Will Gen Y Pay to be Seen Online?

Online social networking plays a large part in the lives of many members of Gen Y. Some strive to gain as many friends as possible and would "just die" if they weren't listed in a friend's top ten.

To what lengths will they go to gain exposure and contacts? Would they pay? A relatively-new social networking site, badoo.com, thinks that they will.


It sounds odd at first, but is it really? Professionals will pay to make contact on LinkedIn already, and young people are already used to dropping a dollar on an MP3 or a ringtone without thinking twice.

In place of advertising, badoo.com is supported by users who are willing to drop a buck (or a pound or euro depending on their location) to appear on the front page using feature that they call "Rise Up". Adage.com notes that "20% of its users access the function once a month and some pay eight or nine times a day to Rise Up."

It's kind of like they didn't really ban advertising - they just opened it up to the users. Now, instead of seeing what some might think of as SPAM, they see relevant content that they came to the site for in the first place. They came to find friends and check out content, right? It's kind of brilliant.

But will they pay? Overseas is where the site sees most of its popularity at this time. In the US, MySpace and Facebook have already been ingrained into Gen Y's consciousness with more than 100 and 60 million users, respectively. Therefore, it might be a little harder to gain a foothold. The site currently has over 12 million users, so it does pack some power, and could at least enjoy a cult following in the States.

If they do wish to make an impact here, they are going to need to come up with an effective strategy to spread awareness. There seems to be a lot that could be done with the message - "What's a friend worth to you... how about a buck?" But where could it go... facebook application anyone? They'd have to be extra sneaky to pass that one off! It will be interesting to see where they are a year from now...