T&A: Knowledge at Wharton has released a feature predicting a possible shake-out in the social media network space.

Basically, with Facebook’s recent purchase of FriendFeed, Friendster’s refocus on the APAC region and MySpace.com owner NewsCorp reshuffling some execs, there’s buzz that this could be the first signs of a shake-out.

According to Wharton, while there is still growth in this sector, expect a round of consolidation, restructuring and reinvention soon.

One of the biggest reasons for this prediction is that there are too many social networking sites — one of the signs for this is when there are aggregation sites which compile social profiles from multiple networks.

Wharton also shared some insights into Friendster, which announced plans to expand into Singapore, Philippines and other APAC countries in January.

HWM Indonesia

HWM Indonesia: We’ve been bombarded with tons of social media network sites for the past decade.

The potential of getting a vast amount of traffic in a short time is so alluring that all kinds of social media network sites are set up, from a very niche social network (e.g. www.temankuliah.com for the Indonesian audience) to a global social network (e.g. Friendster or Facebook).

The sites that offers the “portability” (e.g. accessible on mobile phones) and “quality of relationship” (e.g. interaction with your friends through games or comments) will differentiate themselves in the long run, thus maintaining or even growing their members through recommendations/ invitations from existing members.

Without deep pockets, the bigger sites, of course, will be expensive to maintain.

Despite the heavy traffic, monetization is still difficult although the idea is catching up with advertisers. However, shake-ups will continue with the current small pool of advertisers.