Facebook - what does the future hold?

W

WeLuvIbiza

Active Member
It has served it's purpose, reuniting old friends from all corners of the globe.

What life is left in the facebook concept?

A year or two ago ones' timeline would be constantly filled with a lot of nothingness, but clearly the site was heaving with activity. Totally different story these days, the odd bit of tumbleweed blowing around.

Quite how the site can be valued at $50bn is a mystery, would anyone here get involved at that kind of valuation? Were no lessons learned from the last dot.com crash?
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
It has served it's purpose, reuniting old friends from all corners of the globe.

What life is left in the facebook concept?

A year or two ago ones' timeline would be constantly filled with a lot of nothingness, but clearly the site was heaving with activity. Totally different story these days, the odd bit of tumbleweed blowing around.

Quite how the site can be valued at $50bn is a mystery, would anyone here get involved at that kind of valuation? Were no lessons learned from the last dot.com crash?
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Far too much spam these days on there, and bizarrely, even though I only have people only there I know (one or two might have slipped through), too many people who still click 'see who's been looking at your profile links' and fill everyone's page with rubbish.

Twitter's bound to go the same way, then what?
 
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Buckley said:
Far too much spam these days on there, and bizarrely, even though I only have people only their I know (one or two might have slipped through), too many people who still click 'see who's been looking at your profile links' and fill everyone's page with rubbish.

Twitter's bound to go the same way, then what?
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We will all have to do it the old fashion way and talk face to face
 
it's value isn't so much in the reunion aspect (that was already pretty much covered by friends reunited) so much as the fact that it is a gossip factory, a diary planner, photo album, spam device, counselling service, magazine, video arcade, debating chamber, marketing machine, jukebox, chatroom and nosy parker & voyeurist's dream all in one whenever and wherever you want. I don't think it will decline easily. People don't just go on there, they LIVE on there. It's frightening just how infomation is stored about you and worse nobody knows where it ends up. The spam calls I'm convinced I get because I carelessly listed my mobile up once etc - where the return is surely has to come in the information being licensed out to third parties. I can't see any other way, because it sure as hell won't come from discreet ads that nobody clicks on
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
Quite how the site can be valued at $50bn is a mystery, would anyone here get involved at that kind of valuation? Were no lessons learned from the last dot.com crash?
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Easy. Its bringing in huge revenue through advertising increasing year after year as print media advertising become less attractive. Plus the dot com crash was a completely different ball game compared to today's online buisness.

The dot com crash mainly involved first time businesses with no track record. Facebook is an established company with a strong trading history. Expect it to be around for a long time to come.
 
Advertisers will soon learn their money is better spent with the likes of google than Facebook. I never even noticed the adverts until a friend asked me "What do you think of the adverts?".

Google rakes in more per week than Facebook does per annum in advertising revenue. Social networking has peaked, many people are simply closing their accounts. I have more friends who have simply deleted their accounts than I have had new friends over the past few months.
 
As someone who works in advertising, i've got to say Facebook has got to be the most cost-efficient, widest reaching media vehicle, to reach a targeted audience there is.....

If you ask 100 people if they use Facebook, I'd guess that 90-95 would say yes.

Can you say that about any other media? Sky TV? The Sun? TalkSport?

I think not.....
 
S2H said:
As someone who works in advertising, i've got to say Facebook has got to be the most cost-efficient, widest reaching media vehicle, to reach a targeted audience there is.....

If you ask 100 people if they use Facebook, I'd guess that 90-95 would say yes.

Can you say that about any other media? Sky TV? The Sun? TalkSport?

I think not.....
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Advertising on Facebook might be reaching a lot of people, but do those people go on fb to look for a new fridge or to chat with friends?
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
Google rakes in more per week than Facebook does per annum in advertising revenue. Social networking has peaked, many people are simply closing their accounts. I have more friends who have simply deleted their accounts than I have had new friends over the past few months.
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Yeah, they've deleted their accounts, definitely. Definitely. Not deleted/blocked/defriended you. Definitely.

:lol:
 
Anything that isn't open source (i.e. - tries to ring fence users and developers into proprietary technology) always has a short shelf life.

Take iTunes for example - Apple have ring-fenced users into their shop interface and started charging developer licenses to make apps.

Meanwhile Android is miiiiiles ahead and Google app store is completely free for developers etc.

...

I'm not quite sure how it will end but I'll feel so cleansed and zen-like when it does.

Facebook clutters my brain - I can't bear it but need to be a part of it because of the artist/event promotion side. I'm eternally jealous of friends who never succumbed in the first place.

I heart Twitter though - it's simplistic and great fun to use (equally time wasting though).
 
The most popular form of online advertising is CPM, which means cost per 1000 page impressions. So every time the page is viewed 1000 times, Facebook charges the advertiser roughly €8.

You dont but the Sun or the Sunday Times to buy a new fridge or other items but there are adds there for them, which cost a lot more to advertise, roughly €60 a square inch depending on the circulation of the newspaper.

Compare that to CPM and as SH2 rightly says its way more cost effective.

Also Facebook can target adverts to the advertisers core market. Ever notice if you type in a certain word like "wedding" or "Man Utd" the number of relevant adds to those keywords that will appear to the right of your page?
 
Bez said:
Also Facebook can target adverts to the advertisers core market. Ever notice if you type in a certain word like "wedding" or "Man Utd" the number of relevant adds to those keywords that will appear to the right of your page?
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Google have been doing this type of thing for years, it's old hat. If you have a gmail account, they scan your email contents to see what you are talking about to target their adverts. It is possible to prevent this intrusion if you are prepared to wade through to the third level of t&c's.

Maybe I am totally wrong but the way fb is going, there will be very few regular users in a year or two. The fact those users will get tailored adverts poking their eyes out is not going to endear them to continue using the site. I have no experience of advertising, but judged on some of the current crop of adverts on tv, I could throw together a better ad campaign than most of the agencies in the mainstream!!
 
facebook basically killed off myspace in large part because it was easier on the eye and you could see everybody else at the same time. I was initially sceptical as it felt too businesslike (after the freakshow that was myspace), but the beauty of facebook and still is that there are no popups, no loud music when you click on a page and it is pretty easy to find what you are after - therefore aesthetically and functionally sound. I think twitter is a slightly different market - partly business, partly general gossip but I don't see its appeal if you want a collective or instant 'chat' - also if like me you are incapable of writing anything concise, then you've pretty much had it
 
Im all about Twitter these days, its fun and carefree

Not full of people telling you too much about themselves, taking themselves too seriously or posting unnecessary photos

I deleted a lot of people off my FB tend to just keep real friends on there and people who dont take themselves too seriously
 
I am on the twitter bandwagon tbh.

Doing a lot of work from home, it serves as my office banter vehicle and in that respect has replaced msn which was the communication medium for years for work buddies and me.

Facebook is good for sharing photo's with friends.

I never did myspace at all, have been to a few peoples pages that often resemble the scene of a car crash.
 
Olly said:
facebook basically killed off myspace in large part because it was easier on the eye and you could see everybody else at the same time. I was initially sceptical as it felt too businesslike (after the freakshow that was myspace), but the beauty of facebook and still is that there are no popups, no loud music when you click on a page and it is pretty easy to find what you are after - therefore aesthetically and functionally sound. I think twitter is a slightly different market - partly business, partly general gossip but I don't see its appeal if you want a collective or instant 'chat' - also if like me you are incapable of writing anything concise, then you've pretty much had it
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^^ Well said.

Additionally, Facebook's move to integrate itself with every other website on earth (common logins, like buttons, etc.) will cement its position to the point that it becomes truly ubiquitous. The unified login is easy for other websites (don't have to maintain user databases) and easier for users (single login). The "like" buttons drives traffic to content on other sites better than any online ad would - because we tend to trust our friends.

They're brilliant in an entirely diabolical way. Already the world's largest photo database! Imagine if they really push into video. Or music streaming. It's a serious monster but one that will be near impossible to extricate from our lives at some point in the very near future.
 
Morbyd said:
It's a serious monster but one that will be near impossible to extricate from our lives at some point in the very near future.
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It's that very point that will force me away from using fb, I already try hard to not conform to the general expectations of 'society' :lol:
 
Morbyd said:
Phew... passed the test :lol: ;)
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I know I did think after ok maybe I was being a bit harsh :lol: - I mean I do log into FB a few times a day and still go on there and talk to friends etc and do like seeing what friends are up to with photos etc

I just like Twitter as its just a bit of fun - and like someone previously said, good way to have banter espec once you get a few of you on there :lol:
 
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