Social Media Scorecard - Thematic Research

Social Media Scorecard - Thematic Research

Summary

In the four years since January 2015, equal-weighted share price index of leading social media companies has risen 47%. The best performing sectors were video game developers (up 89%), application software developers (up 88%), and semiconductor companies (up 72%), while the worst performers were traditional advertisers (down 18%) and cable/satellite operators (down 18%).

The world’s leading social media companies continue to grow at a remarkable rate - Facebook, for example, still boasts double digit growth in monthly active users, despite having passed the 2 billion mark some time ago - and expand into new lines of business, including Internet TV and online dating. However, they face a growing number of challenges, with regulatory bodies taking them to task on issues such as hate speech, fake news, tax avoidance, and data privacy.

The larger and more established firms in this sector should be strong enough, and diversified enough, to continue growing despite these obstacles, but they should not underestimate the threat that regulation poses, not least to their bottom line. Nor should they dismiss the very real concerns about social media’s ability to negatively impact society that are at the root of many of these regulatory initiatives.

The report "Social Media Scorecard - Thematic Research" identifies those companies most likely to succeed in a world filled with disruptive threats. Inside, it predicts how each theme will evolve and which the leading and lagging companies are.

Scope

• This report is a sector scorecard, which identifies those companies most likely to succeed in a world filled with disruptive threats. Inside, we predict how each theme will evolve and who the leading and lagging companies are.


• It includes a theme map that shows the 60 biggest themes driving growth in the tech, media and telecom sectors.


• It explains how some of the largest listed players in the sector have performed over the last four years.


• It looks at major technology, macro-economic, and regulatory themes impacting social media companies.

Reasons to Buy

• Companies who invest in the right themes become success stories; those who miss the big themes end up as failures.


• Corporate executives and investors who want to outperform their competitors need to understand all the themes that impact their sector.


• However, many of these themes are, by definition, outside of the core competencies of company boardrooms because they typically originate from external industries.


• This Social Media Scorecard provides a top-down, comprehensive outlook for the key players in the social media industry over the next two years, based on the key themes set to transform their industry landscape.