Laurent Courtines Free Online

Product manager for Oberon Media, Baseball Fan & Husband. A man with opinions on everything - but expertise in online products and online casual games.  
« Back to blog
Viewed
times
Favorited 0 times
May 27, 2011
 

Facebook is in trouble and here's why

I really like Facebook.  I use it everyday to check up on folks.  It's become a daily utility for life and for work.  I think it's in deep trouble. Oh,  not tomorrow,  not next week but one day sooner than we think.  Here are the reasons why:


1. Privacy matters to the majority of members.
Mark Zuckerberg has said publicly that privacy for young people is different,  the problem is young people aren't using Facebook anymore.

2. Young people don't want to be on a social network with their parents.
No one wants to be where there parents are. It is a fact.  As more and more older people join the more and more young people will be pushed off the platform.

3. The need to monetize has pushed them into the hands of corporations. (Ads and brands are every where)
'Like' buttons are everywhere and are there for corporations. Every time you 'Like' something you are saying to a company "send me messages". When people realize that most of their feed is filled with brand messages they will leave Facebook.

4. Arrogance. 
Continuing to make changes without regard for it loyal users.

5. Trust.  
Fundamentally, it feels as though people do not trust Facebook.  Again,  they are catering to businesses to share your information.  Facebook has all your information and they have no problem giving that information away for the sake of making money.  Not trustworthy at all.

6. There is no driving ethos. 
Facebook doesn't appear to stand for anything like Googles' "Don't be evil" (Which they have gotten away from) .  What does Facebook stand for anyway?

7. They are stretched too far.  
While likely a function of their wild growth, the site is completely convoluted and things that are very important are hard to find.  

8. Alienation of people working with them.  
Any developer working on the Facebook platform will tell you that dealing with Facebooks' platform is a nightmare. Facebook has notoriously pushed game developers away from their platform giving a way crumbs of virality.

9. People are working to defeat them.
The replacement for Facebook is not known right now.  But there are hundreds of small developers, in their garages,  tech incubators or in our universities working on solutions to Facebooks' problems.  They are focused on privacy, they are focused on ease of use and they are doing it in the shadows.  Facebook will miss something the same way Google missed social.  

What do you think of this list?  Do you have pet peeves with Facebook? Are you using it less and less?

Comments (2)

Jun 19, 2011
Christian Arca said...
On point #4 - Arrogance.

I don't think that this is arrogance on Facebook's part - but rather it's their vision and I get that. Sometimes your users just don't have a say in what you're buildling because ultimately they don't know what they want.

When the news feed was introduced EVERYONE hated it. But then slowly, everyone began to like it. The reasons for switching to a news feed in a couple of months became apparent and now the news feed is embraced by most of it's Facebook users.

The problem is that Facebook has a massive audience and as always when trying to cater to such a massive audience it's hard to appeal to everyone and take their concerns into consideration. At the end of the day Facebook has to do what Facebook has to do.

Jun 19, 2011
Laurent Courtines said...
I understand what you are saying. The users don't know what they want and you have to execute on your own vision. I also know the newsfeed story. They may have been getting things right, but with a massive audience, when you make changes and begin to lose audience what does that mean? Have you lost your way? Do you know what users want? Perhaps they don't want more? I am not saying I know the answer or that Facebook is right or wrong. What I am saying is at this point that cannot disregard the wants and needs of their audience. The items they add or remove at this point only move the dial on the margins. The news feeds was a breakthrough item. Nothing they do now is a break through on the web side. (Yes, a Facebook mobile OS would be interesting) How many more users are there for them to harvest? I don't know.

Leave a comment...