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Facebook is sitting on top of a tons of personal data that is incredibly valuable to marketers. They currently don't share this information, but if the "Ponzi
by duopixel 14y ago
Facebook is sitting on top of a tons of personal data that is incredibly valuable to marketers. They currently don't share this information, but if the "Ponzi Scheme" were to start crumbling all they have to do is give more access to data.
Suppose your spouse's birthday is coming up, Amazon targets you with a "<name>'s birthday is coming up, here is something she/he likes". As simple as that.
- antr 14y agoDoes it have value? Yes. Is Facebook worth $100bn? No. There is a difference between value and price, and startups/VCs love to play with both terms to make their economic case.
- fusiongyro 14y agoThere's competing forces. Monetizing the private data means more privacy invasion, which drives users away and reduces adoption. But for marketers to give it a second chance, they have to know that more private data is being used. They can't keep it secret from the users and make it widely known amongst marketers at the same time. This would buy them a second round of Ponzi-esque usage. But in order for it to be sustainable the second round has to succeed: they have to find a way to get FB users to convert. And so far, it looks like targeting ads to smaller and smaller more precisely defined demographics doesn't help all that much. Without a new twist, this is a limp-along tactic, not a road to viability.
- chris_wot 14y agoThis means they violate their existing privacy policy. Then folks start suing. Could be very costly.