An analytic study on private SNS for bonding social networking

Abstract

In recent years, SNS(Social Network Service) has become one of the most effective communication tools for people. For instance, ‘Facebook’ contributes to the phenomenon, and various studies have already been made about the public SNS. However, public SNSs have some problems including privacy issues and information overload while being useful for connecting individuals. In short, the function of public SNSs may not be sufficient for bonding human relationships or protecting privacy. In contrast, private SNS has different functional features which compensate the defects of public SNS and promote bonding relationship with fewer people. Considering the increasing domestic popularity of private SNS domestically, this study conducted a comparative analysis of 12 typical private SNSs to find out common features of private SNSs by comparing them with the features of public SNSs. Specifically, we mainly referred to the honeycomb model of social media to serve the objective of our study. Finally, we analyze one private SNS called ‘Band’ based on the key traits of private SNS and make a suggestion to improve the current service. The present study may provide a theoretical standard about private SNSs for innovating SNSs that are under overcrowded condition and we can also judge whether the factors are in accordance with user’s needs well in our future study.