Wow. Is it happening? Can the 800# Goliath fend off the David invasion? Yes, and heres why. Google has always prided itself on attracting no-frills users. Users that don’t want the distraction of news, and weather and finance, just information that they are focusing on. Clean interfaces beckoning for a question to answer.
But wait? Aren’t humans social beings? They are not machines. Enter Facebook; Find 350MM people in the world who enjoy interacting with each other. Not machines absorbing answers (even often garbage answers). Get them to signon with an identity many times a day. Learn their behaviours, likes and dislikes. Let them freely interact all the time and voila, a social marketplace of everyone ranging from the fad driven younger kids to the high purchasing power of the baby boomers. What a RICH environment.
Now that the stage is set…. monetize! I remember when ICQ, as the first Instant Messaging program, gave away a little free program to 100 million subscribers and would up valuing the business in a sale to AOL at close to $100M dollars.
Facebook is worth billions and literally billions more than the big G once the smoke clears. Getting answers will always yield the click for more to be sold, but relationship marketing in a social environment can grow and last a lot longer.
How do you think this will wind up over the next couple of years? Your comments are always welcome.
