Comments on: Facebook, Facebook, Facebook

By: Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, Apple » Webomatica - Technology and Entertainment Digest

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:27:41 +0000

[...] fruit, and their earnings, while decent, were nothing on the level of Apple or Google’s. I didn’t think they had a prayer at making a run for Facebook and there was hardly a mention of them even getting a foot in the [...]

By: Alex Notov

Alex Notov — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:44:25 +0000

I think that Facebook is starting to push towards a more mainstream audience. This is evident in their latest move to open registration to anyone with an email address. Prior to this, their initial step towards openness to a broader demographic, was to open registrations to users with corporate emails.

Also, according to some statistics published by FB staff, lots of its *new* users are Canadians and quite a few are from London:
Canada
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2398302130
London
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=5883272130

I’d bet that most of those users are indeed out of college/university, and are simply joining their regional networks, also provided by Facebook prior to the complete opening of their registration to all users.

By: webomatica

webomatica — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:50:26 +0000

Hi Alex, I agree with your assessment. I guess I’m wondering if Facebook’s strategy is to stick with the college demographic (that will get older) or if they’re going to try to push towards a more mainstream (older) audience. I think they have some work to do on the latter if that is their strategy.

Your mention of people moving from MySpace to Facebook I agree with. When I first checked out Facebook, my initial impression was that of a MySpace that actually worked like it was supposed to.

By: Alex Notov

Alex Notov — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:29:44 +0000

I agree with most points in the article except this one:
“Does Facebook have mainstream appeal? It proved its worth with the college set, but I’m not sure if I ever see my mom signing up for Facebook (wheras many oldsters get YouTube).”

Facebook gets upwards of 25 million returning users on a daily basis. What’s more important to point out though, is that most of Facebook’s users will be out of college in just a few years — 50% already are. What this means is that an entire ‘generation’ of users who are *not* of college age are going to remain on Facebook. One may argue that as college ties (friendships, etc.) are severed, said ties on Facebook will also be severed. But, I will argue this will not be the case. Facebook, as a social utility — THE social utility of the modern internet — if you don’t count email, has enabled its users to maintain those ties through its ’social graph.’ It is no secret that the average user in the set of 25 million daily returning users spends over 30 minutes on Facebook per visit. Social capital on Facebook is like on no other site; from events to groups to being the largest photo-bearing-and-sharing site on the net, Facebook binds the nodes on its social graph with edges that are razor sharp.

So, although you may be right that the older demographic (35+) may not be signing up for a Facebook account any time soon, the current generation of Facebook users will mature. On a different note, current MySpace users (10+ yrs. of age), who are not Facebook members already, will soon realize what they are missing — I did. The MySpace account I have, I check once a month, only to delete the endless unsolicited friend invitations from girls who want me to pay them money for a web-cam strip show — sex workers’ social utility, maybe — MY social utility — definitely not.

By: Fine Art » Facebook, Facebook, Facebook

Fine Art » Facebook, Facebook, Facebook — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:48:50 +0000

[...] Commerce wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptUnsubstantiated rumor says that Microsoft is considering a large investment in Facebook that would…, but the company is run by a pretty young guy (although that didn t stop Microsoft or Apple). Does Facebook have… regret that decision. Yahoo!, Microsoft, or Google I think Yahoo! is under other pressures… go it alone, IPO, and attempt to be the next Google post 2.0. But I m thinking Google or Microsoft… a go at building their own social network, meanwhile Microsoft will purchase Facebook – and so [...]