Facebook have 18 million people, lots. But MySpace has 10-0 million + and sold for only $580 million to News Corps in 2005. Facebook offered to Google for a reported $1.65 million in 2006 but it provides over 100 million movies a day and has over 2-5 million visitors a mo...
Yahoo! have been in discussions with Facebook for over a year now and apparently recently got afraid at Facebooks $1 million selling price but when I can explain here Yahoo! have missed out on a complete bargain.
Facebook have 18 million people, lots. But MySpace has 100 million + and sold for a mere $580 million to News Corps in 2005. You-tube sold to Google for a reported $1.65 million in 2006 but it provides over 10-0 million videos a day and has over 2-5 million visitors monthly. So why is Facebook so useful? It gets somewhat large traffic levels but not on par with YouTube or MySpace. Despite now being available to anyone it started life as an distinctive network for students (you needed an e-mail to register) and this is still its primary user group.
So wheres the cash?
Currently Facebook demonstrates traditional banner advertising o-n people homepages and selected pages through the website. Advertisements are hidden and random in so much as theyre not targeted at any particular user- theyre only served to the entire site on a random basis. Facebook are doing okay out of this design on the basis of the number of page impressions they receive, although in reality theyre maintaining marketing at a minimum in order to produce the value of the site because of its final sale that may almost certainly happen in 2007/8. Smart men!
The energy of information
Register with Facebook and quickly you will find yourself offering huge volumes of important personal information. Think of it Facebook know your name, they know how old you are (actually your D.O.B which will be infinitely more important as Ill go on to spell out), they know if youre male or female, they know your neighborhood, your postcode if you choose to provide it away (although I doubt many customers choose this), they know if youre individual, in a partnership (and who with), married, divorced an such like, they know your sexual orientation. Okay so you can answer all these questions as honestly, dishonestly or vaguely as you like but from what Ive seen people happily give accurate information regarding them-selves as its their friends and potential friends who are going to see it- and no one else right?
But what else do Facebook know? Well they know where you went to college, where you work, more sinisterly your political opinions and religious. Using this we could begin to develop a fairly valuable industry report. As Im showing Facebook I might also tell Im Male, 22 to you (born in August), Straight, in a relationship, conservative, atheist from Brighton, England. Went to school at Blatchington Mill Secondary, school at a spot called BHASVIC, University at Bournemouth. Dig up further on www.facebook.com/tylermcollins by visiting our lofty web page. Out of this information we can bring more assumptions- I live in Brighton and in line with the place of my schools catchment place we could pretty accurately guide sites in Brighton I know about, visit, and live in (think Google maps API). Im a straight; conservative from the moderately rich place entirely time employment therefore Im probably white, middle-income group with a decent disposable income.
So what else? Facebook know what you look like, they possibly know what you used to look like many years ago too. Possibly most significantly they know who your friends are, they know how you know them, they know when you communicate with them, what they appear to be and ultimately they know the identical information about them as they know about you- youre interests, likes and dislikes and your friends preferences also.
They know your email address, so if you use Hotmail, Yahoo they know! Mail and so on. To study additional information, you are able to glance at: https://www.facebook.com/tylermcollins/. They know your phone number so they can very easily work-out your phone provider. So they could work out your ISP they've your INTERNET protocol address. They know where youve arrived at the site from so they know what search-engine you use (enter Yahoo! And Google to the war), what browser youre on, they know if youre visually impaired or have learning problems in the settings on your browser.
Facebook know when Im logging in and from where so they know the hours I work, if Im online at work, the pages I keep Facebook to go to or even the pages I come from so they know what other websites I look at. I can set my present position and tell Facebook just what Im doing or feeling right this second.
OK so you have the picture by now, one last thing though, is your Facebook password exactly like your email account password, your web and telephone banking password, every-other password you use in your everyday life (since until I wrote this article mine was!) how much additional information do you want to share?
Whats the risk here?
Genuinely its very slim. Facebook certainly are a great couple of people and a great site, I love using it and despite knowing what I know about information security and the like I choose to give-away a huge piece of the information Ive talked about here.
Aol! And Facebook
So if Yahoo!, Google or god forbid Microsoft effectively purchase Facebook (as I say Im fairly confident this will happen this year) the Orwellian lucid dream suggested by this article becomes a perpetual nightmare. Imagine a company who have made billions and dominated the fastest-growing industry on earth by devel-oping methods which sort that information with the greatest goal of matching it to businesses and examine hundreds of millions of pages of random information (the web) and attempting to sell advertising.
The search algorithm let loose on Facebook
Imagine the search engines let loose o-n Facebook. An algorithm tuned to select out report information (John, born 13.08.84). Map it to key words in individual interests i.e. baseball, Manchester United. Plot your site on the road i.e. Brighton, England. Follow links for your best friends with similar interests i.e. Bob and Dave who live around the corner and provide an advertising something like: to me
Happy birthday for a few weeks John. Discover further about partner sites by going to our astonishing essay.
Are you aware its Daves birthday the week after?
You will want to book tickets for Brighton and Hove Albion compared to. Manchester united on 12.08.07
Just click here to guide now and get 3 tickets for the cost of 2 (why not ask william to come along- h-e supports Brighton and you havent talked in-a while).
Book to-day and well give a half price limo to you from your own home towards the game with trashy-limos.com.
Now thats strong marketing and its just around the corner. If Facebook has 25 million users by the time its bought, 1 / 2 of whom visit every day thats a minimum 12.5 million page impressions a day. Provide the advert above at $1 a click (that is less than its worth based on the present AdWords CPC product) expect a click through rate all the way to 10 % based on the particular nature of the advertising and thats $1.2 million minimum a day- nearly $ a billion a year. Increase that consumer group to 5-0 million (realistic if Google or Yahoo! Could utilize their existing user database) and sell advertising space on an affiliate base say the soccer tickets at $300 with a 10% conversion price and a 10% affiliate kickback =$3 per user x 2-5 million users =$75 million a day or $2737500000 in year 1! OK lets perhaps not get carried away people arent planning to spend $300 every-other day however the logics there and therefore the money.
Will the audience except it?
Greater quality marketing means less advertising- less so that you cant find what youre seeking for, less pop-ups websites rammed with banners, less low quality goods. Here is the primary driving force behind the success of search marketing plans and account based advertising is already in-place with Googles individualized search returning more precise AdWords adverts than previously possible. If it falls in-to the hands of Microsoft then people could be more careful but with the picture of Google or Yahoo! Since the organization doesnt offer you products and services directly and h-e company and Facebook profile information is regarded as soft information is free. Its the way the web goes and I feel its where well be in 5 years.
Identity theft
The point Ive been creating tediously through this post is that we ought to be more careful by what information we give-up and to whom. If the internet was a state it would be Nazi Germany and Facebook would function as the Gestapo! Cultural tools like Facebook are given the sort of privileged information fascist governments all over the world would and have killed for. We moan about identity cards being presented in the UK (actually theres many Facebook organizations dedicated to the cause) but we happily quit personal details to a whole lot of college geeks in the states who are eventually planning on offering our details to the highest bidder (the price of any site is based on the volume, quality and amount of information they've about their traffic- but best of luck to them) probably to the organization who already control the most of world business systems through the windows software.
This post is not supposed to scare- its just a recognition of the power of new internet technologies, their perhaps purposes and if your Facebook friends are your true friends shouldnt to present the question- they know your birthday? Are Facebook actually likely to get you a present?!.
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