Profiting from friendship

摘要

Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, only half-jokingly, call it the URL strategy. The three letters usually stand for Uniform Resource Locator-the unique address of any file that is accessible via the internet. But in the world of internet start-ups, url has another meaning: Ubiquity first, Revenue Later. This pretty much describes the strategy of most big online social networks, which over the past few years have concentrated on piling on users rather than worrying about profits. That has allowed them to build huge followings, but it has also raised a big question-mark over their ability to make money from the audiences they have put together.