I like interesting questions and Geoff Livingston has asked a big one. When and how will Facebook die? All things pass (apologies to Ray Kurzweil). Our Internet economy is prone to short lasting fads. Maybe Facebook will go the way of Bebo, Hi5 or eWorld. Internet media properties are a hit-based business. Some are one hit wonders and others play for decades. Geoff asserts that Facebook succeeds because of their McDonald’s-like business model.
He says “Facebook is the McDonald’s of social networks” and I have to agree. We have the lowest common denominator for food compared with the lowest common denominator for online social interaction. It’s a product model, not a business model but still an interesting comparison.
Think of the similarities:
- Both companies must adapt to world cultures and become global organizations
- Both must manage evolution of their product offering according to the markets they serve
- Both need to listen to local markets, customers, users and react accordingly
- Both seek extreme customer loyalty, a kind of user addiction
- Both will introduce bombs (McRib vs Places?)
When Geoff’s scries the horizon he sees completely visual social networks. He thinks this will be too much of a challenge for Facebook and they will follow MySpace into ignomy. He worries that “It would take an almost complete gutting of its social networking code” to compete. My guess is that the code has been refactored many times, if only for scalability issues. Writing code is a commodity, not to worry. This is a non-starter. The real issue is UI evolution and change management. Oh, and there’s that nagging privacy thing, too. At least Micky D doesn’t post how many Big Macs I’ve had in the 21st Century… (pssst… the answer is 0)
Geoff thinks Facebook’s death spiral begins when they make radical changes to keep up with “visual social networks.” UI changes are predicted to leave Facebook members rolling in the ditch. “No, such a network upgrade would likely force Facebook to abandon users that are still text based.” Well, we left those dial-up folks a while ago and things seem to be just fine. The younger generation goes for audio and video…text not so much.
I’m going on record as saying that Facebook won’t last for eternity, but it will last longer than AOL. The reason is the strength of platform. AOL was an ad platform. Facebook is much more. Like many successful Silicon Vally companies, they’ve created an ecosystem of developers, brands, websites and governments that see value in the data they can mine and the market segments they can target. Facebook will either be “too big to fail” within 5 years or part of a grim strategy by one of the big dogs, MSFT or GOOG. I’d bet on that before I’d bet on the Nats.
Facebook Connect is one of the new features we added to AlikeList today. When you sign in you now have the option of using your Facebook email and password. Click Connect with Facebook and you can start sharing your favorite businesses with Facebook friends and ask them for recommendations, too. We’re tapping into the power of the world’s biggest social network to help you get trusted recommendations and share your recommendations with friends.
Sharing with your friends on Facebook
Sharing a favorite business Facebook is easy. Beneath each business listing you’ll see the Share link. One click and you’re asked if you want to publish your Share to your Facebook wall. From there, it depends on your Facebook settings to determine how widely your Share is seen.
Within seconds, your Share is posted to Facebook. It’s a cool way to help your friends discover new restaurants, retailers, professionals and other businesses you like.
Asking for recommendations
If you’re looking for a business and don’t know where to turn, it’s only natural to ask your friends. Since your time is valuable, why not leverage the relationships you have on Facebook to find the answers you need. Help is just a few clicks away.
Let’s say you’re looking for a real estate broker in your town. You can click the Ask friends tab at the top of the AlikeList page and you’ll see that you can ask friends by email, by messages on AlikeList or by asking your friends on Facebook. Just like Sharing, your question is posted to your Wall and sent to those that can see your posts in Facebook’s News Feed.
The power of Asking friends on Facebook is impressive. Within an hour of asking for a recommendation, I had two solid references from people I know and trust.
By connecting with your friends on Facebook, AlikeList lets you tap into the wisdom of your social network are to solve life’s daily problems. It’s fast, it’s easy and it’s free.