For those who follow popular tech bloggers (and I expect most, if not all of you do, if you’re reading this blog), there have been two interesting posts within the last 48 hours few days or so.
One involves Jason Calacanis who has decided to declare Facebook Bankruptcy over how many people are pinging him via Facebook Apps, wherein he’s basically thrown up his hands and has given up. (Boo hoo, I’m too popular). The other involves Mike Arrington’s post over at TechCrunch where he details how there is a burgeoning business in trying to monetize Facebook applications — most noticeably (for me) through selling ad space *on* Facebook applications.
Both of these posts taken together portent a potential backlash coming at Facebook applications, and no, I don’t mean just the usual fooferah around Facebook Bankruptcy. This is how.
- Everyone and their sister is drooling over the possibility over creating an application that has the viral potential to be “signed up” by millions of people almost over night.
- There are many ways to potentially monetize Facebook applications, and a popular one seems to be advertising.
- Facebook applications seem like a fantastic opportunity for advertisers (and Facebook app owners) because many Facebook users have not altered their privacy settings, and therefore many applications have access to demographic drill-down type data that advertisers crave.
- The problem is that many Facebook users, have, in fact, not yet noticed that they are being targeted in this fashion — and I suspect that many, when they will, will not like it.
- Furthermore, many Facebook users, particularly users of widg– I mean, applications — are also probably not fond of the whole idea of applications trying to sell ad space on *their profile*, essentially monetizing their activities (and in a circular way, their friends) absolutely gratis.
- Add to this supposition that Facebook applications have been multiplying like weeds, I suspect many Facebook users — particularly the hyper connected ones, such as Mr. Calacanis — are probably getting fed up with these little applications. Signed up users for applications is one thing, but active and retained users are another.
- If my presumptions about Facebook users are true, we could see a time very soon when a great deal of Facebook users will realize that a great deal of coin is being made off of their profiles, using their demographics, in applications that were not previously used as platforms for displaying ads, on a social networking site that has been generally inconspicuous with ads, which is now seeing an overproliferation of applications, creating a widespread ennui of “poke-itis”.
- And if this is the case, we might in fact, see a backlash against these applications, and an en-masse signing off or removing of Facebook applications.
Now, we already had a meme going on about Facebook bankruptcy this past weekend, with several prominent tech bloggers proclaiming how useful — or not — it was. Surprisingly, I don’t expect much, if any, of that conversation to actually trickle down to the everyday Facebook user, since it is so mainstream (at least in Toronto).
Much ado about nothing really.
What will be much more interesting is if there is a real user backlash, in real aggregate numbers, around Facebook Applications. I don’t know who or what will set it off, but all it may take is a few hyperconnected nodes — er, users — to realize what is happening, put the dots together, and set a few groups going on the topic.
A few tech bloggers discussing about Facebook Bankruptcy is one thing. A revolt against the wholesale selling of adspace on personal profiles — by a second hand party, no less — with none of it going back to the profile “owner” is another thing entirely.

6 Comments
It’s so true that people have no clue how to configure Facebook apps for privacy. I wrote a post about it to help out some of my friends on Facebook, and even I was surprised at some of the settings I found that I had no idea existed.
Maybe that is the idea for a killer app then… one that advertises and shares revenue with those that display it on their profile.
I’m not a fan of the apps myself anyway, I only have the video one (made by Facebook). 99% of apps seem to be pointless and I have taken to blocking and reporting any app that has the cheek to email me. There could be a backlash over all of this, but Facebook users are so into trying everything (so it seems from the number of apps my friends install and uninstall in a week) that there will be some winners out of all of this, and not just Facebook themselves.
The applications /can/ be annoying but since you don’t /have/ to add any of them it’s really up to the individual user to decide which, if any, they want to use.
And when it comes to ads, I’ve already gotten facebook (or any other banner-laden site) beaten. I use adblock, a Firefox extension, to completely remove any and all “ad” content from sites like facebook and myspace… it makes everything better.
I think you’re right on.
Facebook is following the familiar pattern set by previous social networking applications. People sign up because their friends sign up and once everybody signs up, they discover that there isn’t much to do. The first few Facebook applications are cute but they’re all variations on the same themes.
Now wonder there’s all this talk about Facebook not being for sale *cough* $10 Billions dollars *cough*…
The latest entry into the killer app catagory…http://apps.facebook.com/thenewsroom
I agree that there will be a backlash, and the mechanisms that you describe will definitely put downward pressure on being uncool, for lack of a better term, about how and where advertising is placed. Unfortunately, for now, doing all this install chaining and advertising other widgets on profiles is what is bringing in money to the companies like Slide and RockYou, which have “fun” widgets which are really popular.
That said, I think there is some real long term value to be had from applications which leverage the social network, but are not compelling enough for users to establish and maintain yet another social network. I think there will also be a few applications that end up making a ton of money that no one sees coming.
What’s happening here is classic Porter Competitive strategy – there is a new technology, so there are LOTS of entrants, and a few of them will end up doing really well, and a lot of them will wither and die.