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I'm super bullish on this. I think this will end up being FB's first big cash cow. I never thought advertising was anything more than a stop-gap to cover costs,
by gfodor 14y ago
I'm super bullish on this. I think this will end up being FB's first big cash cow. I never thought advertising was anything more than a stop-gap to cover costs, Zuck has always hated ads. Personally I thought their big revenue stream would probably be to start charging for FB Connect, but this makes more sense. They are basically hooking in at the right point of intent to convert a user, which is exactly why Google can print piles of money.
This is just step one. Once they get this working they are going to have all kinds of purchasing behavior and really be able to weave their way into all sorts of ecommerce scenarios. Their biggest challenge is going to be fulfillment (you don't want a birthday gift showing up late) so they are probably going to be very selective in who they partner with and are going to roll this out very slowly, since first impressions being good is essential.
Edit: Also there are all kinds of social experiments they can run to optimize conversions with this. If someone you know buys a gift for your friend, you are going to feel more pressure to do so. Etc.
- tatsuke95 14y agoI'm sure this is going to come up repeatedly: what can they offer me from an eCommerce perspective that Amazon can't? Like most social network benefits, I think friend recommendations, which I can and do get in real life, are overrated and useless for the majority of my purchases. The gifting idea is quaint. But to be full-on eCommerce site, well that's yesterday's news.
- gfodor 14y agoThis is going to turn Facebook into the Amazon for gifts. They capture you exactly at the right point, can (eventually) give pitch-perfect recommendations, and can get the checkout flow down to be completely painless. If they execute on this well (and I expect they will) I would guess most gift purchases will be happening on Facebook in a few years.
- sebastianavina 14y agobasically they are now on amazon's ground
- cbhl 14y agoI wonder what will make the world more ready for this than it was for Beacon back in the day (Amazon purchases automatically showing up in the News Feed).
- callmeed 14y agoAnd just imagine if Facebook did something like acquire Pinterest. You now instantly have their wish list for birthday (and holiday) gifts.