Facebook apps: We are so screwed
Innovation is great. It has brought about the very things that make modern life modern. That’s why the things I saw this evening scared me so much.
There was a class here at Stanford this past quarter where students developed Facebook apps. The goal was to acquire as many users as possible. For the course final, each student group gave a 2.5 minute presentation about its app.
I went to the presentations this evening, where I was joined by hundreds of other students, faculty, and members of the public. What did I learn?
- Everybody there seemed to have drunk the Kool-Aid — Facebook apps will save the world!!1!
- The successful apps were simple and of minimal utility — Send hotness! Send hugs!
- The unsuccessful apps tried to do something useful — Save the rainforest?
The most popular app in the bunch, Send Hotness, has garnered over 5 million installations, and it is generating real revenue for its student creators: over $[number removed at request of owners]/day. It didn’t exist three months ago. Impressive. But is “sending hotness” adding value? If it is, I don’t see it.
Only the petty and the puerile apps seem to have significant traffic, yet everybody at the presentation seemed convinced that Facebook apps are the next big thing (or, worse yet, that they are important to the strategy of normal companies).
Real money is lining up behind the development of Facebook apps. The Valley is placing a bet, data be damned. We are so screwed.
That, or I’m just jealous. Anybody want to collaborate on an app?
Seems like the trick might have been the viral nature of the “hotness” app… it required you to send ten invites before you could do anything. Well, which one was yours: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/01/stanford-students-present-facebook-apps-to-class/
You might be interested in [article] which I found via boingboing recently.
it pretty much perfectly sums up my distrust for anything in the facespacester genre.
*fingers crossed that the html above will format correctly*
I’m not sure I understand how they are making money with this. Are they getting money from ad revenue? Or are people paying for this?
@Tom: Indeed, the Send Hotness app thrived on forced invitations. Of course, one might argue that people wouldn’t comply if they didn’t feel they were getting something worthwhile in return. I wasn’t in the class, so my observations and ramblings are simply those of an outsider.
@Jumi: I don’t mind being found by long-lost friends and casual acquaintances. For the people in the article, I say: show some restraint! If you don’t like the person, don’t “friend” them. I have, on occasion, ignored “friend” requests, and I don’t feel bad about it.
@Tyler: The money seems to be coming from ads. The trick is to get users of your app to visit your app’s pages, since views of the profile box are nearly impossible to monetize. One of the sponsors of last night’s event was Socialmedia, which specializes in Facebook app ads.