Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop' - Valleywag Comments

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

Davion — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:18:09 PDT

Maybe Facebook was listening to their users who complained that all these apps were spamming them, trying to get them to add them, and set up some barriers to spam. I'm a user, and about a week after their platform launched, I got barraged by "notifications" and "requests to add" by every stupid app made by idiot college students, and I'm glad that's died down. So instead of blaming it on some sort of secretive conspiracy, maybe you should consider the possibility that YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Davion

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

panda — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:31:42 PDT

Maybe you're application just sucked. I mean it's no big deal; most of them do.

I must say though, I definitely appreciate the ability to control how much of said application is displayed in a profile and the restrictions on inviting ALL friends.

panda

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

marketman — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:17:59 PDT

When companies as large as Facebook make moves like this, it's indicative of being led by a trigger-happy yet inexperienced CEO.

If Facebook wants to continue to succeed, they can't afford to keep making mistakes like this.

marketman

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

ddodge — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:30:54 PDT

Facebook widgets and applications use what I call the Remora Business Model. Meaning, they ride like a remora on their host, in this case Facebook. The remora gets a free ride, and access to the crumbs left behind by its host. These "crumbs" can be huge...millions of users.

But, the remora widgets and applets live at the whim of their "host". Facebook can change the rules at any time. Being a free service layered on top of another free service is not a good sustainable business model. They need a revenue model that works no matter what the host does. I wrote a blog about several business models that will work. See my blog [dondodge.typepad.com]

I would urge people to lighten up on Facebook. I think they sincerely want lots of apps on their platform. My guess is that they had to change the invitation rules because their servers were getting flooded with invitations, and their bandwidth usage was going through the roof. Once they get more resources in place I think they will allow more viral growth of widgets and apps.

Don Dodge

ddodge

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

dbinto — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:58:17 PDT

Your article raises some valid concerns from a developers perspective but you really lose the plot in the end.

You seem to suggest that Facebook's success was greatly influenced by apps and they choked their ability to control grow by limiting the spread of the apps. Facebook rocks because it represents another successful understanding of what the young online community wanted at one moment in time. Maybe they simply guessed right at one point in time but they got it right and now they get to do what they want.

dbinto

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

Trackback — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:50:55 PDT

The Gotham Gal started out her career in the retailing business and spent time as a buyer at Macy's. The way that job worked was she'd get her "open to buy" report and then go into the market and buy. I always loved that term. It meant it was time to go shopping.

Trackback

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

PuzzleBee — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:41:08 PDT

I too am a Facebook app developer and we had several other apps in planning. I understand that Facebook must protect its users from the app explosion and its spammy side-effects, and as a user myself, I'm all for giving control to the users.

As a user, having cool and useful apps to choose from is great and some users may even go looking for them.

As a developer, many of us including myself thought "make a facebook app and within weeks you'll have millions of users". Yep that was true on day one - now with restrictions tightening and the initial built-in "virality" severly cut down - creating a Facebook app is no longer quite so attractive.

PuzzleBee

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

Trackback — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:48:27 PDT

Let the Facebook backlash begin!

Trackback

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

johnnyUnites — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:40:17 PDT

Interesting....I thought that Applications had to be approved by the Developer Team Network at Facebook. Wouldn't this stop the spammers? Wouldn't they review the Applications being submitted carefully?
Limiting the amount of friends you can invite to 10 a day kills new companies trying to grow virally. This was the whole reason why Facebook Apps were awesome. The companies who were part of the Facebook App beta were able to get unlimited invites? Not right. Facebook unlock the limit! This is not what was promised. All these companies I read about pulling all nighters to get their Facebook apps done, are probably hating it now.

johnnyUnites

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

jonkepler — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:19:14 PDT

When the platform launched, the first thing I did was call my developer (as well as a few outside firms) to discuss how quickly we could get a Facebook application launched. I'm glad we decided to hold off and focus on other development instead, but I still wonder how viral we could have been if we'd launched right away. You have to wonder if this whole situation is going to repeat itself with LinkedIn.

jonkepler

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

fedbait — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:43:02 PDT

One thing: "impactful" isn't a word. Just saying.

fedbait

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

ck209 — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:14:50 PDT

They restrict spammers, and give their users control of what applications can do on their behalf?

By golly, the world has not seen greater injustice!

ck209

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

Figaro — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:46:02 PDT

Facebook is the new AOL. And we all know how that ended up...

I have a feeling that Facebook is not done screwing up all these widgetmakers... I think even more restrictions are coming in the next few months.

Figaro

Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

david — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:51:38 PDT

Facebook is a gated community. If you want to build anything there and you haven't got the clout of Slide, then more fool anyone that even contemplates spending any more than they can afford to gamble, regardless of what the rules are at any time.

Its not a conspiracy or anything out of the order that Slide pre-negotiated exposure. That's what the army of people wearing chinos and polo shirts in other companies call 'business development'.

david