Trends 2007: User Generated Content Powers Business

Internet users were the personality of the year 2006 of the prestigious Time Magazine. They have indeed contributed greatly to many successes on the Internet including MySpace, YouTube, Digg, etc. Thanks to them, we had new billionaires this year. What do they have in store for us in 2007? Will they be as diligent in creating content and interacting online?

In 2007, companies will certainly try to make better use of user-generated content. While 2006 was the year of new sites based on the work of Internet users, 2007 will probably be the year when the content generated by users will emerge from the few dozen sites that monopolize all their time.

Obviously, we should expect to see more nested models inspired by the leaders of the moment. We should not be surprised to see established companies trying to use the creativity and the quality of the interventions of Internet users in order to add value. to their site. Some innovative companies are already using them extensively and reaping significant benefits. Let us think in particular of the advertisements created from scratch by consumers of the product rather than by an agency or the comments of some who have radically changed products or even the "tagging" carried out by Internet users which makes it possible to find a product from another way than by its category.

But is this really the will of Internet users? Do they really want to volunteer their time to increase business profit? While the current models offer them free services without asking anything in return, will companies be able to convince them to invest in them?

We can expect to see the appearance of reward systems of different kinds in order to encourage Internet users to invest in a particular site. Why would they “tag” a song on this music site rather than another?

One thing is clear: companies will have to be as creative as Internet users were in 2006 to succeed in attracting them.