Comments on: Facebook – Circling The Drain? http://www.social-cache.com/2008/11/facebook-circling-the-drain we deal in uncommon cents. Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:44:14 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: beerick http://www.social-cache.com/2008/11/facebook-circling-the-drain/comment-page-1#comment-2310 beerick Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:12:57 +0000 http://www.social-cache.com/?p=286#comment-2310 I have to say that I think facebook will pull through. Your article actually brings me more hope than despair for their success. Consumer data mining is a young science, but facebook has an opportunity to take it to another level. Going international, they gain the big picture but also a broad spectrum of small pictures. This is marketable information (anonimity can be preserved in analysis) and will have value in any mature vaguely capitalist society. I think it's just a matter of disseminating the information to the proper clients now. A robust revenue model has to be there, even if its just partbering with amazon or cafepress. Of course, they need to think about cost-cutting. Netapps are amazing devices. High quality storage. But disk is cheap, and you can build your own NAS. They could cut millions off the bottom line in the midterm by adopting a cheaper storage solution...this is commodity data. As far as bandwidth costs, as long as they don't place an edge node in a high-cost bandwidth area, there should be real impact, and they should be able to handle that strategically, emphasizing areas with actual value, and allowing more latency in others. Lastly, on myspace competition, I don't even think that's relevant anymore. Myspace has always been vanity site first and social network second. Its original value of exposing artists still exists, but is dwindling. Facebook really connects, and is enhancing communication bilaterally. I have to say that I think facebook will pull through. Your article actually brings me more hope than despair for their success. Consumer data mining is a young science, but facebook has an opportunity to take it to another level. Going international, they gain the big picture but also a broad spectrum of small pictures. This is marketable information (anonimity can be preserved in analysis) and will have value in any mature vaguely capitalist society. I think it’s just a matter of disseminating the information to the proper clients now.

A robust revenue model has to be there, even if its just partbering with amazon or cafepress.

Of course, they need to think about cost-cutting. Netapps are amazing devices. High quality storage. But disk is cheap, and you can build your own NAS. They could cut millions off the bottom line in the midterm by adopting a cheaper storage solution…this is commodity data.

As far as bandwidth costs, as long as they don’t place an edge node in a high-cost bandwidth area, there should be real impact, and they should be able to handle that strategically, emphasizing areas with actual value, and allowing more latency in others.

Lastly, on myspace competition, I don’t even think that’s relevant anymore. Myspace has always been vanity site first and social network second. Its original value of exposing artists still exists, but is dwindling. Facebook really connects, and is enhancing communication bilaterally.

]]>