In a move which the likes of Facebook have been dreaming about for some time it seems as though the finance sector may finally be showing an interest in the high profile but relatively low income social networking sector.
Those familiar with Facebook, one of the leading social networking sites, will be aware of the mass of leisure and gaming advertisements presented to members. The problem with these particular products and services is the fact that income streams can be fairly weak and unlike finance, where advertisers will pay big bucks for exposure, payments per advertising campaign are relatively low.
News that VISA, the world's largest credit card network, will pay £1 million to promote its small business services on Facebook has been well received by Facebook and the industry as a whole. Even though social contact is the main focus of these networks there are around 80,000 small business profiles on Facebook and many hundreds of thousands more on the likes of MySpace, BEBO, etc. Is this a turning point for the sector?
While a £1 million payment will come in very useful for Facebook it is a mere drop in the ocean for VISA and offers access to the estimated 80 million worldwide Facebook member list. If this campaign goes well then we may see a shift in the quality and amount of income these networks can expect to receive in the future. |
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