The Wire

Are online social networking sites big business? That’s the question being asked at the 2008 Online Social Networking and Business Collaboration conference in Sydney today. Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace are the fastest growing part of the web, with 8 of the top 20 sites in this category. MySpace alone has 170 million users and made US850 million last year. Barack Obama and Kevin Rudd have used social networking online to further their political ambitions, but when it comes to business, many companies are leaving their brands in the hands of bloggers and pundits.