The Official Kutano Blog

According to the New York Times, Silicon Valley VC firms and social network entrepreneurs are scrambling to build and fund sites aimed at “old” people -- which in social networking speak is anyone over 30, especially baby boomers. Why? Turns out old people are sticky.

According to venture capitalist and the author of the blog Infectious Greed “The older demographic has a bunch of interesting characteristics, not the least of which is that they hang around.” Meaning, they are a better target for marketers so maybe, someday, a social networking site (and the VCs who invest in them) can actually make money.

It’s nice that VCs and entrepreneurs are catering this is demographic. Baby boomers have been the fastest growing demographic on the social networking scene since 2005 and the 30+ crowd is one of the driving forces behind the success of Web 2.0 superstar Twitter (the average tweeter is 31).

But even without these sites, 30+ year olds have already made an impact on the social networking scene. How?

• They’ve improved the English. Text message shorthand substituted for English has seemed to have diminished. Even with Twitter’s 140 characters, there are few people who CBB 2 rite WO TMA. We’ve defiantly seen this at Kutano. Most our users write so that their English teachers can still keep their head held high.


• They try to get along. Admittedly, the older folks have brought with them a “how I can use social networking to make money, promote my blog, sell stuff” mentality vs. making friends. But, they’re footing the bills for the under 30s, so you know this was bound to happen. The good news is that they can’t stand to be sold to, so they have developed some sound advice on sales etiquette and social networking. A recent event of “Twitter Masters” also brings the point home that items posted on Twitter and other social sites are a permanent and to post accordingly.

In Kutano, our users’ musings can be controversial, provocative, and passionate. But they use Kutano as an outlet to express their opinions and start intelligent conversations with like-minded individuals, not tear each other down. Even the inevitable sales pitches have been low key and infrequent.

• They haven’t taken the fun out. Yes, “old people” change the dynamics of a site that started off catering to the under 18-year-olds. But for sites like Twitter and Kutano who have similar demographics, the “do I want my kid/mom to read this” drama doesn’t exist. Unlike the hilarious, but embarrassing, leaning curve for oldies on MySpace and Facebook, today’s new crop of popular social networking sites leaves room for humor without the embarrassment.

Moving Offline
The growth of the 30+ crowd online is also being credited for the change in the behavior of kids’ offline. Instead of sharing MySpace with their parents, today’s teens are connecting more in person -- and creating a hugging epidemic in the process. Will hugging be the new social networking?