

Social Networking's "Naked" Truth - vincentchan
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31849843

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MicahWedemeyer
I think Facebook really could make a crap-ton in any number of ways, just from
all the user data they have available for mining. Advertisers would (and
already do) pay through the nose for that. I think ad revenue is generally an
awful money source for a web app, but Facebook is big and addictive enough to
command some crazy rates.

And that makes me scratch my head when they talk about "building the userbase"
and "not focusing on revenue yet" Maybe I'm just short sighted, but I think
it's time for FB to start cashing in. Just like anything else, it's best to
launch your revenue model early and iterate, rather than waiting until the
timing is perfect.

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blacktastic
I would think that selling access to the user data would alienate a large
portion of users.

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MicahWedemeyer
If they are overly crass or stupid about it (like Beacon), then yes, users
will get pissed. But, if they just got rid of those awful sidebar ads and
replaced them with high quality, highly expensive ads for major brands, then I
think users would be quite happy. Especially if the ads were highly targeted
(based on user data) and the users found the ads useful or entertaining.

They really need to ditch those "click here to learn the secrets to being a
billionaire" ads. They're just awful and they cheapen that ad space. The
longer those ads run, the harder it will be for FB to get real advertisers to
put anything worthwhile in there.

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Periodic
Reading an article [1] on Facebook and Google gave me some prospective on the
value of these social networking sites outside of their own sites.

It mentioned Facebook's idea of using its knowledge of social graphs to power
other sites to allow you to connect to friends through them. I'm guessing
instead of having apps embedded in Facebook, Facebook would be embedded in the
app. It's an interesting idea, which definitely brings a lot of value, but it
still lacks a clear revenue stream.

[1]
[http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/ff_facebookwa...](http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/ff_facebookwall?currentPage=all)

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pjdavis
FTA: Yahoo's Carol Bartz doesn't have any interest in Facebook or Twitter
either. No money in it, and Yahoo's building its own communities without
having to spend huge premiums on unproven, unprofitable assets.

Such as Flickr, or Del.icio.us?

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andrewljohnson
This article is pretty lacking in substance for a 15 pointer, and I would
expect no better from tech news from CNBC.

