When ads, then adults, then porn took over MySpace… the number of users died quickly as people looking for social networking fled to newly opened Facebook. While there were a lot of factors for the death of MySpace, too many ads was clearly one of the issues.
On November 16th, 2006 I posted that I thought MySpace was dying. (If you google the term "myspace dying" I’ve been #1 on that search term ever since and get 1-2 hits on that term daily.) People thought I was crazy! But in the end I was right… most people I know who switched to Facebook quickly drop their MySpace.
The problem for every online community
As a web developer there is a tenuous balance between creating community and monetizing the site. On the one hand the community wants no advertising. But at the same time they want the place they hang out with be free. Users demand a cool experience… one that costs lots of time and money to provide… and they don’t want anyone to get paid for it. I know this personally because this is the same tension we feel at YMX all the time… for most sites, the investors win out of the community, and ads slowly take over.
The death of Facebook is two-fold
- Facebook applications are killing Facebook. In May 2007, Facebook started allowing 3rd party developers to add application to the site. Almost immediately the became annoying. All of a sudden applications could produce dozens of annoying emails to users without their permission. With every Facebook application developed, people get less interested. What drew people to Facebook was the simplicity… what will drive them away is over-customization.
- Ads will kill Facebook. Application developers, like Slide, want to get paid for their efforts. I can’t blame them for wanting to put ads in their applications but at the same time, it’s going to create a big problem that will drive people away from Facebook.
Slide is just one of many developers trying to sell advertising in
widgets. While Slide sells its own sponsorships, several application
developers have opted to use ad networks for monetization. In fact, the
latest mover in the widget-as-media-network space is none other than
Google. Read the rest at AdAge
Here’s my prediction
If Facebook doesn’t slow down developers adding applications and cut off ads on applications, users will switch to another social network with less ads and less annoyance. It’s all about permission… people will display advertising on their sites and they will receive emails from sites… but they want to give their permission to do that. Remove the permission and they will remove themselves.
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