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Loading ...There is an article in the Economist this week (October 20th-26th) about the social network rage. More specifically, it addresses the much adored and talked about MySpace rival, known as Facebook.
Earlier this year Mark Zuckerberg (creator of Facebook) allowed outside programmers to create additional programs, or “widgets” for Facebook, creating a never ending list of activities (5,000 and counting) that could addict one to the site indefinitely. I know, as I recently joined Facebook. Everyday now I find myself trying out something new on the site. And I am locating friends at an alarming rate who are using these “widgets” to make contact with me.
What excites people like Mark Zuckerberg though when he talks about Facebook is the idea of the “social graph” that social networks create, showing patterns and trends among the users.
A captive audience of millions that comes with a “social graph” is of course a dream come true for advertisers. So it is no surprise then that Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! want to buy into this explosive social network. Estimates are coming in at $100 billion. Yes, I typed BILLION. This is interesting as they only made $100 million in 2007.
Facebook does deserve credit, says the Economist, for being original. Its innovations are its openness to programs from the outside (keeping advertising revenues) and the mini-feed. But maybe Facebook and other social networks are not really as ground-breaking as they might first appear when they are touting their use of the “social graph.” Other social-graphing devices such as address books, for example, have been around much longer than Facebook.
This idea of a “social graph” begs a closer look at what kind of social networks are being created out there in places such as Facebook and MySpace. Paul Saffo of
Is this what people want to belong to? We all already belong to the human race. Perhaps virtual socialites would rather belong to a social network that lets in a chosen few. Is it so fabulous to have 500 “friends” you barely know? Or would you rather be invited into a network of people that you really want to get to know and socialize with based on common interests? Quality over quantity, as they say. If it is quality, than more smaller social networks will develop in the future and no one company would own THE “social-graph.”
So is Facebook really going to be worth $100 billion?
Filed under: Advertising, Facebook, Facebook Apps, MySpace, Social Graphs, Social Networking, Social Networks
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[…] The announcement came yesterday that Microsoft would pay $240 million for 1.6% of Facebook - putting the value of Facebook at $15 billion (a far cry from the projected $100 billion given by others watching the scene). […]
We can judge the popularity of these sites by seeing their ranking in http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Alexa. Orkut has been steadily rising on the Alexa charts but MySpace is still significantly bigger than Orkut.com.