Nobody really knows how much social networks applications are worth, which leads some people to think that they’re not worth much of anything. But try telling that to the companies that are building businesses through applications, and they’ll laugh at you as they continue on their way to the bank.
The social network application market only started around 11 months ago with the launch of Facebook’s developer platform, and has produced a wave of companies whose impact is being felt across traditional media.
Latest example: Watercooler, a Mountain View, Calif. company that offers more than 700 applications based on the idea that lots of people want to talk about their favorite sports teams and events or television shows within social networks. It creates an individual application for a team or show. The application includes a forum, a feature for leaving photos, a user ranking system, quizzes, community moderators, and other features designed to encourage lots of interaction.
So far, the company says it has 20 million total users, with more than 18 million of them on Facebook. Its method of growth is based on real-world connections between, say, sports fans. Your friend on Facebook is a fan of Manchester United, and so are you (or not) — they add the Watercooler ManU application and invite you to argue talk with them (see above and below).
Sports fans and TV show fans are passionate, and the more passionate Watercooler can get them, the more time they’ll stay on its applications. For example, its apps also let you talk to fans of rival teams within a group forum. This, as Inside Facebook blogger and Watercooler employee Justin Smith says, is an opportunity for fans to express themselves and do community buildling. Translation: It’s an online dogfight between rabid fans, and a way to breed engagement.
Watercooler gets about 2,000 new posts, more than 5,000 trivia quiz questions answered and more than 1,500 new notes from fans every day. Think of Watercooler as a competitor of sorts to anything from ESPN.com to startup sports site like Yardbarker.
Watercooler is one of a crop of companies finding business on social networks through focusing on a specific category or two. Other notables are iLike for music, Flixster for movies, and Zynga and Social Gaming Network for casual games. All of these companies focus on people who like a certain form of entertainment, rather than trying to build wide-reaching but simpler applications like the stereotypical “throwing sheep” messaging applications by the largest app companies, Slide and RockYou. As you can see from this graph, Watercooler has done a good job of nailing both the sports and television categories:
Yes, this is valuable
Watercooler’s many applications give it immediate access to sports and TV show fans across social networks. This makes it an important new channel for the sports teams and television shows themselves to reach fans. And this is where the money is.
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