Comments on: Facebook Ads: You Will Be Monetized

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:00:48 +0000

Wow, thanks for the link Jase. That is some serious double-speak.

I’m also a little concerned since the way it’s positioned from a user-perspective is definitely moving into where my little website plays (fandom for anything). I hope we don’t get crushed

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:58:16 +0000

*sigh*

Thanks for the heads-up. I deleted my MySpace account, maybe it’s almost time to delete my Facebook account. It’s great for connecting with people you don’t see everyday, but it’s a massive waste of time for the amount of benefits you get from it.

I’d like to see something decentralized, I got the sense OpenSocial would be that…but I haven’t looked too far into the details.

By: webomatica

webomatica — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:46:46 +0000

Yep – the first message heard was from Facebook to the advertisers, and then another to the users, both of which have a fair amount of spin to make it look like a win-win for both parties – but I’m not seeing it from the user perspective.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:59:58 +0000

Jase – I agree, I’ll reassert that the business model should go into “beta” when the site/biz goes into beta. Of course, I’m not Facebook or YouTube or Google…so what do I know? lol. But the general mentality is: gain audience and share and then figure out what to do with it. Which is fine. It just means that you’ll have a few seismic events in the course of the company (like with this one for Facebook).

I think a big problem with announcements like this is that Facebook is marketing its business announcement to the media/industry using a lot of jargon and business-talk (always off-putting). Of course, the audience gets to hear all this at the same time over the very same interwebs being used to disseminate and, frankly, it all comes across as very, very…cold and creepy.

By: Loring Wirbel

Loring Wirbel — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:37:29 +0000

Thank you for making some effort at seeing the “no opt out” element of Facebook Ads from the point of view of the user. Nine out of ten blogs covering social networking, and an equal percentage of the commenters reading them, think this is a great idea. I don’t want to be branded and become a networked marketer for Facebook, so I’ll just opt out of using Facebook.

By: webomatica

webomatica — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:27:02 +0000

Some Web 2.0 companies provide web services that I could see users paying for (flickr comes to mind) but the whole “give stuff away for free and figure out how to make money later” was something that I had hoped went away with Web 1.0.

Now we’re in the fuzzy territory where profit doesn’t matter and the hype or strategy is more important than actually having a sustainable business model. Facebook may be in the situation where their valuation is ahead of their profits so they need to come up with a business model (fast) that will justify it. Seems totally backwards.

By: engtech

engtech — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:53:32 +0000

Something that works well for Facebook:

searching the Marketplace gives you ads for exactly what you were looking for on amazon.com that look very similar to marketplace results.

By: JC

JC — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:43:14 +0000

I never saw the value of Facebook, anyway. But this sort of attitude demonstrates why we have the continuing cycle of booms and busts here in the land of Silicon. Somehow, we all manage to forget that baiting and switching users never works in the long run. If you want to make money on something, don’t offer it for free for two years, and then start charging out of the blue. Set up a model that is sustainable from the get-go.

Sites like Facebook train people to expect everything for free. It’s no wonder they get so upset when ads suddenly start appearing. Just be honest with your customers from the beginning.

My guess is that the creators of all these startups never really care about long-term sustainability. They just want to make their millions by selling off to Microsoft or Google when the time comes to start justifying the next round of funding. No one wants to build something and keep it going forever anymore. There are few Bill Gates or Steve Jobs types around here at this point. Little long-term vision. It’s sad, really.