Question

Q3: Conduct a five forces analysis of the social media industry. Where do we, the public who use social media products, fit? Are we consumers or suppliers (or its workers)?

We often think of ourselves as consumers of Facebook, Google, Instagram and other Internet services. In reality, we are also their suppliers – or more accurately, their workers.

The book is Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility CSR chapter#9

Answer 1

Looking at Social Media Industry with the perspective of Porter's five force analysis, it is quite difficult to ascertain which part of public falls under which group. As social media is heavily influenced by networks effect (value increases as the usage increases) , therefore it is hard to divide the people in groups based on where they best fit.

After performing a deep analysis, I come to a conclusion that the public using social media do fall in the category of a Consumer, Supplier and a Worker. This may be better demonstrated with the fact that the social media accounts such as Instagram , TikTok and snapchat are used by people to stay connected and to communicate, thus making them consumers, but there is a part of public who also use these sites for earning money, publicity and much more,, resulting in increasing the brand value and network effect of these social media sites therefore such part of public might also fall in the category of a worker. And the public at the same time can also use these websites for sharing information, knowledge, news, facts and trends thus acting as suppliers of these websites by continuously increasing providing data that is usable and meaningful which keeps the site running. Therefore the argument that public plays the role of all three of the parties is true. Moreover after analysing five force analysis. New entrants can be easily identified as all those emerging social media platforms which come up with new ideas, features and innovation. Substitutes might be referred to as the nearly alike platforms serving same purpose with same appeal as Instagram acted at start to long old Facebook.

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