Panjea - Will Ad Sharing Beat Myspace?

Many people are trying to figure out the special ingredient that will take down Myspace. One of these ways that I wrote about a week ago (Gather.com - Paying Members) explored the potential of sharing ad revenue with members. Another site, Panjea.com, has popped up claiming that they will share up to 50% of the revenues generated from your profile. In addition they have a member referral program that will pay you 25% of the ad revenue generated from people that you sign up. From their site:

“Panjea.com is the first social media network to share the wealth with its members.

Panjea empowers you to easily express yourself online in words, music, photos, and videos, while earning points and rewards for your participation and cash for your creative contributions.

You bring the creativity. We bring the advertising sponsors. You earn a % of the ad revenue from visits to your place on Panjea. We receive a small % as your virtual agent.”

I think this ad sharing system undermines the whole purpose of social networking, connecting with people with similar interests, and turns it into some type of circus to see whos profile can gain the most traffic. In addition, as I stated before, I feel as if Panjea will have a hard time pulling in profits. If they are handing out up to 75% (50% to the user, and 25% to the person who signed them up) of the ad revenue generated on some pages, they will have a hard time covering the heavy server costs especially since their site is so graphic intense.

Bottom line…ad sharing will not build the next Myspace.

[tags]Social Networking, Social Network, Ad Sharing, Revenue Sharing, Panjea, Myspace, Gather, Brian Balfour[/tags]