As conventional
website adoption slows with surging social media use, a study by research firm
IDC predicts that Facebook and other social networks will become
key online platforms for home-based business promotions and commercial
activity.
The IDC study found
that about 40% of home-based businesses today use social networks to promote
their business. While social networking is still more often used to supplement
websites rather than as a substitute for them, roughly 20% of home-based
businesses currently promote themselves on social networks and don't have a
conventional website.
In another sign
pointing to rising social media use, IDC found that nearly 40% of home-based
businesses selling online do so without a website of their own, leveraging the
high traffic provided by major online marketplaces like eBay, Amazon.com,
Craigslist and others.
IDC also sees a
significant home-based business opportunity for software engineers, app developers
and website resource providers since relatively few home-based businesses with
websites currently practice search engine optimization or optimize their
websites for mobile device users.
"Websites have
provided a relatively inexpensive way for businesses to efficiently reach local
and international markets since the 1990s — and yet less than half of
home-based businesses currently have them," Justin Jaffe, research manager
for small/medium-sized business and home business research at IDC, said in the
report. "Social networks have made online promotion less expensive and
complicated, and Facebook and other social networks will become increasingly
key players in empowering the marketing and commercial activity of home-based
businesses."
Facebook, however, is
still devising a strategy to make money from its ever-rising number of mobile
users, which has helped result in its disappointing short life as a publicly
traded company.
By DOUG
TSURUOKA, INVESTOR'S
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