

Facebook's Future Billions: The Platform has to Die - dreadsword

Wired had a piece today about FB's revenue streams:
http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/facebook-ads/<p>Unfortunately, the revenue streams outlined in the Wired article seem decidedly... stale. Daily deals ("Facebook Offers"), Sponsored Stories, "Karma" (virtual gifts), and sponsored App recommendations. Facebook’s ability to monetize a billion users seems a bit underwhelming.<p>Here’s what I think is happening: Facebook is selling itself short by trying to be nothing more than "the platform." This largely limits Facebook's revenue possibilities to advertising – as per the Wired article, and talk of funnels.<p>My premise is that instead, Facebook should be focused on what it is people want to buy in a social setting, and providing the best possible experience to do so.<p>One example of such thinking would be tickets to events. Events are a product that is consumed socially: When I go to a show, I do so with a group of friends. It would be pretty compelling if we could all buy our seats together (and next to each other!) with one click through Facebook, find out who else we know is going, walk into the venue with our phones as our tickets, and then share our photos/posts/etc of the event on Facebook in an "event timeline."<p>A really killer ticketing experience would be a perfect way to leverage the FB social platform and deliver a tonne of value to all of the stakeholders.<p>Facebook as a platform certainly works (see: Zynga), but I can't help but think that Facebook should be taking on certain transactions - like event tickets - themselves. Today, the Facebook way is to be hands off: Facebook provides the social platform and advertising venue, Ticketmaster builds a ticket purchasing app on top of it. Facebook loses out on the margin, and Facebook users get a sub-par experience (or have to leave the site entirely).<p>Thoughts?
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superqd
Google can subsist on ads, because it's primary function is to help someone
find something. The ads are related to what you are trying to find, so they
are sometimes actually relevant as part of your search, and to the function
for which you were using Google. So an ad supported environment for search can
actually be beneficial to the searcher.

For Facebook, that's not the case. I go to Facebook to see pictures and status
updates from Friends and Family. I'm not looking for anything to buy, or for
airfare prices, or movie tickets, etc. So I naturally tune out the right side
of the Facebook stream and never - ever - click on any ads. And about 99.9999%
of the time I completely forget they are there. However, when searching on
Google, if I can't find exactly what I'm looking for I will frequently scan
the ads on the right to see what's there. And that's been helpful, so I know
I'll do it again.

Facebook needs to take advantage of something they have that others sites
don't: real identities. They could totally kill eBay. My wife sometimes talks
me out of using eBay because we just don't know if we can trust the person on
the other side of the transaction. Facebook can fix that. You can see who the
people are, know who they are connected to (use a 6 degrees of separation
connection lookup, etc) and be assured (on some level) of a buyer's/seller's
identity (trustworthiness) in a transaction.

Or something similar. They could then take a cut o the sale just like eBay.
And I don't mean relegate this function to some part of Facebook no one would
notice, but add a genuinely first class feature to enable something like that
(or another equally useful commerce related activity).

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dreadsword
Taking on eBay is a great idea - like you say, a perfect way to leverage
social.

I guess one could worry about Fb becoming too unfocused overtime - delving
into all of these spaces would require a lot of discipline.

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tutufan
I like it. I would probably go to five times as many events if there was an
easy way to sync with friends that were also interested.

(I suppose they'd have to solve the awkward "I'm going, but don't really want
to go with you, esp if it's just the two of us" problem.)

