So lay it on me, Zuckerberg! What is it, Facebook Social Ads? Compensating users for promoting products? Sponsored and paid search opportunities? The winner is....wait for it...selective marketing polls.
According to Telegraph, Facebook will soon allow multinational companies to selectively target its members in order to research the appeal of new products. Companies will be able to pose questions to specially selected members based on such intimate details as whether they are single or married and even whether they are gay or straight. The company's advertising department is marketing the new service to thousands of companies worldwide and it hopes the polls will go live this spring.
Like YouTube, Facebook has struggled to make money from advertising because of the unpredictable appropriateness of content adjacent to advertisements. Why does it matter whether or not Facebook has a strong and growing revenue source? Because until it does, everything they have worked so hard to build is at risk. If its business model is at risk, partners will be less and less likely to jump on board, compromising the site's network effect. Focusing on a primary revenue source will also signal to businesses building upon the Facebook platform which opportunities Facebook is not going to try to monetize, all of which adds up to opportunity for the developers.
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