ReadWriteWeb has an interesting post on acquisition of Facebook applications.
The latest this week was the acquisition of Favorite Peeps by slideshow creator Slide. Favorite peeps is a fairly simple apps that lets users display their favorite friends, providing their own details about them. It's a nice complement to Slide's TopFriends app.
With Facebook's new platform, thousands of applications are being developed. There will be a bit of a land rush as people strive to gain exposure to their apps.
The confusion of what apps are worth installing creates opportunities, particularly for companies who can package together bundles of apps. Going forward, I think there will be a need for a site to emerge (think Tucows or CWS Apps List) which will help users navigate and select Facebook apps.
What's most interesting to me is the speed at which this new Facebook ecosystem is emerging.
So please fill me in... I don't think Facebook users are spending money on theses applets and widgets- they're free, right? So how are they getting monetized?
Posted by: Nathan | July 12, 2007 at 04:03 PM
Nathan,
Most are not monetizing the apps YET.
It's just the first 6 weeks or so since they've opened up the platform. So, most of the apps are very simplistic, such as lists of favorite stuff (movies, books, music, etc).
The starting point is by driving traffic - whether it's to Rocketboom videos or Forbes stock listings. As they build the traffic, it creates huge opportunities - either through typical ads or through affiliate networks. For example, if I have an app that recommends books, I can sell those books through an amazon affiliate store. When you consider the reduced cost of marketing and the large captive audience available through the platform (vs. marketing a destination site on the web), it can be quite lucrative. By reducing the customer acquisition cost, Facebook enables more business models.
That's just the starting point, though. Give the platform a few months to grow and I think you'll see developers building more complex apps that can be monetized in various ways.
Posted by: Barry Graubart | July 12, 2007 at 10:22 PM