Gratification Theory - Essay Example

Empowering Consumers Before Mark Zuckerberg, before Craig Newmark, before Jimmy Wales, there is one on theinternet that believed it is the people who will eventually control the media it is the end-consumers that will dictate how media is going to be used and it is the end consumer who will dictate what messages they want to hear. That name is Jonathan Abrams. Jonathan Abrams is the founder of modern social networking site. He built Friendster, arguably the greatest modern idea of the digital world.

The idea was to allow people to connect with other people, share photos, converse, and make all sorts of communication. It is the father of all contemporary social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and MySpace (Rivlin 22). The idea was not original. It was actually an evolution of chatting services such as MIRC and ICQ. He just elevated it by allowing people to put their own contents. Abrams believed that the internet is a venue where the power will rest on the consumers, not the content providers.

Friendster, like Facebook, didn’t make money out of its direct users. He made money out of the advertisers who push ads to the users consistent with their market. Even his profit model is highly influenced by the end users. He programmed a system that will identify what ads a user will deem interesting. His program predicted what are the contents users will be interested based on the contents they put on their own page, their age, social class, gender, educational attainments, and what are the other contents they check out.

If a person, for example, mentions Coca Cola on his posts, the system will identify it and push Coca Cola ads to the person. That model is the same principle being used by contemporary internet giants such as Facebook and Google and it is proving to be a powerful theory. Google has been developing a system that will allow them to track as much data as they can to determine what kind of contents people are interested and what kind of ads they are most likely to check out. Gratification theory is finally realizing its potential.

ReferenceRivlin, Gary. Wallflower at the Web Party. New York Times. New York Publishing. 15 October 2006. Web. 18 October 2011