There’s this thread (Bits and TechCrunch are good examples) going around the blogosphere that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg apologized for Beacon’s flawed launch into the world, which led to a wave of privacy concerns and public retreats from high-profile advertisers who had been Beacon supporters.
Truth be told, Zuckerberg did not apologize; not even close. In fact, you could argue he and Facebook are unrepentant about what was/is a major strategic mistake. All Zuckerberg will admit is “we missed the right balance” by not giving people enough flexibility to opt out of Beacon.
Ha! It’s like Facebook introduced a car with three wheels, and then concedes there wouldn’t have as many accidents if it had thought it through and offered a fourth wheel.
Truth be told, there’s a lot of people missing the boat when it comes to Facebook’s economic potential. Sure, it attracts a lot of users but the business model is still unproven, especially for a company worth $15-billion. If Beacon is any indication, Facebook needs to do a serious strategic re-load.
3 Comments
Hmm, I read in Zuckerberg’s message:
“We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.”
Surprise! He’s practicing for when he winds up a billionaire.
Brusselsblogger,
You’re right, he did you use the “apologize”. But I didn’t get the sense he really meant it. It came across like what a child does when they’re forced to apologize for spilling their juice; they do it but they’re really just going through the motions.