Interesting post on a draft taxonomy of social network revenue models by @ttunguz

I like this taxonomy a lot. Thank you Lisa!

I think this explains why Google likes Google+ so much:

Data By-Product Social Networks (LinkedIn, Branchout, PatientsLikeMe) – Data by-product social networks offer free services to the main user base but sell some data product to a different customer set.

LinkedIn, Branchout and PatientsLikeMe have cultivated vibrant communication networks. To generate revenue, they collect, filter, serve and sell the data users create to interested parties: recruiters and professional networkers in the first and second cases and pharmaceutical companies in the third case.

Google+ collects, filters, serves, and offers the data to a third-party that Google happens to own (the Google search engine).

Which is pretty clever, if it works.

I also like that Tomasz says that "FourSquare, Tumblr, Quora, Path, and Instagram" still haven't figured out where in the taxonomy they fit.

It takes years to figure it out. Luckily they all have patient investors.