The regional and substantial differentiation of social media

ABSTRACT

Social media represent an integral part of the modern economy. They contribute to the generation of knowledge and help improve innovation, forming new markets and entrepreneurial systems. The aim of this paper is to analyse the social media market by identifying the features of its development. It also highlights the trends in the regional and substantial differentiation of social media. The regional differentiation of social media markets is manifested as the development of global markets represented by the largest companies such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, as well as the formation of local national markets formed by the social networks of VKontakte, Youku and others. Countries such as China and Russia are particularly interested in the development of social media and they are actively engaged in the development of national social networks and Internet resources. A significant trend in the development of social networks involves substantial differentiation due to the development of highly specialized social media websites. These trends have led to the formation of new entrepreneurial ecosystems, developmental strategies for Internet companies, as well as the use of social media as channels for the promotion of products and enhancing brands.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• social networking websites
• market structure
• regional differentiation
• national features of social media

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• L86
• L11

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences [government assignment].