Page 257 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

Smartphone apps
Google Microsoft Mobile Feature phone Basic phone
Apple iOS browser Java apps SMS
Android Windows
* Facebook’s mobile website historically included Messenger but starting in 2016, Facebook has been requiring users
to install the Facebook Messenger application. It is unclear if this policy will apply to all users and phone platforms
globally.
** WhatsApp is discontinuing support for Nokia phones in 2016.
*** Not technically a social network. Shown to highlight SMS support.

2.4 Pursuit of revenue

Social networks have become enormously popular and are themselves bigger than the largest e-commerce
companies in the world.

Figure 5 – Social Network Users v/s Ecommerce Buyers

Social networks have found multiple ways to monetize their user base.

Advertising is a key revenue source, but social networks generate revenue through other sources too:
transaction fees, hosting fees, digital content, etc. There are examples in some marketplaces where the seller
is charged a bundled fee, most of which is attributable to compensation for bringing the seller a new customer,
but that also covers payments-related services. .
Social networks will likely collect the most revenue from businesses but will also collect from consumers in
some situations, such as P2P remittances and digital content. The revenue model ultimately depends on what
makes the most sense for a particular use case. With the breadth of capabilities and users, social networks
have significant flexibility to tune their revenue models.

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