Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Dear Facebook: Who is your customer?

Every good business model must have a core value proposition. In the beginning, Facebook's value proposition (to its users anyway) was exclusivity, privacy, and connectivity. In an honest attempt to generate a profit, Facebook changed it's model and the tables have turned against it's core users.

I'm not just talking about the natural trade-off between network scale and value-generation through exclusivity (which is why Guilt will fail during the recovery unless it changes its business model). My mom joined Facebook last year and that doesn't really bother me so much... what does bother me is the lack of trust.

Facebook is not a cool way to connect with old friends anymore, it's a media company. It is in the business of capturing eyeballs and selling ads. Even worse, they are selling access to it's users confidential information.

Let me ask you this... who will keep using Facebook and what is the core value proposition now?

Is it email? (ugh no), self-promotion? (hello, Twitter), sharing photos? (did you read the fine print about us giving up our copyright btw?) , channel to consume addictive games? (maybe...)

Dear Facebook: Who is your customer?


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