Sorrell warns Facebook and Twitter against ‘over-monetising’
WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell has warned social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter of the dangers of ‘over-monetising’.
The advertising guru noted that record breaking user numbers at such sites couldn’t be directly correlated to an inevitable big increase in profits.
Speaking to the Royal Television Socirty Cambridge Convention, Sorrell said: “I have some fundamental doubts about the ability to monetise social platforms.
If you attempt to monetise it, it's risky, there are question marks. Facebook, Google+, Twitter … is a social interaction. We used to write letters to each other and now we correspond through Facebook and Twitter and other forms of communication. If you interrupt that with a message you may run into trouble.”
Sorrell noted: "Mark Zuckerberg tried two failed experiments – Beacon and one other – which were withdrawn in 24 hours after a revolution on Facebook.”
Conceding that user product recommendations was an “extremely powerful way of building brands” Sorrell followed with the inevitable but: “But it is a dangerous territory if you try to over-monetise it.
"I'm not sceptical about social media, I'm concerned about when you monetise it because by it's nature it's me talking to you electronically, digitally. If I'm talking to you and I send you a commercial message how do you feel about that? If i say 'buy this' or 'do that', it's not the right context."
Acknowledging that he is no oracle however Sorrell remarked: "Somebody asked me whether I thought Facebook was worth $15bn and I said no. It just shows how stupid I am because it's now being talked about at $100bn so what do I know?"