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June 28, 2007
Facebook's helping hands
An article in last week's Wall Street Journal had some interesting updates on Facebook's new platform that is allowing third-party services to create new applications for the No. 2 social networking site. According to the article, more than 800 services have been created for Facebook since the launch of its platform in May.
The new applications range from slide shows to horoscope finders, rating your top friends and Last.fm plug-ins. I know I've received countless requests from my friends asking me to add their new favorite applications. Looking at all of the options you now have on Facebook, I was nervous for them; didn't most of my friends abandon MySpace because of all the ads, band requests, and spam profiles? I guess not. Take a look at these numbers:
- In May, Facebook had 24 million active users.
- In June, just one month later, Facebook had 27 million active users.
Three million users can't be wrong...
I especially liked this rationale for why Facebook seems to "get it" right now. From the article:
- Facebook is actually borrowing a tactic pioneered by Microsoft: Rather than building every piece of technology yourself, let others build on your "platform," much the way Adobe Systems Inc., Intuit Inc. and others built software for Microsoft's Windows operating system in the 1980s. Using this strategy, Facebook can nurture an ecosystem of developers who can create services far faster than Facebook could build them on its own.
With numbers that appear to be climbing every month, and friends who keep bombarding me with iLike recommendations I usually can't turn down, it looks like it's going to be a good summer session for Facebook.
Posted by Alicia Dorset at June 28, 2007 03:44 PM
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