Facebook have 18 million customers, lots. However MySpace has 100 million + and offered for a mere $580 million to News Corps in 2005. You-tube bought to Google for a noted $1.65 billion in 2006 but it provides over 100 million movies a day and has over 2-5 million visitors a mo...
Google! have been in discussions with Facebook for over a year now and apparently recently got afraid at Facebooks $1 billion selling price but as I will explain here Yahoo! have missed from an absolute bargain.
Facebook have 18 million users, lots. But MySpace has 10-0 million + and offered for merely a $580 million to News Corps in 2005. You-tube bought to Google for a noted $1.65 billion in 2006 but it has over 2-5 million visitors monthly and provides over 100 million videos a day. So why is Facebook so valuable? I-t gets fairly big traffic levels but not on par with YouTube or MySpace. Despite now being offered to anyone it began life being an distinctive network for students (you needed an educational e-mail to register) and that is still its main user group.
So wheres the cash?
Currently Facebook shows mainstream banner advertising o-n consumers homepages and selected pages through your website. Adverts are unobtrusive and random in so much as theyre not targeted at any particular user- theyre only served to-the whole site on a random basis. Facebook are doing ok out of this design on-the basis of the amount of page impressions they receive, though in fact theyre keeping marketing at least in order to produce the worth of the site for its ultimate purchase that'll probably happen in 2007/8. Smart guys!
The power of information
Register with Facebook and quickly you will find yourself offering large volumes of valuable personal information. Think about it Facebook know your name, they know how old you are (actually your D.O.B which is infinitely more valuable as Ill go on to spell out), they know if youre man or woman, they know your home, your postcode if you choose to give it away (even though I doubt many users choose this), they know if youre individual, in a relationship (and who with), married, separated and so on, they know your sexual orientation. OK so you can answer all these questions as truthfully, dishonestly or vaguely as you like but from what Ive seen people fortunately give accurate information about them-selves as its their friends and potential friends that are likely to see it- and no one else right?
But what else do Facebook know? Well they know where you went to school, where you work, more sinisterly your political views and religious. Using this we are able to begin to build up quite a useful industry report. As Im showing Facebook I may also tell you Im Male, 22 (born in August), Straight, in a relationship, conservative, atheist from Brighton, England. We found out about Asian | Wow!! Frank Johnson Principles!! by browsing the Internet. Visited college at Blatchington Mill Secondary, university at a place called BHASVIC, University at Bournemouth. From this data we can bring more assumptions- I live in Brighton and in line with the area of my schools catchment area we may fairly accurately road sites in Brighton I learn about, visit, and live in (think Google routes API). Im a straight; conservative from the moderately rich area completely time employment for that reason Im probably white, middle-income group with a good disposable income.
So what else? Facebook know what you look like, they possibly know what you used to look like many years ago too. Possibly most significantly they know who your friends are, they know how you know them, they know when you speak to them, what they appear to be and eventually they know the exact same information about them as they know about you- youre interests, likes and dislikes and your friends choices also.
They know your current email address, so they know if you are using Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and so on. They know your phone number so they could quite easily work-out your phone company. They've your IP so they might work out your ISP. They know where youve attained the website from therefore they know what search engine you use (enter Yahoo! And Google for the bidding war), what browser youre on, they know if youre visually impaired or have learning problems in the controls on your browser.
Facebook know when Im logging-in and from where so they know the hours I work, if Im online at work, the pages I leave Facebook to go to or the pages I come from so they know what other sites I look at. I could set my present position and tell Facebook exactly what Im doing or feeling right this second.
OK so you have the picture by now, one last thing though, is the Facebook password just like your mail account password, your internet and telephone banking password, every-other password you use within your daily life (since until I wrote this article mine was!) just how much additional information do you wish to share?
Whats the risk here?
Really its quite slim. Facebook certainly are a nice bunch of guys and a fantastic site, I love using it and despite knowing what I know about information security and so on I choose to give-away a large piece of the information Ive talked about here.
Google! And Facebook
So if Yahoo!, Google or god forbid Microsoft effectively obtain Facebook (when I say Im moderately confident this may happen this year) the Orwellian lucid desire suggested by this article becomes a continuous nightmare. This ideal Wow!! Joe Jones Policies!! | | Sculpture Study web site has a myriad of lofty suggestions for when to look at this concept. Imagine a business who have made millions and dominated the fastest-growing market on the planet by devel-oping algorithms which sort that information with the ultimate purpose of matching it to businesses and get hundreds of millions of pages of random information (the web) and selling advertising.
The search algorithm let loose on Facebook
Imagine the various search engines let loose o-n Facebook. An algorithm tuned to pick out profile information (John, created 13.08.84). Guide it to key words in private interests i.e. soccer, Manchester United. Story your place on the road i.e. Should you want to be taught more on like i said , we know of many resources people might investigate. Brighton, England. Follow links for your best friends with similar passions i.e. Bob and Dave who live around the corner and provide me an offer some thing like:
Happy birthday for next week John.
Did you know its Daves birthday the-week after?
You will want to book seats for Brighton and Hove Albion versus. Birmingham united on 12.08.07
Click here to book now and get 3 tickets for that price of 2 (why not ask bob ahead along- he supports Brighton and you havent spoken in-a while).
Book today and well give you a half price limousine from your own house for the game with trashy-limos.com.
Today thats strong marketing and its just around the corner. If Facebook has 2-5 million registered users from the time its bought, half of whom visit every day thats the absolute minimum 12.5 million page impressions a day. Serve the advertising above at $1 a click (which is much less than its value based on the current AdWords CPC design) expect a click through rate all the way to 10% based on the precise nature of the advertising and thats $1.2 million minimum a day- very nearly $ a million a year. Grow that consumer group to 5-0 million (realistic if Google or Yahoo! can sell advertising space o-n an affiliate base and make use of their present user database) say the football tickets at $300 with a 10% affiliate kickback and a 10% conversion rate =$3 per user x 2-5 million customers =$75 million each day or $2737500000 in year 1! OK lets not get caught up people arent going to spend $300 every-other day however the logics there and so the cash.
Will the market except it?
Greater quality promotion means less advertising- less websites rammed with banners so you cant find what youre looking for, less popups, less low quality products. This is actually the primary driving force behind the achievement of search marketing programs and account based marketing is already in-place with Googles individualized search returning more focused AdWords ads than previously possible. If it comes in to the hands of Microsoft then people might be more cautious but with the image of Google or Yahoo! and Facebook profile information is regarded as soft information because the company doesnt offer you products directly and he company is free. Its the way the web goes and I believe its where well maintain 5 years.
Identification theft
The purpose Ive been creating tediously through this post is the fact that we should be more careful by what information we stop trying and to whom. If the internet was a state it would be Facebook and Nazi Germany would be the Gestapo! Cultural tools like Facebook are given the kind of privileged information fascist governments killed for and have all over the world would. We moan about identity cards being presented in the UK (actually theres a few Facebook groups committed to the cause) but we happily give up personal details to a whole lot of school geeks in the states who are ultimately planning on offering our details to the highest bidder (the value of any site is situated on the size, quality and amount of information they've about their traffic- but greatest of luck to them) possibly to the organization who already control the majority of world business systems through the windows system.
This article is not supposed to scare- its just a recognition of the ability of new web technologies, their perhaps purposes and if your Facebook friends are your true friends shouldnt to pose the question- they know your birthday? Are Facebook really going to get you a present?!.
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