The massive consolidation that has already started will continue for years to come.  Part of this will due to the over-investment in some spaces, such as the barrage of file sharing social networking sites.

- File sharing, of course, applies to both text, images and video.

- Social networking, too, has many applications, from music (MySpace - but today much more), to fashion, etc.

In the fashion space, today StyleHive acquired StyleDiary, basically to add content to social shopping (via PaidContent.org).

This actually touches on a third trend: the challenge of monetizing social media and user generated content, even in fashion, where you’d think e-commerce would finance the growth.

I also expect to see a lot of buyouts in video file sharing social networks; when you consider the landscape, which includes YouTube, Veoh, Daily Motion, Revver, Metacafe etc., a lot of these will merge… and some of these will - much like StyleHive - acquire content plays to differentiate.

Without content, social media sites will face challenges in monetizing their audiences… and today’s deal is a manifestation of that.

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