Business Model - Gossip

Score: -2

Given that these are business models for an industry that could be considered brand new when contrasted with such practices as "direct sales" or the grandaddy of the all, "bartering," new business model terms are likely in order as well. If conducting business with a trusted company or person, like your doctor or your accountant could be considered working in confidence, or working with a confidant, then working with many "social network" companies could be considered working with a business world "gossip."

A "Gossip" business model is one where a business collects as much information given in confidence as they can about about a group of people, only to turn around and repeat it to their friends. These companies make a lot of noise about anonymizing the data before selling it off. Consider this, if the town gossip got ahold of intimate information about you and spread it to everyone who would give them a nickle, would you feel better if they tried to appease you by saying, "but I didn't tell them your name?" Does it really matter if your name isn't provided when the gossip knows your age, your gender, your income, your education level, your occupation, your marital status, your location, the number of children you have, your hobbies, what you do when your alone on the net, your general health, trustworthiness, your friends, your family, your purchasing habit, your entertainment preferences ...

The "Gossip" business model is one in which the bulk of the income is derived from an ambiguously defined product based on information intended for someone other than the company, and communicated under the companies stewardship, being sold to an unknown customer set. In other words, a "free" communication service is offered by the company only as a means to extract information from the end users of that service that is then homogenized and resold to corporate customers. Metaphorically speaking, a "Gossip" business model based company literally milks their end users for a product they resell to their customer base.

That resold information is then used by the unknown purchaser against the very same milk donors in ways they could not know, if only because they don't know who is using the information.