Implications of Revenue Model for Social Networking Sites and Beyond

Social Networking has become a new buzzword in day to day life of youngsters and gained immense popularity during the past few years. Many network sites such as Facebook and MySpace are claiming to have millions of members and the membership is increasing day by day. The paper aims to understand and classify the complex revenue model of the social networking sites (SNS). A comparative case based approach has been taken to review many social networking sites in order to answer the question of how social networking sites create value for their users and how they can capture it. In particular, how social networking sites can generate revenues through advertising, subscription, and transaction models and managerial implications, providing examples from case studies and recommendations for leveraging the value created through these services.