Observations (and Admonitions) from Facebook’s F8
Last week I had the pleasure of attending Facebook’s F8 conference in San Francisco. While it was an invite-only event, I found myself there with roughly 2,000 of my closest friends. Notwithstanding the non-exclusive-exclusivity of the event, listening to the different presenters, I felt the ground shift a bit. I couldn’t help but feel that Facebook was mounting (and probably succeeding in) an unprecedented revolution in social networking and information distribution.
Facebook has 400 million users and, according to The Zuck (who made me feel very, very old), growing at the fastest rate ever. With this gargantuan user base already installed (and growing), they are now attempting to layer Facebook onto every site on the World Wide Web. As an example, if you go to CNN.com, you don’t need to warm up to their user community, your Facebook friends and their recommendations, commentary, etc., will already be there in a pop-up window riding on top of the CNN pages.
Pretty cool . . . but also kind of scary.
While they did not come out and say this, it is clear to me that Facebook is aiming to be the central nervous system for all things social on the Web. You can probably even drop “social” from that sentence. This goal is cool in that, such a common platform can make it that much easier to share thoughts and ideas with our friends and colleagues. But is also kind of scary in that this common platform could essentially make Facebook the operating system of the social web. Switching costs will become astronomically high and barriers to third-party innovation and entry will be higher.
Now, I don’t want to be too Orwellian here because I want Facebook to succeed. To date, they have been so innovative on the social networking front that, if they keep the monopolistic rents in check, their revolution can be on par with that of the telephone, PC and Internet. It’s just that it has been so long since we have had a single, private company at the core of our connectivity. The last one I can remember is Ma Bell, and we all know how overbearing she was before the courts broke her up. Overweight and obstinate, she told you what to do and not vice versa.
Zuckster – please don’t go there – even when you succeed in your vision and are ultra-Sultan-rich. It’s so much more fun being the vanguard than the prison guard.
April 28th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Mark,
Nice post. I started using Facebook very early, when it was available only to a handful of colleges across the country. It was funny to watch as whatever privacy or limitations to growth the site began with were stripped away one by one. When the news feed was introduced, for example, users revolted and vowed to stop using Facebook unless the feature was discontinued. Of course, that never happened. The same happened when Facebook became available to high schools and (gasp!) parents.
Now, it seems that Facebook users are generally acquiescent to the site’s growth, knowing that it just can’t be controlled. Like you, I want Facebook to succeed and have no doubt that it will. But the important question is: how much is too much? While there are many social media sites, none comes even close to being as useful or ubiquitous as Facebook. And although the drawbacks to it becoming “central nervous system for all things social on the Web” aren’t yet clear, I can’t help but be worried about a company growing so large.
Thanks for the insights!
April 29th, 2010 at 11:48 am
[...] CEO Mark Britton blogged yesterday about the complications that accompany Facebook’s incredible growth. I commented on the post that, as an early Facebook user, it has been funny to watch as whatever [...]
April 29th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Ben – thanks for your thoughts. If things are handled responsibly, it is seldom too much. Common platforms are what allow us to efficiently connect. Facebook will stumble on privacy issues as it has in the past, but as long as they listen to their user community and quickly correct their course when they are wrong, they will be fine. It is the essence of being an innovative, growing company.
On your point re: privacy erosion, I think this is more a function of people simply becoming more comfortable with the web. We are seeing this in the macro-population, and we are seeing it with lawyers as well. Many consultants have made the Web big and scary and over time lawyers are realizing that it doesn’t need to be. Time and knowledge will alter all of our perceptions of the Web.
May 4th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Great post, It is amazing how far Facebook has come. It is a little scary that it could make Facebook the operating system of the social web.