Excellent special report on the current evolution of the Web. The audience participatory trends have been evident for the last couple of years but are now reaching a critical mass. Although driven more by the consumer market the B2B environment needs to wake up and look to the consumer markets for some inspiration. How many business sites still lack the tools and features to allow their communities to truly interact with their brands. The fear of ceding some control to users still permeates traditional media. The traditionalists ignore these trends at their peril !
Cyworld (owned by South Korea's SK Communications) is reminiscent of the Metaverse in Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk cult science fiction novel Snow Crash .
(Cy means relationship in Korean). It claims almost of third of South Korea's 48 million people as members -
with reports of 90% of active web users 24-29 years old
participating. An interview with Rick Kim of Cyworld is available here and a WIRED article here.
My Space, recently sold to News Corp for $580 million has some 21 social
networking million monthly users
It's a fascinating time but just make sure you have on your staff those
who REALLY understand and participate in the current online trends.
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