Facebook is the undisputable king of social media with a social network of 67 millon people and 40 billion page views a month. I think they could do better.
Current users of the site are nothing short then addicts to this supposedly “killer app”, and log on to check their friend’s status and party invites on a daily basis. This cult following is all about the user experience, social mapping and every other Silicon Valley buzz word you want to insert into here. Facebook’s initial growth was fueled by college students which launched it into thousands of dorm rooms and across the nation. Years have passed and with this initial burst of entrepreneurial youth fading; Facebook is still clinging to the Web 2.0 model of building a social networking site only to collect ad revenue.
Recently, Facebook has recruited more top talent to move away from the essence of a social network and towards building a platform for developers to build applications on. They are largely kept afloat with cash infusions from businesses like Microsoft and wealthy individuals investing on the potential of Facebook and not on any concrete business plan. Facebook can not recognize investments as revenue, only as money to help them grow. For this reason the thought of going public is out of the question, and Facebook would sink on Wall Street. The company where it stands now is massively overvalued and building for the long term will take time while figuring out a sustainable source of revenue outside from the investments received.
Few users care about the financial aspect of Facebook, let alone what CEO Mark Zuckerberg has planned for the future. As long as the user interface is consistent and the advertising non-intrusive millions of people will continue to use Facebook, however if Facebook can not produce enough revenue on their own they will soon be headed to the deadpool.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Oscar // Mar 31, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Its a big site, with that many subscribers, I doubt it will ever head to the “deadpool” but I definitely agree that it needs a long term plan. They don’t seem to be doing anymore than “lets do this and see what happens” “ok lets try this now” Definitely a company to look after though.
2 Boring Market // Mar 31, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Over the years a lot of companies have flat out run of out money and investors have lost interest with breathing new life into them. Facebook is no exception. Right now they are clearly riding the wave of potential profits. The only difference between them and a typical Web 2.0 company is that they have a solid user base which use the site on a daily basis. People can get bored, disgusted or even worse lured away from Facebook. Never say never.
3 ajay // Apr 6, 2008 at 1:40 am
clearly they are the leader in social network and one more important thing facebook is more user friendly then other social network websites
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