July 10, 2007 at 16:43Ning Financing and Commoditization of Social Networks
The hosting company, Ning , has recently received an investment of $ 44 million, which was announced by founder Mark Andressen (by the way, we already published an interview with Mark four months ago, which was dedicated to this project). At the same time, according to rumors , the assessment of the entire startup amounted to about $ 214 million. To date, 71531 social networks have been created on the Ning site, that is, investors have estimated each of them at about $ 3000.
Another important point is the identity of investors. This is the Legg Mason Foundation, which has nothing to do with the Internet and high technology. However, they feel competent enough to invest in social networks. There can only be one conclusion from this: the technology of social networks is no longer considered to be something high and complex. Organization of users in the community and buying / selling them in bulk is the most common transaction. Social networks have turned into ordinary goods, which in the West is called "commodity".
Om Malik writes in his blog that this deal once again confirms his long-standing thesis about turning the functionality of social networks into an ordinary feature . Not only he drew attention to this trend: such conversations have been going on for several years.
The innovation of the Ning designer is that Mark Andressen was perhaps the first to realize and see the commoditization of social networks. He founded an infrastructure platform with the help of which any student group, church parish, newspaper or school class can build its social network.
via gigaOM
Another important point is the identity of investors. This is the Legg Mason Foundation, which has nothing to do with the Internet and high technology. However, they feel competent enough to invest in social networks. There can only be one conclusion from this: the technology of social networks is no longer considered to be something high and complex. Organization of users in the community and buying / selling them in bulk is the most common transaction. Social networks have turned into ordinary goods, which in the West is called "commodity".
Om Malik writes in his blog that this deal once again confirms his long-standing thesis about turning the functionality of social networks into an ordinary feature . Not only he drew attention to this trend: such conversations have been going on for several years.
The innovation of the Ning designer is that Mark Andressen was perhaps the first to realize and see the commoditization of social networks. He founded an infrastructure platform with the help of which any student group, church parish, newspaper or school class can build its social network.
via gigaOM