wonder that entrepreneurs are looking to cash in.



Photos of Ken Bautista and Jason Suriano, and Jason Richard

We scoured the country looking for Canadians with exciting ways to bring people together.

In Edmonton, Alberta - we met Ken Bautista and Jason Suriano, and their company HotRocket. They're running an online community where kids play together, exploring science and history.

In Saint John, New Brunswick we discovered Jason Richard and prop-2-go. That's prop as in property - his website connects real estate buyers and sellers.

And in Vancouver, we're downloading the whole story of Mike Tan and his website TeamPages. He wants it to be - you guessed it - the Facebook of amateur sports.

Stats

* Last year, 87 per cent of Canadians who went online visited a social networking site. That’s the highest visit rate of any country in the world.
* Canada’s digital media universe topped 23 million users in 2007.
* More than one-tenth of the world’s population has shopped online.
* Eleven per cent of Canadians who use the Internet have tried the online dating scene.

Airdate: February 14, 2009