An Oversight to Remember or Why Social Networks Succeed and Fail

I'm a big Mad Men fan and one favourite episodes is: A Night to Remember.

In it, there is a key scene at approx 11:23 -11:27:

Quoting Peggy: "...you have to get the girls - it's the only ways the boys will come. Tell them this is the way it works and I know better than them." [My emphasis].

This *is* the way it works. I'm looking at you Ello and Google+.

Behind every good social net is a marketplace. Evidence? Let's examine some popular social networks.

Winners
* MySpace - Bands. Girls love bands. Girls join. Guys love girls. Guys join. It all went south in the end but that's a discussion for another day.
* Facebook - Mark catalyzed fb by adding, *involuntarily*, a bunch of his fellow university classmates. Likely, students were not looking up their classmates' grades.
* Snapchat - Now what sort of text/images/videos would ppl want to disappear in seconds? That sort "currency" would be renewable and more scarce. Probably the perfect social network.
* Whatsapp - I didn't really follow the app's rise to prominence but I believe it was one of the first, best IM clients that had push notifications for free (as opposed to SMS). Again, this appeals to a younger audience with a stronger desire for this currency.
* Tumblr/Instagram/Pinterest - As a percentage of photos, how many are sexual in nature? (** discounting photos of granola/fruity breakfasts that NO ONE wants to see, sunsets, and pets) I would guess 75% or more.

Losers
* Ello - Their male to female user ratio may be infinite.
* Google Plus - Being a public company, Google has policies on what content can be posted. I would venture to guess that these policies are to blame for it's continued emptiness.

Other
* LinkedIn - I see this as less of a social net and more of an addressbook but it needed to be included.

* twitter - I see this a different sort of network (not social per se), where most interactions are published to an audience as opposed a peer. Given that twitter has failed to make a profit for several years, it seems monetization of outrage will continue to elude them. While their proletariat users are irrational (which is, in general, the basis for many profitable businesses) they seem to be the sort of users that doesn't spend money online.

* Reddit - This less a social net and more a message board like twitter. Again it suffers from issues similar to twitter.

In summary, sex might not be the only thing to trade on social networks but it is the 'reserve currency'. So, if your social network doesn't facilitate trades in this currency as it's main focus, stop right now.