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Phase 3: Profit

mattmaroon.com

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Re: Phase 3: Profit

#2
The biggest problem with facebook, imo.

All the lovers will come and razz Matt and this comment, but none of them will be able to provide any evidence that facebook is doing anything but spending capital.

Re: Phase 3: Profit

#3
Search engine style ads don't work because people login to see what their friends are up to, not because they're open to buying something.

Ultimately, the answer may lie in some kind of customized event sponsorship:

e.g. you're planning a poker game with your friends, and facebook allows its clients (beer and snack companies for this example) to offer you a deal on those products.

Or something else entirely.

Either way, I agree with the blog post that they haven't found that something yet.

Re: Phase 3: Profit

#4
The difference between Facebook and Google is Technology, the value of goods is define by its availability/scarcity. There's nothing spectacular about Facebook technology, Fame alone is not enough to justify those billions if you don't think so let see when they go public.

Re: Phase 3: Profit

#6
One easy way for them to make money is to charge some nominal fee (say $15/yr) for premium services or ad-free experience. I don't use facebook myself, but most of my friends do, and most of them would gladly pay a small fee to just keep using facebook as is, nevermind premium features.

Mining the social graph is the holy grail of social networks, but facebook, with its millions of addicted users, doesn't have to solve that problem to generate revenue. It can do so with other means until they figure it out.

IMO, Google was in an even more precarious position before it figured out advertising because people could switch easily. Facebook's got its hooks in your life; you can't switch.

Re: Phase 3: Profit

#7
so many fb haters - yet they keep growing users, keep launching features, you can say they have no tech (baseless), they can't monetize (eer ask pg about this one; build something people want - a business model will emerge) and all the rest - yet you can say nothing about their growth and engagement.

Re: Phase 3: Profit

#8

The biggest problem with facebook, imo. All the lovers will come and razz Matt and this comment, but none of them will be able to provide any evidence that facebook is doing anything but spending capital.

how about growing users?..hmm thats seems like a valuable way to spend your time if your a consumer web company.

Re: Phase 3: Profit

#9
post #6

One easy way for them to make money is to charge some nominal fee (say $15/yr) for premium services or ad-free experience. I don't use facebook myself, but most of my friends do, and most of them would gladly pay a small fee to just keep using facebook as is, nevermind premium features. Mining the social graph is the holy grail of social networks, but facebook, with its millions of addicted users, doesn't have to sol…

I'd pay $15/yr to automatically block all Facebook Apps.

Sadly I don't think I'm alone. It was useful before, but it's gotten increasingly spammy.

Re: Phase 3: Profit

#10
quick name the only company in the valley that scares googles mngt team?

quick name the only company in the valley thats harvesting googlers like its October in Napa valley?

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