Music peps up social networking

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Mumbai, Apr 17: Social networking sites are trying to use music to attract more advertisers and boost their revenues. The market for Internet advertising in the US has been estimated to be around $20-$30 billion. As per a FICCI-PwC report, online advertising in India has grown by 69% and is slated to increase to Rs 1,100 crore by 2012. Social networking website, Myspace, on its India site, MySpace India, has added music on its list features to attract users and advertisers. Deep Malhotra, director of sales, MySpace said, “Earlier Internet advertising catered to exclusive content as far as the return-on-investment was concerned. Only travel, online matrimonial sites and financial services used online space to advertise. However, there has been a shift and we now have more products coming on board to advertise online.”

According to media analysts, FMCG brands are more open to experiment with new modes of advertising such as the Internet. According to a media expert, “Brands like Nokia, Vodafone and Pepsi associate themselves with youth and music. They might have a mind block to advertise on a social networking site, but may be more open to the concept if the site dealt with music favoured by the youth.”

Navin Mittal, business head, www.Fropper.com, felt that music helped to amplify revenue for a social networking site. “Advertising on the Internet has huge potential. There has been a 30% growth year-on-year of Internet users in India and is expected to increase to around 80 million by 2010. So for, advertisering on the Internet is becoming a viable medium to tap a wider consumer base.”