Ինչպե՞ս ստեղծել սոցիալական ցանցի կայք:

Today, technology has a surprising impact on the lives of all people, even when they do not notice it themselves. Globalization of markets causes the movement of people around the world and breaks their traditional social ties. And at the same time, the Internet availability, the falling price of smartphones, the popularity of social networks successfully connect these people with new information ropes. So, we can say that the disunity and loneliness of people are not fully related to tectonic economic shifts. Most likely, people did not have enough time to adapt to the new reality. But it appears that some companies like Meta don't want to rest on their laurels and are going to populate their metaverses with us.

In such conditions, the user has a choice-to passively expect the appearance of the social media features he needs from well-known giants or to start to compete on the hot social media market now. The ClubHouse showed how a beginner can get ahead of the favorites in the short-distance race. Are you ready to join this race and take your place on Olympus?

Do I require my social network?

Historically, technologies captured people's attention as they became more accessible. The number of active Internet users reached 5.2 billion active users in January 2021, which is about 66% of the world's total population. Social networks came into our lives a decade later than the emergence of broadband Internet access technologies, but already now they cover more than 52% of the world's population (4.3 billion people). The annual growth rate of social media users is 13%, and the number of Internet users is growing twice as slow! If this trend continues, in a few years the growth of the audience of social networks will depend on increasing Internet access coverage in developing countries. It can be expected that the informatization of the planet will be significantly accelerated with the development of broadband Internet access through Low-Earth orbit satellite systems.

It seems that there is no room for new players on the social media market, but not everything is so unambiguous. As long as there is still potential for the growth of the audience of social networks, there are opportunities to find unoccupied niches. It is obvious that even now, many Internet users deliberately do not use social networks, as they do not find practical benefits of them. Add other 1-2 billion potential users in developing countries who cannot use the Internet yet. The audience growth potential is outstanding.

The current giants simply cannot embrace all niches and prefer to construct defense towers around their successful business models. At the same time, small brave warriors like ClubHouse successfully fight for users on the plains and don't waste their resources storming these fortresses. We all admire Facebook's market cap of $930 billion, but let's be honest, the assessment of one ClubHouse web application of 4 billion pleases its investors much more. It is an ungrateful thing to assess the success of any new project. But as you can see, there are still many meadows for new unicorns.

If we simplify, the monetization of social networks means converting the time that users spend on social networks into income from targeted advertising and services sold. The average time user spends on social networks is about 2.5 hours a day, and this is sustainable value. It is extremely difficult to increase it, as the average working hours are decreasing slowly, and no reforms could reduce sleep time. Among the few techniques, we can consider transferring traditional offline actions into online, leading to the desired result faster and cheaper. Good examples are the emergence lately of numerous rental services, taxis, online retail. But it is almost impossible to make a lot of money in this market without your social website.

Today we can confidently say that the boom in social networks is far from complete. And therefore, the development of your social network website can be considered as a justified investment in a growing market.

Which social media website to choose?

It is worth noting that social networks are a general term for any websites that ensure the interaction of subjects, which can be both individuals and companies. It follows that the content on such websites is created mainly by the users themselves. The role of owners of such websites is mainly reduced to establishing rules for the exchange of content and monitoring their implementation. It should be noted that monetization of social media websites can take place in dozens of ways, some of which we will describe. Depending on the established rules, all social networks can be grouped into the following categories:

Universal social networks assume an equal format of interaction and allow for the formation of stable ties between different subjects. Facebook is the very first and most successful representative of this type, it tried to immediately cover as many areas of user interests as possible. The main source of income for such networks is the sale of targeted advertising. The audience of such networks covers the largest circle of consumers, so each advertiser hopes to find their target audience here. And, of course, Facebook is the largest player in the advertising market in the United States thanks to the arrays of personal data collected in the walled garden. For another universal social network Twitter, the main source is the sale of an API to access user messages. Curiously, the company itself does not consider user messages as protected data, as they are all publicly available. When choosing this type of social network to create, it should be considered that today it is almost impossible to collect personal data in your walled garden for subsequent monetization, as it took Facebook almost 17 years. No new social network will have such a margin of time anymore.

Entertainment websites connect users according to their interests and hobbies. Facebook noticed that it lacks this focus, so it absorbed Instagram, which has become a significant part of its ecosystem. In addition to purely entertaining, websites like Pinterest can unite people by hobby. Selling targeted advertising on Instagram or promoted pins on Pinterest attracts sellers who promote and sell their brands, goods, and services. The Snapchat social network has added special filters that allow users to easily create low-value content as well as sports partnerships. YouTube video hosting is also an example of an entertainment website. The main channels for generating income are the sale of advertising space to advertisers and paid subscriptions for users who do not want to watch advertising inserts. In general, we can say that such social networks have much more development opportunities compared to universal ones. Largely due to the use of artificial intelligence to provide unique functions.

Dating websites help people find partners, not only for personal relationships but also for business relationships. It may seem strange, but there are more common features than differences between the concepts of the Badoo dating service and the professional LinkedIn network. Although most users of such social websites have enough basic features, some are ready to subscribe to additional services, such as questionnaire promotion. The possibilities of monetization on dating sites are very high, but the competition in this market is huge. Therefore, when creating such a website, it is likely that you will have to carefully study in which niche to create a project.

Marketplaces are also social networks, as they most often do not sell their products. This includes not only platforms such as Etsy, where physical goods are sold but also rental services such as Booking. Despite the incredible power of Amazon and eBay, ideas for new marketplaces are constantly emerging. These are such universal platforms as Alibaba or Wildberries, and specialized ones as Etsy or Fineartamerica. Monetization is carried out by charging a commission from sellers of goods. But in the case of Fineartamerica, the seller sells the right to sell the printed author's work. It can be a reproduction on canvas, a smartphone case, or other non-electronic media. For rental services, monetization looks like charging a commission from the service seller. Regardless of the type of marketplace, the site is responsive to the buyer for the quality of goods or services. Ultimately, the marketplace transfers this responsibility to the seller, but managing such risks requires significant resources.

Information websites offer users to get the opinion of experts on a wide range of questions that Google search results receive irrelevant or unreliable answers. Conversely, other users can act as experts themselves. An excellent resource Quora, as well as dozens of others, collect huge amounts of knowledge in a variety of fields. We can even say that they prepare informational food to teach the upcoming strong artificial intelligence AGI, which will open a new era of humanity. But how do they make money? The scheme of selling sponsored items has proved more effective for them. Given the high weight of experts on the site, readers' trust in such articles is quite high. Quora itself claims a fourfold increase in the number of advertisers in 2021. Now, there is not a single news agency or major magazine left in the world that does not have an online version. The cost of publishing and distributing paper versions have become unreasonably high. Online platforms have allowed attracting a huge number of journalists to the formation of content, and the subscription model allows millions of readers to get instant access to current news.

Scientific websites such as Academia allow researchers to share the results of their scientific research. It would seem that huge amounts of scientific data provide unimaginable opportunities for monetizing such websites. But practice shows a different effect, the well-known resource ResearchGate was created in 2008, but still enjoys investor support. The complexity of monetization is probably because the scientific environment itself involves an open exchange of knowledge. And the idea of paid access to any knowledge seems blasphemous to such users.

Corporate websites are a tool to increase the efficiency of the company's sales, increase brand loyalty, and a way to unite employees. Such websites can operate both on the Internet and the Intranet. A well-known type of such website is corporate websites of car manufacturers, which provide dealers with access to special databases. For small independent car services, access to such online databases and services is not available, which makes it almost impossible to fully service some modern car brands. The obvious way of monetization is to encourage the conclusion of contractual relations. In other cases, the corporate social network website may be addressed to the target audience, for example, a certain demographic group of buyers. Although in general, a corporate site may not look like a social network, the functions of user interaction on it create a sense of movement that you want to join. And this, in turn, gives its marketers feedback from customers, and the opportunity to build direct relationships when promoting a brand or product.

Educational websites are a relatively new but rapidly growing segment in the context of the pandemic. Many people are attracted to the online opportunity to get additional education and skills, get in good physical shape, and learn how to manage their mental state. Such resources are very well monetized, as they allow users to choose a convenient time and place for classes. The creators of content and various educational courses are also interested in reliable platforms that will ensure not only the convenience of the learning process but also the protection of their intellectual property from misuse.

What stages do you need to go through?

It is a mistake to think that all successful social networks were born from only one brilliant plan. The creation process is usually hidden and cannot always be easily formalized. But, any newly created product can be described by reasonable actions.

Deciding on a niche and target audience is the most difficult to create a successful social network website. It is necessary to analyze offers in the niche selected, to assess the very possibility of creating a competitive product. Already at this stage, you can correct the original idea or decline it at all.

The choice of niche and its target audience are interrelated. You can come up with a completely undeveloped niche of social networks, but if the potential audience size is small, then creating a social network to monetize it will be a utopian idea. Therefore, identifying the target user by considering as many factors as possible will help you create the basis for the monetization of your website in the future. The fastest way is to obtain the ready-made data from many statistics services by subscription on the Internet. If you have resources, deepen your knowledge by testing your audience. These can be surveys using the services of polling companies, or the launch of a prototype of your social network involving focus groups on it. The latter method is the most expensive but provides high accuracy by obtaining telemetry directly from users.

Naming is an important part of marketing strategy. The name of the social network should be short and match the essence of the project. Do not use words consonant with the names of well-known brands, as in most cases search engines will ignore your resource. Check the uniqueness of the selected name on the copyright databases, and immediately register the domain name.

Monetization is a goal of the project, and you need to choose its methods in advance. This should be a part of the terms of reference for the developer. We have already described some methods earlier, but their list is much longer. No one but you know better what goals you set for the project, so you should not rely wholly on the developer in this matter. By the way, the company X Networks uses the agile approach, which implies flexibility in the development and consideration of the wishes of the customer even in the late stages of the project.

Selecting a social network platform will point the vector of its development for many years to come. Attempts to save money by using a Drag & Drop platform or self-hosted ready-made solutions are doomed to failure. The high cost of improvements multiplied by the absence of scalability and high load incapability will eventually lead to the need to search for another, working platform. At this stage, the choice is narrow-to create your platform from scratch or to find a developer who already has such a platform and can create and launch a social network within a reasonable time. In the first case, you will need significant investments in the creation and time for testing and finalizing the platform. The likely costs may amount to several million US dollars, and the work will take several years. In the second case, you can reduce the cost dozens less, and decrease the development time up to 18 months depending on the complexity of the project. For example, the company X Networks has been creating social networks on its QSNE platformfor many years. This proven solution ensures the unique functions of any social network website based on a stack of modern technologies. Even though the custom development of a social network requires more time and money compared to ready-made solutions, it will save you many resources in the long term.

Promotion is required throughout the life cycle of the social network, starting with the naming stage. The attraction of 100% of the target audience is the endpoint, but since the audience of social media users is growing constantly, no one can predict when this time will come. In addition to this factor, you need to keep in mind the constant struggle for the consumer's attention and the time he will spend on your social network website. Therefore, the promotion work will not be easy. To promote the project you can use influencers, advertising in other social networks, SEO promotion, viral advertising.

Website maintenance is required during the life cycle, regardless of the platform chosen. In addition to updating the program code and improving existing features, new ones will need to be implemented. Your developer knows the features of his platform better than others and therefore should become your best partner for many years to come. Be attentive to choose, and it is best to establish a partnership at the earliest stage of the project.

How much does it cost?

Each project is unique, and the exact cost can be agreed upon only after clarifying all the details. Each developer uses its method for estimating development costs, focusing primarily on the development time. However, you can use the X Networks cost calculator for the initial assessment. This company also offers partnerships in the creation and development of website projects. Be sure to consider this possibility, as it will help you save much money at the stage of creating your social network website but in some cases eliminate technical support costs.