There is a very interesting discussion today on the NextNY list about Facebook and its solidity for the future. I’ve said in the past that Facebook (as Google) is everywhere in my online life, and I’m a tech-savvy user.
Some argue that Facebook is doomed, won’t grow with its users, is too big, not financially wise, … I don’t agree. Whatever the road chosen, tech critics have to do some more empathy with the 200M+ users of Facebook. They are not the Silicon Alley and Valley technologists, they are the average Joe and might stick to Facebook because Facebook brings them what they want: friends feed, pictures, videos, emails, chat. Boom. AND Facebook evolves, changes, is solid, things that MySpace was not in 2005.
Ha. MySpace. Remember? I was on it, everyone was on it. Than it became too crowded visually, unstable, a real information chaos, music and pictures everywhere, commercial twice the size of my own pictures, and everyone flew to some other destination. Everyone? Not so fast: Facebook opened its doors to mass public (not limited to universities or companies) in September 2006, almost 2.5 years ago. And MySpace was purchased in July 2005. It’s only in late 2008 that Facebook finally passed MySpace in the US…
Then some argue that young users are going to move to new, funkier and “cooler” services. That might very well happen, but doesn’t seem to be the trend yet. And even though, the strategy of the open API and FacebookConnect might very well mean that you’re already somewhere else, and if you are you are still under Facebook’s scope.
So basically, given past choices of Zuckerberg and developments of Facebook, which I always find quite smart, I’m pretty confident in the ability of the company to either generate revenues or keep the growth appealing to investors. Beacon was a great idea, maybe poorly executed. But it’s right on track to allow advertisers to benefit of the extended and lively network.
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