PC World calls Facebook the Internet’s definitive social media site, attributing its triumph to ease of use in helping dredge up high school memories, make friends online, great apps and being an alternative to MySpace—even if it is “a huge time suck” (more than 50 million collective hours a day outside the US). The (UK) Daily Telegraph lists Twenty Facebook Facts including the remarkable claim (to an Australian) that Australian courts can legally summons defendants via Facebook.
Understandably, Facebook founder and owner Mark Zuckerberg rejoices that people no longer fear outing their identities, likes, dislikes and former boyfriends and girlfriends on the Internet. Zuckerberg can thank some 150 million people for making him Forbes.com’s 785th richest billionaire. He is not yet 25.
When Facebook started (as TheFaceBook), part of its appeal was exclusivity, not ubiquity: you needed a Harvard email logon to join. In 2006, Facebook opened to the public like a vacuum, sucking middle-class people everywhere into a MySpace for adults. Added functionality gave it tech-cred; added user numbers attracted big business, including Microsoft, which paid US$240m in October 2007 for a sliver of ownership. A small number of investors (not including Microsoft) put in another $500m but what will they get back? Facebook’s human data might be the golden goose, but that goose is fettered by privacy issues (‘explained’ in Facebook’s 3501-word Privacy Policy).
Making money out of social media is the same as marketing in any social environment in that it’s mercurial and has social protocols you can’t ignore or force through. You have to fit in. Think Coke and beach promotions, Ferrari and races, IBM and tennis. You don’t win friends crashing parties as a geeky out of town cousin. (Commercial plug: Aussie PR firm Red Agency can help you avoid such embarrassments.) Facebook’s ad sales were $150m in 2008. Sophisticated analytics may attract more of marketers’ money this year (downturns aside?).
Another issue for Facebook will be keeping and increasing users. Early adopters are moving away. Younger adults and teens still prefer MySpace and Bebo. Micro-blogging site Twitter is growing quickly and is less restrictive. And what if social networking fatigue sets in?
Facebook refuseniks are not new—one anti Facebook group claimed 800,000 members. (I came across the irony of an anti-Facebook Facebook page. It was in Greek or Urdu or some other script I couldn’t read.) Facebook critics attack online connectedness as poorly substituting for ‘real communication’. Then there’s Internet-led gate crashing. But the real biffs are about exclusivist technology, commercial interest, privacy breaches and content control. Facebook’s License Terms set the scene:
You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof. You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to grant the foregoing licenses.
And under Termination and Changes:
We may terminate your account on the Facebook Service, delete your profile and any User Content you have Posted on or through the Facebook Service, and/or prohibit you from using or accessing the Facebook Service (or any portion thereof) for any or no reason, at any time in our sole discretion, with or without notice.
Such strictures are clearly not intended for businesses, but on reflection, they’re not that friendly to family photo collections either.
What will happen to Facebook in the next five years? Is the current model all it needs to be? Can Facebook stay as it is? If so, maybe Zuckerberg will hold his nerve and neither go public nor sell to a suitor like Microsoft.
Happy birthday Facebook.
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