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The Facebook Eco-System

July 12, 2007 BY Mark Evans

You’ve got to think this Facebook thing is more than a social networking “fad” when major venture capitalists start talking about investing in Facebook Apps. Personally, I find the FB Apps space confusing. There’s just much noise and no way (or time) to separate the good ones from the crap. Then, you get swamped with offers from “friends”, which makes it even more complicated. I’ve tried a few apps but nothing of them have stuck.

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  • http://www.kendyck.com Ken Dyck

    Agreed. What seems even more confusing to me is the question of business model. How does a Facebook app generate enough revenue to cover its hosting expenses?

  • Oliver Dueck

    I agree 100%. While I love the concept of the Facebook Platform, it takes away from Facebook’s clean interface. And I get all of these invites from friends to use stupid useless apps.

    There are some cool ones – I love the “Where I’ve Been” app, and iLike and last.fm are pretty neat.

  • http://500hats.typepad.com/ dave mcclure

    not a fad. there are a lot of crap apps, but the ecosystem they’ve built is incredibly strong. more thoughts here:

    Marketing Facebook Apps: All About the Feed, n00bs
    http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/07/marketing-faceb.html

    - dave mcclure

  • http://www.reputrack.com Joseph Fiore

    …yes Mark, confusing indeed when one takes into account the “success kills” scenario discussed here – add a dash of the Fan-Force warnings and and a sprinkle of Facebook TOS and your left with a recipe that may have a few symbionts feeling a little disappointed.

  • http://blog-o-blog.com zac echola

    These apps, however annoying many of them are, work two ways. The app developer can tap into a potentially huge market and facebook can let third party developers create new “features” while they work on more important endeavors for their company.

    I think it’s a good strategy, even if a few companies have taken a bit of a tumble with the massive rush of users. It’s their fault for not figuring out how to monetize it.

    As for using applications, I try to only use those that fit the spirit of facebook or applications I already use, like del.icio.us and Google Reader Shared Items.