Tag Archives: facebook

Strange Facebook Economics

February 5, 2012 – 9:07 pm

TweetExactly three years ago, Charlie Rose interviewed Marc Andreessen, the creator of Netscape and Facebook board member. In his trademark rapid-fire talk, Marc shared his views on Facebook. (Keep the February 2009 context in mind: the social network had 175 million users and Microsoft had just made an investment setting Facebook’s valuation at $15 billion.) [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (5)

Facebook: The Revenge of the Nerds

February 5, 2012 – 9:07 pm

TweetWe’ll look at the other side of the coin in a moment, but first let’s give credit where it’s due and admire the obverse: I’m delighted to see Facebook going public, just deserts for Mark Zuckerberg and his group of very smart techies. If you have the time and inclination, take a walk through Facebook’s [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (5)

The Facebook Money Machine

October 17, 2010 – 8:51 pm

TweetAn update to this column: According to the Wall Street Journal, any of Facebook’s most popular applications have been transmitting identifying information — in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names — to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies. See here (paywall). This year, Facebook will make about [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in advertising, social networks | Comments (42)

Mark Zuckerberg, The Architect

October 11, 2010 – 3:21 am

TweetThe Social Network is an excellent movie. It’s fast, entertaining. And words crafted by Aaron Sorkin, one of Hollywood’s most talented screenwriter, flatter the Harvard crowd and make it sound wittier than it actually is. In addition, digital imaging enthusiasts will enjoy the Red Camera’s performance, demonstrating its extraordinary low light and depth-of-field creative potential. [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in social networks | Also tagged | Comments (15)

The Facebook Gravitational Effect

August 2, 2010 – 7:16 am

TweetOver the next twelve months, the media industry is likely to be split between those who master the Facebook system and those who don’t. A decade or so  ago, for a print publication, going on the internet was seen as the best way to rejuvenate its audience; today, as web news audiences reach a plateau, [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in online publishing, social networks | Comments (26)

The Facebook Micropayment System

August 31, 2009 – 8:09 am

TweetThis week’s question: Will Facebook launch a so-called “PayPal killer”, a micropayment system for members to pay for goods real or virtual? To me, this is a Flat Earth debate, meaning there is no debate, Facebook is ideally placed to become a powerful payment system player. First, a bit of history: the Minitel. Once upon [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in social networks | Also tagged | Comments (7)

Not Dead: The Paid-for Online Model

November 16, 2008 – 9:08 pm

TweetDeath reports of paid-for models on the Internet have been greatly exaggerated. Granted: the network’s genome carries the “free” nucleotide.  As in both freedom and free goods and services. Like it or not, its publicly funded origins (universities and the Pentagon) led to the emergence of widely adopted services such as search engines or Wikipedia.  [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (14)

Wait, Wait, This Is My Stuff!

June 23, 2008 – 6:08 pm

TweetSocial networks and PC becoming an arranged knwoledge network Let me start with an example. Hopefully, the concept will emerge. Facebook. The latest fracas is their conflict with Goggle’s Friend Connect, technology that gives any web site simple tools to acquire social networking features. As a result, users of my organic gardening site connect, share [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged | Comments (1)

Facebook’s maturity problem

June 2, 2008 – 6:32 am

TweetLike many startups, Facebook is confronted with a growth problem. Its outstanding traffic (30-35m unique visitors a month) is no longer growing; newcomers tend not to stay with the service as much as the early adopters still do; the Google-induced OpenSocial protocol is a threat and advertising has not taken off as promised. Recently, the [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged | Comments (2)