I wrote about this last semester wondering when people would begin to want a share in the revenue that was produced in part as a result of contributions being made to social networking sites. It’s been noted that a small percentage of power users produce a large percentage of traffic, and therefore revenue for social networking sites and the initiative by Yuwie.com to share revenues with users makes perfect sense.
Is Yuwie.com a Glimpse into Future of Online Business?: “Yuwie’s business model is based upon two core tenants: 1) End-user participation is free – no sign-up fees or subscription fees are required, and 2) Yuwie currently distributes well over half of the site’s advertising revenue back to participating end-users. Not only are Yuwie’s end-users paid for the traffic generated for their own personal page, but also for the traffic generated by friends they refer to the site, in addition to traffic generated from their friends’ subsequent referrals (for up to ten (10) layers or generations of personal referrals).”