Types of Virtual Communities and Virtual Brand Communities

Virtual communities have evolved considerably since they began. They have gone from being news groups and chat rooms to communities of people with strong bonds, diverse media for maintaining contact, and even with power in their sectors of interest. Virtual communities help their members overcome the sensation of isolation and allow them to maintain social activities. However, despite virtual communities’ increasing importance and popularity, there is still no classification system agreed on by researchers. This is due to the unique properties of virtual communities and to the fact that they are being studied across various fields. However, various classifications have been proposed with the objective of helping researchers of distinct disciplines to perfect their theories about the development of and participation in virtual communities. The structure of this chapter’s contents is as follows. First the existing classifications of virtual communities are analyzed. Next, we look at the special case of what are known as anti-brand communities, a specific type of brand community whose members create content that is critical of and generally against the brand they discuss. Finally, a unifying classification system for virtual communities and virtual brand communities is proposed.