Is It Worth Joining The

Facebook Fad?

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 Table of Contents

The Issue p. 3
Executive Summary p. 3-4
Techdirt Insight Community Responses* pp. 5-25
tmarman p. 5
vinaya.hs pp. 6-7
jdurbin pp. 8-9
dberch p. 10
binarybits p. 11
ohashmi p. 12
martinedic p. 13
joeduck p. 14
abrudtkuhl p. 15
blamphier p. 16
yuri p. 17
technoqwan p. 18
innonate p. 19
ikisai p. 20
aleem p. 21
ken_gq p. 22
blognc p. 23
cbrumfie p. 24
samoakley p. 25
*Follow up answers by each Techdirt Insight Community (TIC) expert to comments and questions posted by Techdirt analysts and
fellow TIC experts are included with their initial responses.

Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad? 2

 The Issue
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
With the launch of the Facebook platform, a number of startups are developing apps with
the Facebook API, rather than on general web sites. This can obviously make sense for some
products, especially ones that want to leverage immediate network effects of a large social
network. However, as a web 2.0 applications startup trying to determine a development path,
what key points should we consider before jumping on the Facebook bandwagon? We have
a recommendation-based service that will be initially ad-supported and then offer premium
subscription services. (Think evite on steroids.)

Executive Summary
In May, Facebook announced its new platform offering, allowing developers to build application
widgets directly into Facebook, leveraging the millions of members already in the community.
This has set off a frenzy of development, with some startups deciding to focus solely on Facebook
as a platform, rather than using the web directly.

One company exploring that possibility asked the Techdirt Insight Community for their
thoughts on whether or not it made sense to jump on the Facebook platform bandwagon, or
continue with a go-it-alone strategy.

Per usual, the Techdirt Insight Community came up with a variety of insightful thoughts,
highlighting the key points that any application developer needs to understand and consider
in making this decision.

The good:
•There’s value in piggybacking on the community: A straight web app requires you to
build a community, but with Facebook, there already is a community that you can leverage.
Since Facebook apps spread virally through Facebook’s newsfeed feature, you can get a lot
more users quickly by piggybacking. At the same time, associating oneself with a hot property
can also help

•If your app requires social interaction, it makes sense: Clearly, it depends on the
application you’re developing, but if it requires or enhances social interaction, it makes sense to
use Facebook. One Community member highlighted a key point, though: The most successful
Facebook apps are ones that fit in with what Facebook users were already doing – communicating
and expressing themselves. If it’s totally outside of that realm, then it may not work well.

•Recommendation: Make sure your app has a large social component that fits in well with what
Facebook users do on a regular basis. If this is not possible, Facebook’s platform probably isn’t for you.

Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad? 3

 Executive Summary
The bad:
•You are at the whim of Facebook: This came up repeatedly. It’s always dangerous to
rely entirely on a single company – especially one that can (both technically and contractually)
cut you off at any second. It also makes you the subservient brand, and can make it tougher to
build out your own brand, separate from Facebook.

•There’s a lot of competition and clutter: While there is some first mover advantage, the
number of Facebook apps out there has now made that more difficult. It’s much tougher to
stand out both initially and even within any individual’s Facebook page.

•Recommendation: Don’t rely entirely on Facebook. Have a mult-channel approach that can
make use of Facebook, but also functions outside of Facebook. This will help get around the control issue,
but also makes it possible for you to work with other platforms that may become popular as well.

Overall, there are both benefits and pitfalls to making use of the Facebook platform. It really
depends on the specific application. Anyone looking to develop on the platform needs to weigh
out both the pros and cons to determine if it makes sense. If it does, be sure to build the app
carefully, to get the most benefit while avoiding getting too locked into Facebook in case its
fortunes change.

Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad? 4

 Insight Community Responses
Response 1
I think the decision necessarily depends on the
nature of the product. The key consideration should
not be the size of the audience, but whether the
product incorporates a social networking element.
As suggested in the question, the most successful
Facebook applications will be those that can build
on and leverage the network effect that Facebook
provides.
I think a recommendations service is particularly
suited for this purpose. First of all, users are aligned
on Facebook by a combination of friendship (or at
least acquaintance), similar interests, and in many
cases proximity (i.e., all on the same college campus).
These factors are especially relevant in considering
the value and relevancy of a recommendation.
People will tend to trust and value recommendations
from friends over those made anonymously, and
shared interests will make the recommendations
more targeted. After all, there’s no point in me
recommending a particular rock band to you if you
don’t listen to that kind of music - and those kinds
of connections are inherently built into the Facebook
experience. Finally, for someone on a college campus,
their world is smaller - so a recommendation for
a particular restaurant near the campus is more
relevant than a restaurant that isn’t accessible to
them, even if the latter is better. In other words,
the recommendations are enhanced by being more
contextual and building on the inherent social
networking elements in Facebook.
The key risk in this case is loss of control. Though
their license is undoubtedly better than the precarious
relationship many companies maintain with
MySpace, there are still reasons for concern especially
for an ad-supported product. Facebook allows
advertising in third-party applications, but they do
not explicitly set forth the terms and there are certain
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: tmarman
limitations and restrictions (particularly in the privacy
and data collection areas) that one would have to be
aware of. (A premium service probably has fewer
risks, but there are still privacy and data collection
concerns).
Facebook also reserves the right “to charge a fee for
using the Facebook Platform and/or any individual
features thereof at any time in [their] sole discretion”,
which could obviously have a significant impact
on the business model down the road - especially
if a good percentage of the traffic ends up coming
through FB users.
Furthermore, Facebook explicitly reserves the right
to change any clause in the license at any time, and
simply by updating the TOS page.
We may modify any of the terms and conditions
contained in this Agreement, at any time and in
our sole discretion, by posting a change notice or
a new agreement on the Facebook Site. IF ANY
MODIFICATION IS UNACCEPTABLE TO YOU,
YOUR ONLY RECOURSE IS TO STOP USING
THE Facebook PLATFORM. YOUR CONTINUED
USE OF THE Facebook PLATFORM FOLLOWING
OUR POSTING OF A CHANGE NOTICE OR NEW
AGREEMENT ON OUR SITE WILL CONSTITUTE
YOUR BINDING ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHANGE.
Again, while the agreement is certainly better than
the situation that exists today, caution should still be
taken at building something too reliant on Facebook.
Given the nature of the product, though, I would
advise to pursue this as one delivery vehicle for
recommendations - and just be cognizant of the
potential risks down the road.
5
 Insight Community Responses
Response 2
I would like to begin with a few thoughts on the
concept behind Facebook’s application platform itself
before moving on to your specific application.
The question itself says it all: the new Facebook
platform is a fad – one that will continue to generate
glowing press – and attract heaps of new traffic –
for a few more months and then die a slow death.
What do you think is the problem with MySpace
and those pesky hey-why-don’t-you-add-me-too
widgets? What’s the difference between a widget and
an application – apart from the fancy name change?
Cluttering your profile page and that of your friend
with all kinds of nonsense won’t work in the long run.
I don’t buy the hype surrounding Facebook’s idea of
everything being a “social graph.” To me, the recent
high-profile launch of the F8 platform seems to be
more a gimmick to switch people’s curiosity from
MySpace to Facebook (more eyeballs; more revenue
for Facebook) than it is about giving developers deep
access to Facebook.
Having said that, I believe that you should consider
the following aspects before jumping onto the
Facebook bandwagon:
1. Is your service a generic one or a demographic-
specific one?
Quite obviously, a solid user base is what is required
by your service and Facebook, on the surface,
seems to be a ready-made solution (if you believe
the reported numbers that is). But what kind of a
user base do you really need for your service? A
generic worldwide audience or a demographically-
categorized one? I don’t think Facebook is a good
choice for the latter.
2. Have you really read the terms of service?
Facebook’s terms of service are frankly, frightening.
In summary, Facebook can limit you or terminate
you at any time at their sole discretion, reserves the
right to impose fees at any time and in any manner,
can copy and distribute your application, can analyze
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: vinaya.hs
the content in order to target advertising, may create
similar applications with no obligation to you, can
change the terms and conditions at any time (with
your only recourse being to stop using the service).
But then they publicly claim that Facebook will
impose no limitations on how you make money. To
quote the founder: “You can sell sponsorships, you
can have ads, you can sell things, you can link off to
another site - we are just agnostic.” How hypocritical
is that? But, your idea of starting out with an ad-
driven revenue model does fit in well here.
The all important question here is: Do you have a
solid plan in place for that rainy day when Facebook
decides to exercise its dictatorial rights?
3. Do you have adequate back end infrastructure?
Suppose you do manage to garner the attention
of a sizeable user base. Do you have adequate
infrastructure at your disposal to handle the
[potential] surge in traffic? After all, you don’t want to
have a repeat of the iLike experience.
4. What do you think is a decent time to launch?
Once submitted, it takes some time for an application
to be approved by the Facebook team. As more and
more applications try to hitch on, the wait time could
turn into a critical factor.
5. Would you rather wait and watch or go for a first-
mover advantage?
As a business, you need to make the call between
adopting a wait and watch policy (where you sit
it out for a few months to check if the F8 platform
continues to maintain traction) and garnering the
first-mover advantage. How difficult is it for someone
to replicate what you are offering? The currently viral
applications on Facebook (iLike, Last.fm, etc.) were
well entrenched stand alone web applications before
they integrated with Facebook. You might have to dig
around to check if there are any just-out-of-the-box
applications that have managed adequate adoption.
6
 Insight Community Responses
What credibility do you bring as a new startup?
I believe that if you can answer the above questions,
you will be in a better position to judge your
integration into Facebook.
Personally, I don’t have a use for Facebook and I
would rather use your application as a stand alone
service. Apparently there are millions out there who
think otherwise. So, my advice is that you go ahead
and enable integration with Facebook.
All said and done, the only positive about Facebook
integration that I see for your recommendation-
service is that you get a free platform and user base to
test if your application has got what it takes to scale
up.
Community Responses to vinaya.hs
From aleem: Regarding #1, why do you say Facebook
is not good for demographic targeting? Social
networks tend to generally span the same age group
-- most of my friends are within my age group.
That’s the good thing about social networks -- the
service will find itself flowing down the path of least
resistance along the social network.
Regarding #2, service agreements are often defensive
and to protect the best interest of the service provider.
It is possible that a company turns around and blames
Facebook for dropping their service and undermining
their business or whatever. This should not have any
impact on the strategy for building Facebook plug-
ins.
Regarding #5, a first-move advantage would be very
lucrative. I don’t think it should even be a question.
If another similar service finds itself sweeping the
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
social network, it won’t leave room for others due to
“network effects” (the 101st person will join the same
service his other 100 friends are using and for that
reason the 102nd person will do the same and so on;
the newer service with 0 users will find it very hard to
gain traction).
From vinaya.hs: Thanks for your insightful feedback
aleem.
On #1: Age is definitely one demographic parameter.
But for a recommendation-based service is it useful
as a stand alone parameter? What other demographic
parameters can Facebook reliably provide?
On #2: Facebook may or may not exercise the clauses
present in its terms of service. But, as an application
provider, I would always prefer to be safe rather than
be sorry. I’ll sleep better knowing that there’s a Plan B.
On #5: Thought about this one a bit and I think
you are correct. If you can establish a first-mover
advantage, why not just go for it and hope for the
network effect to kick in.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Update from vinaya.hs: It looks like the honeymoon
is over. You are now allowed to invite only ten friends
per day to check out an application. Forget any
viral growth expectations that you may still have.
Facebook’s got the increase in traffic it needed. No one
cares for your application anymore.
There’s one more absurdity I would like to point out.
I couldn’t sign-up for an individual account directly
on the Box.net (registrations are closed, it said), but I
could sign-up for one through the Box.net Facebook
application. Dumb. Really dumb. Don’t make this
mistake.
7
 Insight Community Responses
Response 3
The Facebook API is a wonderful idea and is rightly
praised by all sorts of developers excited that the
Facebook team has opened up their platform for use
by outside developers. But is it right for you?
The first problem with the Facebook API is that it’s
on Facebook. In putting time and development into
an application that fits only one platform, you’re
restricting yourself to a single community, one that
has already grown up around an idea, and one where
you’re competing for the attention of people who did
not originally sign on to use your product.
Key Point # 1: Is the Facebook community your
target audience?
The Facebook users are primarily college students
who use the software to flirt, to organize, and to talk
to their friends. An evite on steroids software sounds
great, but is it a need college students have? They can
already organize parties with their friends, and you
have to wonder if they will be open to using a new
application when they are already concerned about
the outside world finding out what they are doing.
Many schools are logging in to Facebook to crack
down on underage drinking - is the ability to create
an invitation list on Facebook going to compete with
their desire for privacy off Facebook? Even if the
application gives them privacy, will they perceive it as
an intrusion, or simply use another social networking
software?
Key Point #2: Building Software Inside Facebook
The technical difficulties of building inside Facebook
are not hard, but if you have an external application,
building a second application doesn’t make a lot of
sense. Facebook users have to be logged in to use
your Facebook application, and if I understand the
user agreement correctly, you won’t be able to get
them to leap from the Facebook platform to your site.
Basically, you’ll have to rebuild your evite on steroids
inside Facebook.
If you have an ad-supported strategy, do you think
Facebook will let you run your own ads inside their
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: jdurbin
platform? I imagine they will not, which means any
traffic you get to your application inside Facebook
is purely a branding strategy until you get premium
subscriptions, and college students probably are not
your premium subscription target users. This is the
major roadblock I see. While you might have access to
the Facebook community, unless your sole audience
is Facebook, and you don’t need the money, I see a
major problem with advertising dollars.
Key Point #3: Rising Above The Noise
The Typepad Widget Gallery is an good example
of what happens when too many applications are
available. There are scores of widgets available for
Typepad blogs, but precisely because there are so
many of them, most of them can’t get any traction,
and the people using them are more likely to already
be readers or users of the company hosting the
widget. I don’t have access to the figures, but widget
growth from outside of a known community has to be
small, because who has time to try out and use every
new widget available? You don’t have an audience
that already trusts you that can use the Facebook
application - instead they will have to learn about you
from that application. That’s a very tough thing to
do, and I’d be worried about enough traffic to make
it worth while. You’re not competing with eVite on
Facebook. You’re competing with everyone for their
attention. And will college students really take time to
recommend you?
Key Point #4: Advertising Strategy
If Facebook does allow you to make money off of ads
on your application, there’s one more problem with
the strategy. College Students don’t click on ads. The
truth is most internet-savvy people don’t pay much
attention to advertising, and no clicking means no
money. The best way to maximize ad potential is to
find a community of people who are searching for
content related to your product, and thus more likely
to click on ads and generate money.
Personally, I’d be going after moms with my online
strategy. In addition to having the purchasing power,
8
 Insight Community Responses
they are more likely to need party related products
(baby showers, house showers, children’s parties),
and are a better target for a start-up. They are social
networking gurus, and a recommendation system
fits with their general personality, unlike the college
students, who chase coolness, not effectiveness. The
mombloggers community is huge, and the cost of
doing business is substantially less than competing
with people trying to get GEN Y attention.
Update from jdurbin: I went to submit too early - I
read through the rest of the Facebook stories in my
browser, and came out on two extra thoughts.
1) First, my key point on #2 about making money
with Facebook seems to be answered - Facebook
allows you to run ads on your canvas pages, but I still
wonder about the amount of money this can generate,
primarily because of:
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
2) Explosive Growth:
If your application is picked up by Facebook users,
the growth will overload your servers, and you’ll
have to spend significant money to buy news ones
and upgrade. iLike has been wildly successful, but
they have had to cope with 50,000 users joining in
the first day launching to 3,000,000 and growing. Do
you have the cash on hand to handle that kind of
traffic from the get-go? They didn’t. They had three
servers, and now have 1000’s. Can you afford success
at Facebook?
It’s quite the pickle - you need money from
advertising to pay for the growth, but without
growth, you won’t have money from advertising.
Seems like a long shot.
9
 Insight Community Responses
Response 4
Many developers are jumping on the Facebook
bandwagon. The advantages are enticing: a stable
platform that can potentially simplify product
development and a large customer base to tap into.
However, choosing to the well-defined Facebook
route is often done in lieu of developing a well
thought out business strategy. Let’s look at it from a
few angles...
Advantages:
* Using existing platform can potentially save
development time - the more time it will save, the
more reason there is to go with platform
* Easier to acquire customers - does not require
users to change existing habits, and only requires a
one-time action (adding widget) rather than returning
to a new web site
Disadvantages:
* Potential limitations of Facebook API
* “Faddish” nature of Facebook means your
business will be dependent upon Facebook’s
continued success
* Limited to Facebook’s market segment (shouldn’t
pose a problem for an evite-like service)
* Competition intense with other Facebook apps
Critical Issues:
* Is it easier to start with a Facebook app and
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: dberch
later tie it to a standalone web site, or to build the
standalone product first, then integrate into Facebook
later?
* How do we intend to monetize?
* What flexibility might we lose from choosing
either option?
Developing an app within Facebook should never
become the sole product, however depending on the
advantages/disadvantages outlined above, it may well
make sense to develop the Facebook app first in order
to bootstrap the company.
One additional consideration would be the effect this
may have on raising venture capital. VCs are likely to
be suspect of such a business model until they have
examples of valuations to measure against.
Update from dberch: In terms of generating mass
market adoption, how does just having a Facebook
app (without a standalone alternative) limit the ability
to market?
Imagine a Superbowl ad for a Facebook widget: only
1/100 viewers would be in the target audience and
99% of the cost would go down the drain, simply
because most people aren’t on the platform.
10
 Insight Community Responses
Response 5
I say go for it. I should mention that I approach this
question primarily as a user rather than a developer.
I’ve got a computer science background, but I
haven’t really looked into the details of the Facebook
API. So my comments reflect the perspective of an
active Facebook user with an understanding of web
programming in general.
The big advantage of joining the Facebook
bandwagon is that you don’t have to deal with the
headache of creating and managing user accounts.
The programming infrastructure (account creation
page, sign-in page, cookie management, “lost
password” process, security auditing, etc) required
is one consideration, but an even more important
considerations is that you’ll lose a non-trivial number
of potential users who simply won’t be willing
to go to the trouble of going through the sign-up
process, no matter how simple you make it. Using
the Facebook API allows you to piggy-back on the
work Facebook has already done convincing tens of
millions of people to sign up for Facebook accounts.
The big thing to be wary of is excessive lock-
in. Obviously, piggy-backing on Facebook’s
authentication scheme means that initially, at least,
your fortunes will be entirely tied to Facebook’s. If
Facebook goes down in flames, your application
could go down with it. To deal with this risk, I
suggest that in designing your application, always
have an eye to keeping your data as exportable as
possible and your code as portable as possible. A
good way to ensure such portability would be to
include both a Facebook-based and web-based option
for using the service, with users on the web site being
able to sign up without first obtaining a Facebook
account. This is especially important for an evite-like
site because there will always be a few invitees who
are not Facebook users. This will allow them to be
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: binarybits
included in invitations.
In addition to enhancing the site’s functionality, this
feature will give you an exit strategy if you find
Facebook isn’t as hospitable an ecosystem as you
expected. You should also include a feature that
allows Facebook users to migrate their accounts to the
web-based interface and vice versa.
One other advantage of this approach is that at some
point it could make it possible for you to make the
software work cross-site. In other words, if there’s a
Facebook interface and a web-based interface to the
site, why not a MySpace or LinkedIn interface? Right
now, other sites may not have the appropriate APIs
to make this possible, but if Facebook’s experiment
is successful, others are almost certain to follow
Facebook’s lead. Users who have friends who use
a variety of different social networking sites will
doubtless appreciate the ability to include them all
in one invitation without forcing them to register
yet another user name and password on yet another
social networking site.
Update from binarybits: Having submitted my insight,
it occurs to me that it’s somewhat self-contradictory.
If you’re including a web-based interface, then the
Facebook API isn’t saving you the work of building
your own authentication system. However, I think
there’s still some value there. What you should do is
have the initial version of the software be Facebook-
only, but designed in such a way that it’s easy to add a
vanilla web option in the second version. This allows
you to get your application out much more quickly,
so you can start building market share and getting
user feedback. Once you’ve got the Facebook version
working well, web-based interface can be a good
selling point for a subsequent version.
11
 Insight Community Responses
Response 6
I want to talk about this from a couple of perspectives.
This type of value-chain is just beginning to emerge
in consumer software, but has been common in other
industries such as consumer electronics, household
commodity goods and more, so we can take some
lessons from them.
Essentially all new product developers are faced with
two keys to making their venture successful (1) Speed
(2) Scale.
For small consumer electronics manufacturers, the
added challenge is the massive investment required
to put the product out into the marketplace to begin
with. In the CE industry, then, this resulted in ODMs
(Original Device Manufacturers) working with Brand
Names to bring a product to the market. Two famous
examples of this are the HTC/Imate partnership and
Motorola Razr, which was not designed by Motorola.
The benefit from having such an arrangement is
clear - you get speed-to-market because each party
just focuses on what they do best (product dev ;
distribution ; marketing etc.), and you also get instant
scale because of piggybacking on a bigger brand.
This has been successful for many smaller vendors,
especially HTC who used their success with the iMate
to build their own brand to the extent that they could
then become an OEM.
For software companies, they don’t even face massive
investments in production and can similarly enjoy
savings of marketing expense.
However, there are a number of risks involved as
well:
1- Typically, you do not scale the brand value as fast
as the product. There are success stories like HTC
and iLike in the world, but they are very few. Even
software apps on Facebook -- even if they become
popular -- will not be able to create enough of a brand
to venture into a solo product line.
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: ohashmi
2- The Big Brother Partnership. Big Brother
partnerships are risky because the big brother can
choose to shut you out instantly, thus pretty much
killing your entire business model.
In the case of Facebook specifically, while their initial
application support model was very viral, they have
recently put measures into place to actually hinder
the viral spread of your products, such as a limit
on the total number of friends you can invite to a
particular application. This has a lot of software
developers frustrated because they are now unable to
get scale advantages that they had hoped for.
In some cases, such as Revver, big brothers can choose
to simply ban the application outright (although
this is less likely to happen with an application
created specifically for Facebook). However, there
is still always a chance that a big brother can choose
to stop the business relationship with you, leaving
you without a brand to survive on and without the
network you hoped to create.
I think your strategy should be three-fold:
1- In the very-short-term, use the Facebook Platform.
There can be short-term advantages for an “Evite on
Steroids” recommendation service to be on Facebook.
However, do not architect your application in this
way.
2- Architect the application to be platform-
independent. Build one app that you can use on
Facebook, MySpace, Dashboard, Google Gadgets and
more. This will give you a much larger scale than
with just relying on Facebook.
3- Focus on building a network effect that is
proprietary. For long-term success, you should
focus on building your own brand and community
as a self-standing service that does not piggyback
on platforms. Achieving critical-mass to build such
networks is getting more and more difficult but you
could use some of your short-term gains to your
advantage.
12
 Insight Community Responses
Response 7
I asked myself the same question. I’m a 52 year old
white male so I have not been their target market.
After they announced their platform strategy I went
and opened a Facebook account and invited my
gmail contacts (nice automated process for that).
I was curious whether my circle of friends would
respond, have Facebook accounts, send messages,
etc. The results surprised me. Several people went
and registered with Facebook and sent me messages.
Several more already had pages. The response was
stronger than if I had simply sent them an email
requesting feedback.
If you know anything about viral, you know that it is
a double-edged sword. If people detect the slightest
hint of bull**** they will crucify you and it can take
place in a very public manner (blogosphere anyone?).
We are constantly asked about viral marketing by
clients who uniformly believe it is a low budget,
‘guerilla’ tactic. It is not, in fact it can be very costly
and very risky. That’s why Facebook intrigues me. It
probably offers the ultimate viral opportunity right
now if you get it right.
Let’s look at what that might involve. First of all,
forget the ads at the beginning. There is almost
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: martinedic
universal agreement that you build your base before
monetizing these days. The logic is that if you offer
a truly compelling product that people use and
recommend they won’t mind the addition of ads later
on. Using advertising from day one will cause a lot
of potential users to tune you out without trying the
service.
Second, using Facebook for its huge audience is a
good strategy but you have to execute flawlessly. This
means understanding, at a deep level, how people use
Facebook and why they recommend things to others.
You have to get into the ecosystem and do your
homework. Have everyone you know join Facebook
and then look and see how many add widgets and
which ones they use regularly, recommend, etc.
Design your widget based on that research, being
merciless in paring features and delivering a very
strong core service. Don’t waste any time planning
upgrades, ‘premium’ services, etc. Focus on delivering
something great that works and is attractive enough
for people to enthusiastically recommend to their
friends. That is, IMHO, the key to taking advantage
of a platform like this. Once you have your base, then
you can think about monetizing.
13
 Insight Community Responses
Response 8
Yes!
It is almost certainly going to be worth working with
the new Facebook APIs to integrate your project with
that network as much as possible.
I think your introduction to this question has a key
part of the answer:
... leverage immediate network effects of a large social
network ..
Facebook integration offers the potential for
extensive free publicity and increased functionality
with Facebook’s enormous social network. Web
2.0 branding has become extremely problematic
and potentially very expensive as the number of
companies in the space explodes and the capital cost
to enter the space with new applications has dropped.
Facebook offers the potential *right out of the
chute* for robust social networking, promotion, and
testing of your application. You effectively get “co-
branding” with a major 2.0 name for the small cost
of some additional development. Also, Facebook’s
open API approach is very forward thinking. You are
not “putting your eggs all in one basket” as you will
be if you simply create an isolated new web site or
concentrate on integration and marketing via, e.g.,
Myspace’s more closed environment. There also will
likely be search optimization advantages depending
on the nature of the integration as Google tends to
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: joeduck
favor fresh and fast growing user generated content
over simply a “new web site”. Sites alone have
become increasingly difficult to promote at search
engines using old-style organic search optimization.
Thanks to the open nature of Facebook’s approach
you are not constrained to that environment - i.e. you
can maintain Facebook functions within your own site
as well as incorporate some of your own site features
into the Facebook environment. This is not just a
desirable thing for almost all new Web 2.0 efforts, it
is arguably an essential component of a successful 2.0
promotion strategy.
Although your promotion efforts should also
include Myspace and Twitter, Facebook is the most
important social network for your project for several
reasons. Facebook is growing faster than any other
social network, Facebooks demographic is more
likely to match up to your subscription services than
Myspace’s, and your service is more likely to be
adopted by an older, more sophisticated crowd that
tends to use, and be migrating to, Facebook. (Source:
Dana Boyd’s recent Social Network research).
Summary Points:
Facebook is not a fad and the new open APIs
represent a significant shift in social networking. Use
Facebook.
14
 Insight Community Responses
Response 9
I personally do not think the Facebook API will be
all that beneficial to most startups. The network
effect will not be immediately realized and there’s a
possibility that it will never be realized. Just because
you build an application that taps into a service with
a large, dedicated community does not mean that
community will migrate or adapt to a new value-
added or complementary service.
Some key points of consideration include whether or
not the community will adopt your product and if
they do will it spread.
Another point to think of is whether the integration
of third party API’s should wait until after the first
version is released. If I were in your shoes I would
not spend the time up front developing an integration
platform - I would wait for feedback from my
initial user base as to whether they think Facebook
integration would be beneficial. No one knows feature
requests better than users. Use the 80/20 rule - if 80%
of the base request it or respond to a survey inviting
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: abrudtkuhl
the idea then it would be worth the development time
to integrate.
Of course this is very dependent on the nature of the
application you are building. From what it sounds
like from the brief description provided Facebook
integration may be helpful allowing users to send
recommendations to their Facebook friends. Even if
that’s the case I think it would be a great feature for a
second version giving your users increased value.
There can be a slippery slope though as users may
request integration with hundreds of other services
(myspace, gaia, etc) once Facebook integration is
added. Again, if you waited you could release a suite
of integration additions in a second version.
Another great reason for waiting is that you can focus
on the core functionality of your application for your
initial release.
15
 Insight Community Responses
Response 10
You have to start with one question: Would your
app fit in with the current Facebook experience and
expand a particular piece of it. If yes, keep reading, if
no, you’re wasting your time playing with the API.
Look at the current top applications on Facebook,
the ones that spread. They all expand what users
were already doing on Facebook. Users were already
talking about bands, and iLike expanded it. Users
already added and wrote on the walls of their friends,
with top friends they could display their best ones
(especially popular with the younger Facebookers
who started on MySpace). X Me and Superpoke
expand the poking feature, one of Facebooks
originals. I could go on about nearly all of the top
Facebook apps.
So...questions to ask.
1. Would my app expand the current Facebook user
experience?
If Yes....
2. What do I want to get out of the Facebook app?
Most users aren’t going to start using your app
outside of Facebook, so you’ll have to discover a way
to monetize it within the site if that’s what you’re
trying to do. If you’re trying to generate buzz about
a site/service (I think you are) OUTSIDE of Facebook
then think hard about how you’re going to do that -- it
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: blamphier
wouldn’t be easy.
3. Will users continue to use my app? The political
compass was really popular at first but you only need
to use it once then you’re done. iLike climbed because
people continually use it.
The answer to 1 has to be yes. The answer to 3 should
be yes if you put more than 3 hours worth of work
into it. The answer to 2 is the most important, if it
doesn’t fit your business it’s not worth the time.
Guess what? You SHOULD use Facebook. Invitations
(along with picture sharing), is the MOST POPULAR
THING ON Facebook FOR UPPER CLASSMEN. I’ve
been using Facebook since it was the Facebook.com.
I don’t edit Facebook much any more, don’t really
look through my friends profiles, but I use the Invite/
party pages service ALL THE TIME. If you’re evite
on steroids can expand that process (talk to some
college kids about how they use the party page invite
thing...if you can’t find any ask me)...then you’ll have
a winner, because no current Facebook app is doing it
well.
But remember, school’s out. Your traction, especially
for party invites, sucks when everybody’s at home
with their parents. Build the app, launch it slowly,
then push it hard in late august when all the back to
school parties start.
16
 Insight Community Responses
Response 11
I think any start-up should consider the power of the
Facebook brand as one of the primary motivators.
Facebook seems to have generated a brand that
garners respect in a way that MySpace doesn’t. The
technical benefits of tapping into this network of
networks can be taken for granted - it’s obvious.
What may not be obvious is the effect of the Facebook
brand.
Being, associated with a brand growing in power is
sure to rub off in very positive and powerful way.
Take a look at iLike 3,286,238 users and counting (it
was around half a million few days ago) no matter
how you slice it - that is an enormous take up in a
very short time and this is likely why you are thinking
about the Facebook API. But what iLike gets a big
benefit from - is the fact that Facebook has a fairly
high trust level from its user base and that trust is
what will encourage those users to trust iLike enough
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: yuri
to make a financial transaction through them (be it
a click through to iTunes, Amazon or Ticketmaster).
Surely MySpace can create a greater network effect
and the open Web a higher potential market - but
both of them will not enable you to build a brand for
your business like Facebook will.
In the end all transactions depend on the trust level
between the parties. Brand is what creates that trust.
Having your brand attached to one that generates
trust on the level of Facebook is very powerful
incentive to jump on that bandwagon. Brand can
overcome many issues such as price/value, technical
prowess or any other “empirical” issue that we geeks
tend to focus on. Establishing a brand will allow you
to build out in many directions you may have not
even imagined yourself going.
Cheers! And good luck!
17
 Insight Community Responses
Response 12
No. But it is worth extending the Facebook model into
businesses with lots of employees and/or contractors,
dealers or customers. The basic issue for the business
is how do we increase the business tempo. How do
we get new people up to speed faster. How do we
make finding the right resources easier. How do we
get new ideas propagated faster. Pick up on new
trends or issues. Social networking technology can do
this for business.
Hunter Douglas, to give one obscure example, has
thousands of independent dealers and installers
worldwide. Right now those folks have only indirect
ways of meeting up with each to share tips, leads and
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: technoqwan
experience. Company employees have no easy way of
finding out about the dealers and installers. Corporate
has no easy way to inject new business growing ideas
into the dealers. Most importantly, dealers have no
way to gain recognition from their peers for their
innovations.
Applying social networking techniques to business
communities is the next big growth area. A company
that makes the software to do that and delivers it as
a service to companies will do very well for many
years.
18
 Insight Community Responses
Response 13
Is it worth putting your video content on YouTube?
Facebook is providing a platform for applications,
much like YouTube provides a platform for video.
Facebook is one of the first companies to provide
this service and it’s the best way to launch some
applications with access to a large and dedicated user
base
I said “some” applications.
Just as there are some videos which are perfect for
the YouTube Platform and others better on other
platforms, so are there web applications which are
perfect for the Facebook application and others not.
So, as you plan your recommendation service,
the major question should be “does the Facebook
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: innoate
Platform allow me to do everything I wish to do?” If
not, build an application which does all you want it to
do, then ask if you want to integrate with Facebook.
When it’s time to decide if you’ll integrate with
Facebook, ask yourself “why” you’d consider
Facebook. What strengths are you going after? If it’s
for the massive userbase, and your product relies on
a critial mass of users to work, then put a big check
in the plus column for building into Facebook. If
your app and business model will rely more on the
quality of engagement, I may not target the distracted
Facebook user community.
Anyway, thinking about Facebook as a YouTube of
app platforms could help you decide. My guess is that
a recommendation service would do really well on
Facebook, but not bound by it. Integrating with other
platforms, surely, will be important as well.
19
 Insight Community Responses
Response 14
I think there are (as ever) good and bad reasons to
jump or not:
the good:
Iimmediate access to a large social network. Some
people are fed up with signing up for so many
services so having access from an already in use and
trusted servcie is a good thing. I for one am starting to
add more apps to my Facebook profile but have yet to
decide if it’s a good thing or not. However having one
place to go to see things/info is a benefit
You get the hype effect that everyone is rolling along
on the same wagon. It’s a high profile place to launch
your service.
the bad:
Lack of differentiation. You’re in with everyone else
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: ikisai
and competing for a space on someone’s homepage
which can get cluttered/busy quite quickly (however
if your service is valuable and useful to someone this
wont matter).
More difficult to build up your own brand image as
may be seen as a subset of Facebook (same problem
for everyone of course).
Conclusion:
If your service depends on viral/social/mass adoption
which it seems like it might from the brief descrition,
tight integration with Facebook and other existing
social networks is a good thing. I would say overall,
make the path to use your service as troublefree,
simple as possible
20
 Insight Community Responses
Response 15
The first question to ask is how you would do in the
absence of Facebook. Does your service drive enough
value to be self-sustainable. The other question you
have to ask yourself is how you differentiate? Your
business can get quickly diluted if a competing
service comes up (and for that reason I don’t like the
idea of going the of route premium services unless
you have a great value proposition and competitive
strategy). These two considerations are critical.
The service itself should be built so as to rely
minimally on Facebook profile data. Obviously if
more data is exposed that is great and more value
can be extracted but that’s gravy and should not be
a dependency. The most appealing aspect is that
an evite can find itself instantly broadcasted across
the network and therein lie the most interesting
challenges. The widget itself is the principal driver
for signups through Facebook and the information
imparted through it should add value. There are three
aspects to consider: viewing the eVite, responding to
the eVite, forwarding the eVite. Next, the signup page
for the eVite service is just as critical. If users don’t see
a value-proposition on that screen, they will be turned
off. This is also to combat the problem of dilution.
I have recieved a dozen or so requests in the past 2
weeks alone.
Churn will be another issue. Once an event is over,
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: aleem
how do you retain users and what is the point of them
keeping up the eVite? This is another problem that
should be addressed, because the value-proposition
simply drops after the event is over and the widget is
just idly taking up screen real estate.
Being first to market will surely give you a lead but
a competitive strategy should also be set in place by
considering some what-if scenarios.
Community responses to aleem:
From vinaya.hs: Analyzing your insight took me on a
different train of thought.
A popular framework used to market a product or
service is the AIDAS (Awareness, Interest, Desire,
Action, and Satisfaction) framework. Probably, this
company could use the Facebook platform as a tool
to attack the A, I, and D components, i.e. to generate
Awareness and to create a viral Interest and Desire for
their recommendation-based service. The back end
web site could then serve the Action and Satisfaction
part.
What do you think?
21
 Insight Community Responses
Response 16
The issue of to Facebook or not, is an important one.
For a recommendation-based/”evite on steroids
business”, it would be highly advantageous to make
a Facebook widget. Taking it a step further, it would
be useful to provide a widget for iGoogle, myYahoo,
PageFlakes, MySpace, etc. as well.
However, it does not have to be a widget or web
decision. In fact, it probably makes sense NOT to
make it an either or situation.
Widgets are great ways to reach a huge audience,
such as the Facebook community. According to
Read/Write web - December 18, 2006 (http://www.
readwriteweb.com/archives/long_tail_shrinking.php),
the top 10 web sites % of total web-page pageviews
went up from 31% in November 2001 to 40% in
November 2006. The popularity of RSS feeds and
widgets has accelerated to the point where this trend
is likely to continue in this direction. Therefore, using
the popularity of Facebook, Myspace, iGoogle and My
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: ken_gq
Yahoo! to gain traction will become commonplace for
consumer Internet companies. A few good example
of companies that successfully used plug-ins and
widgets to gain widespread adoption include Flickr,
YouTube, and Photobucket. Especially Photobucket.
Keep in mind that widgets have inherent limitations.
Widgets are designed to be compact is size, and the
transactions on the widgets are expected to be short.
For complex and graphic intensive transactions, a
company’s own web-site is likely better vehicle for
these consumer interactions.
Ideally if the widget becomes popular, the consumer
will come to the corresponding web-site and use
advanced features that would enhance the user
experience. For a recommendations engine, you
may need the consumer to provide some user profile
information to better improve their results from your
engine.
22
 Insight Community Responses
Response 17
There are many disadvantages to developing for
Facebook, beyond the obvious risks of it’s “fad”status.
Creating an application within a closed platform
means giving up a lot of control over your creation,
as well as making it far more difficult to innovate.
Facebook owns your customers, not you, and your
application is basically an advertisement with a
very poor conversion rate for your main service.
Meanwhile, you are paying for this advertisement
with servers and bandwidth, and getting little in
return.
Also, Valleywag reports that a change in how
applications spread virally on Facebook limits the
ability of new applications to catch on with the
community. With thousands of applications, and
some having a multi-million user lead, getting noticed
by the community is going to be difficult, and it will
only get worse with every day.
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: blognc
Still, a Facebook app can be a good add-on for an
already well-established platform. You can create
a Facebook app as a value-add for your current
users, not as a means of trying to recruit from the
Facebook community. The trick is to require users
of the Facebook app to be logged in users of your
own service. This ensures that everyone using your
application is a member of your service and has
received a full pitch, not just clicked an install button.
It creates a barrier that will save you from being
added to too many users that will not take advantage
of your service, while creating greater value for your
actual users.
Alternatively, if you have deep VC pockets willing to
go all-out on the bandwidth, create the application,
with extra features for logged-in users, and go all
out on Facebook. You’ll burn a lot of money, but the
potential upside is there.
23
 Insight Community Responses
Response 18
Without knowing the specifics of your
recommendation-based service, my first general
reaction is: why not join the Facebook fad? With
the open API, it seems to me the only costs are
development time, much of which you would already
have to spend anyway. Extending the service for
Facebook, or creating a specialized app for Facebook,
would entail modifying what you are already putting
into place anyway, unless somehow the time and costs
were extensive.
Moreover, it’s not a question of either/or when it
comes to developing a Facebook app or a Web 2.0
app, is it? My sense is the target market for a service
like evite on steroids would be early adopters or
younger Internet users and Facebook delivers the
ideal demographic.
So, some of the key points worth considering:
1. How much more time and effort would it entail to
develop a Facebook app?
2. Is your primary target early adopters or younger
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: cbrumfie
Internet users? This is particularly important given
that you plan to extend the model to premium
subscription services. Although not much data exists
on this issue, Facebook users don’t spend a lot of
money -- yet -- on add-on services.
3. There has a been a lot of discussion over the past
few weeks around the idea that Facebook, and to a
lesser extent, MySpace, are serving to resurrect the
idea of a “walled garden,” much the way AOL did in
the earliest days of mass market Internet adoption. I
believe this is true for the younger demographic, who
rarely stray beyond IM and their Facebook profiles.
The wide-open Internet is, for this segment of the
Internet population, almost non-existent.
It’s impossible to predict how long this “enclosed”
Internet will exist for this youth-oriented Internet
population, but I think it will continue for some
period of time and, indeed, continue to increase. Any
start-up that is targeting the Facebook population has,
to some limited extent, a “captive” population that
won’t stray very far and you can probably expect that
market to grow.
24
 Insight Community Responses
Response 19
The thing about Facebook is that it’s different to
other social networks - the networks on Facebook
are not “online” networks, they are just an online
manifestation of a real world network. The apps taht
have been most successful (in my network at least,)
have been the ones that help people to do real world
things wether that’s as simple as a bit of banter -
through the wall and the poke pro apps or finding out
who wants to see a film I’m interested in.
If your program has a real world application, get it on
Is It Worth Joining The Facebook Fad?
TIC Expert: samoakley
Facebook, if not don’t bother - it’s already crowded
with cool stuff for cool stuff’s sake.
Also - judging from my network, Facebook users
are not tech savvy in the same way that people in
my myspace or bebo networks are, again, I think
that’s down to the nature of Facebook and its pre-
networked users. If your app is hard to use, Facebook
might not be the best place for it.
Hope that is helpful.
25
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