The Facebook Interview I've Been Waiting For – SXSW 2008
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I came across this BusinessWeek article on the “missteps” of facebook and how they got a bit too ahead of themselves. I’ve been waiting for a long time for such article to be published. The article was so-so but I enjoyed the reader’s comments. Zuck’s arrogance and aloofness doesn’t bother me (what can you expect from a 23 year old paper billionaire) but the cockiness and intent of revolutionizing the advertising world with their Beacon project was a bit far off. AND, I quote from the article “The Harvard dropout has created one of the fastest-growing and arguably most innovative Internet companies since Google.“
WHAT???
How can an over-hyped, viral marketed, annoying social Rolodex be innovative and revolutionary? That statement puts Facebook behind WordPress and the wonderful world of blogging, RSS, Wikipedia, Digg, Flickr and Youtube – Sites that actually bring value to the web!
The developer’s platform was a neat idea, I’ll give them that. But how can the small guy compete against VC backed companies like RockYou ($10M investment) and Slide? Do these 3rd party companies even have a business model?
Back to facebook – I guess people enjoy getting “poked”, graffiti on their walls and re-connecting with long lost friends they weren’t even that close with. Heck, even I have an account I visit once a month. I wish for the hype to deflate and have them focus on building a real business. Best of luck to them.
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Seems to me that you got something off your chest with this article :D. I have a facebook account that I once setup and then completely forgot about. I suppose you can use it for your Marketing strategies, but I just don’t have the patience and time to get involved in yet another one of these portals.
Hey Giovanna:
I agree. I’ve played with Facebook and I’m not seeing the billions of dollars worth of value. Sure, I have an account (haven’t logged on in a month or more) – I always thought I was missing something or just not “with it” enough to appreciate it. It’s nice to know I’m not the only person who doesn’t see the value of Facebook = the hype.
The innovation is in making it so addictive, and leveraging the community to make it even more addictive. They took forums and revolutionized the idea from threads to walls. Plus games like Scrabulous keep bringing people back..
Hey Gab,
Isn’t that what Myspace sorta did? I don’t know if you remember this but one of the first Social Media/Social Networking site was ryze.com that started back in 2001/2002. and they had the same features. You invited friends, made your personal page unique, post comments, etc, etc.
They started out as a niche for jobless, former dot-com employees and expanded globally. Their business model is charging premium members $10/mo and the site is still around and profitable.
A lot of these social media sites evolve and improve from the preceding one.
ryze -> friendster -> myspace -> facebook, ning, linkedin, hi5 and hundreds of others.
I only come back when I get poked/messaged. Other than that, I can’t see the marketing and entertainment value.
I agree. To be honest, I can’t even see the entertainment value. There are so many social sites that I feel I’d be breathlessly running to keep up if I spent much time on them at all, let alone notating what I’m doing every second. I’m not sure that’s even a good idea: I’m going to the store; feel free to break into the house. LOL
Hey DianeV,
Quick, what’s your email address? I want to add you on facebook…haha. Nice website by the way.