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Facebook ? What is it worth?
Facebook ? What is it worth?
Soon Facebook will be floated as shares, and its believed its valued at billions.
But is it?
Google makes a lot of cash from adverts. Pop on Google and type in something and part of the results are adverts based on keywords. Google itself is simply a search engine.
But on facebook people use it to connect to friends (or so called friends). Adverts become rather annoying.
The question is, is it worth advertisers putting adverts onto Facebook, or are they simply ignored. If advertisers find results then facebook will make money as its used more and more.
One could see advertising on facebook in the same way as ?junk mail?. While a lot of people will not reply to adverts put through there door, some will, and often enough to make it worthwhile. And this could be the case for advertising on facebook.
However while facebook have millions of users, many these days use mobile phone aps, that (I may be wrong) do not have the adverts on them. We are also seeing in the UK a drop in facebook use.
One area that does make money is the boltons. These are like aps that people use with facebook such as games. The idea is to get millions using the games. Out of this a percentage will buy items in the game or cheats and so on. I have heard these bring in a lot of cash.
A lot of businesses have based themselves around facebook. To me that?s a bit like having all your eggs in one basket, as if facebook flops, your in a mess.
In an ideal world facebook would charge a monthly fee, but into days world where people are used to free, that would probably result in people leaving. In the world of social media sites even loosing a few customers to your competition is a disaster.
In time as with most sites, it is likely a site will replace it, and facebook will feel old. At one point myspace was king. It was talked about all the time and was supposed to have been responsible for new bands. But does anyone use it these days?
Facebook is not Google. Google is now several products. In fact its not just websites but is mobile phones and so on. By expanding into other areas it means the company could still be in profit even if the websites no longer make profit. But facebook is a site. Its just a site that you post pics, vids and chat to your friends, and that?s it. And the problem with that, is that while you read this, some 10 year old in some country or other could be putting together the next big thing.
One thing to remember is while facebook has millions of users, there are millions who do not like facebook and will not use it. The key is to make a site that not only attracts facebook users but also those who do not like facebook.
Am I a fan of facebook? To be honest no. I find it simply a blog that people post there boring lives on. I am not interested in seeing pics of my ?friends? kids at the shops or whatever. I am not interested in reading how they went out today and it was cold/warm. In fact all I discovered on facebook was that most of those I went to school with are now fat, middle aged, dull (I mean really dull) people who seem to sit all day trying to convince everyone they have an exciting life. The only good thing I found was the girls I had the hots for at school now rather repulsive, and it cheers me up that I am not married to any of them. My big fear is that my old school friends may with to meet as a reunion, and I fear what diseases I may pick up by being in the same room as them.
I would love to know what the result of an advert of facebook is. Say an advert is placed on say 100,000 peoples pages (targeted), and out of that how many click or even look at the advert, then out of that how many will result in sales.
Google adverts work because people request the information. No one is going to be annoyed if you do a Google search for ?Soya milk? and part of the results is a link to a ?Soya milk? firm. I have clicked on the adverts on Google, though to be honest I found the search results often gave me what I wanted, while the advertised sites were not what I wanted, or charged a lot more for there product/service. Although I often stick to sites I know and trust as some sites I go on look very poor and I wonder if they are a con or real.
If facebook had plans for other sites/products, then I would be more positive. But maybe when they raise a few billion they could invest in something fantastic.
Facebook was based on a university year book. The next big thing probably needs to be based on real life. From what I have seen Google+ seems to be aiming for that by having your work friends separate from family, separate from your university friends, separate from your close friends and so on.
However facebook has elements of voyeurism, and exhibitionism. Most who use it are or wanting to show off are view those who show off. While (from what I gather) facebook removes users who post nude pics, one wonders what facebook would be if it allowed users to post pics of themselves. One wonders if very quickly it would have the world posting online nude pics of themselves. Facebook in my mind has allowed those who were shy to become mini presenters of sorts. There facebook posts about there daily (and often dull) lives being there sort of TV show. Its odd that a few years ago one would dread the camera bore coming home from holiday having millions of slides to show us, yet facebook appears to have created a population of people doing just that online.
So I shall now log into my facebook account. I suspect it will be full of pics from my ?friends? of pics of there vile overweight children taken on some cheap camera phone. Soon it will be xmass where they then will be posting pics of there vile family sat in there vile homes pretending to have a good time. The joy of pics of the blob families.
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