A few days ago I tweeted about an idea I had on social networking. I tweeted saying that there is a a maximum limit on the number of social networks someone is willing to keep up to date. I feel like this number is independent from person to person, so there will be people who can manage 5, 10 or even 15 social networks and others who can only manage one or two.
The question arrises, is the social network startup market oversaturated? There are hundreds of social networks out there and more seem to always be entering the app stores, however have people already met their social max with the apps they have already? There is always a possibility that these new social apps will sometimes replace another but most social apps try to aim at a new killer feature/focus.
The most recent example of this is the app called Beme that I have been using here and there for the past few weeks. Unfortunately whenever I use it I never really feel like I want to share with the app. It just hasn't clicked for me to be one of the apps I go to to share a moment.
I currently only manage probably 3 social apps at any given time, these apps I have used for a while and I have heavily invested time in both sharing and curating the right network to share to. Other apps that are built on their own network (not using Facebook or Twitter login/account making) are far more difficult to invest the same amount of time that I spent on my current networks.
Ultimately I believe that the social app market is oversaturated, but only for the non-current generation, I feel that as another generation comes along they will be more willing to use more social apps as they want to share more of their lives with others. Let me know what you think about the social max and if it changes at all as a generation gets older.