Research report - Social Networking Websites

Authors Avatar

GLOBAL MARKETING

RESEARCH REPORT

Social Networking Websites

WS 2007

                                                               GROUP D


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….  3

Executive Summary…………….………………………………………………………... 3

Data Collection Process…………………………….…………………………………… 4

Analysis Results

        Demographics………………………………………………………………………  5

Gender. ……………………………………………………………………… 5

Age……………………………………………………………………………. 5

Nationality……………………………………………………………………. 6

General Important Findings………………………………………………………... 7

        Which SNWs………………………………………………………………… 7

        How Much Willing to Pay…………………………………………………….7

          Percentage of Time on SNW………………………………..……………. 10

Usefulness Assessment – Factor Analysis……………………...……………….10

Preference Assessment – Factor Analysis………………………………………12

Hypothesis Testing

        Hypothesis I : Network Size……………………………………………………..14

                        II : Applications………………………………………………………..16

                        III : Usage Intensity……………………………………………………19

                        IV : Information………………………………………………………..20

                             V : Dependence……………………………………………………….21

                             VI : Registration……………………………………………………….23

Conclusion and Recommendations………………………………...…………………24

Limitations………………….………………………………………………………………25


INTRODUCTION

The world of the internet, with its ever-evolving opportunities, has always been an interesting topic to research. In our study, we have decided to take a closer look at the Social Networking Websites (SNWs), that are becoming an increasingly prevalent aspect of today’s technological society.

Even though SNWs are a relatively new type of communication media, with the oldest ones (MySpace and HI5) introduced only in 2003, in the last decade there has been a signficant increase in the number of SNW providers, as well as a rapid augmentation in the usage rates. This demostrates a great research potential of this field.

Our ultimate goal was to determine under which circumstances are registered users willing to pay for the services provided by the SNWs and if yes, how much. With this objective in mind we developed the following research question and hypotheses.

A wide range of SPSS methods was used to do so; ranging from general statistical tools, through correlation measuring to the factor analysis as well as factor scores. However, this report discusses only those that have provided the most remarkable results.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

After collecting and analysing our data, we were very surprised at some of the results.  Firstly, we expected there to be a correlation between the size of the network and the amount that a user would be willing to pay (or the amount they would consider fair) per month.  We expected that the more people a user had contact with in their SNW, the higher they would pay.  This was not the case.  Regarding our second hypothesis, it was significant that, most people (regardless of their level of satisfaction) were not willing to pay for applications.  Also, of the users that were both highly satisfied and willing to pay, they would still only pay a very small amount for applications.  So, even the most satisfied users are not willing to pay much.  This does not yield a direct linear correlation between payment and application satisfaction, but is interesting.  Of all of our expectations, we initially hypothesised that a user with a high usage intensity rate and/or a high overall dependence on the SNW would be willing to pay a significantly higher amount than someone who did not use the SNW very often.  Again, we found no direct relationship between either of these variables and payment.  When exploring the relationship between the usefulness of information and the payment, some significant results were found.  We initially expected that SNW would be valued for more social purposes (as indicated by the name Social Networking Website), but found that those users who valued the social information provided through a SNW were willing to pay less than those who valued the practical information (types of information are defined later in our study).  Lastly, we found the relationship between the decision to remain registered despite a fee and the amount a user was willing to pay very interesting.  The majority of users, if asked to pay a fee, would consider de-registering from their account before paying.

DATA COLLECTION PROCESS

First, a secondary data collection and analysis was conducted via the internet to get some background information regarding origins as well as common functions, but the main research focus was on data specially collected for the purpose of this particular research study.

The sample was selected by using a judgemental sampling method. As we initially decided that the whole target population should have access to the internet, the most effective way to reach them was through an online survey.

We produced an online self-administered questionnaire in English and Hungarian consisting of 27 questions. A filtering question was used to ensure that all respondents are registered with at least one SNW. Within a 10-day survey period we received 128 questionnaire responses.  Moreover, we used a branching question to go deeper into the payment topic.

Join now!

We collected nominal, ordinal and metric data using different types of single- & multiple-item scales to judge preferences, usage behavior, and some demographic characteristics of the members of SNWs as well as their willingness to pay for the service.

ANALYSIS RESULTS

Demographics

The sample can be characterized using frequency distribution for each variable of interest. For this particular marketing research project, the demographic data collected included country (nationality), gender and age. As such, the following graphs encapsulate the demographic composition of all respondents.

  • Gender

As indicated in the chart above, the distribution ...

This is a preview of the whole essay