A few days ago I posted about users revolting against CBS Sports and their March Madness application. Well today the controversy hit the fan. A post to the Facebook developers forum brought up a interesting thing that took place today. Suddenly, the CBS Sports bracket was granted 100 invites per day. This is at least 5 times the volume typically granted to the average application.
While I’ve noticed an increase in the alotted invites over the past few weeks from 13 to 20, nobody has come close to being granted 100 invites per day until now. The platform developers are angry because these new applications have been granted an unfair advantage for their advertising campaign. Then again in the real world money talks and I’m sure CBS sports paid a hefty sum to build their partnership with Facebook.
So where does this leave developers? Out in the cold currently. Facebook has granted special permission to this one partner who has paid an undisclosed sum for distribution of their application. The primary complaint is that this is completely unfair and CBS was simply granted preferential treatment due to a “small” deposit in Facebook’s bank account. We now have developers that are fearful of expressing themselves because the Facebook platform managers could turn into an oppressive regime overnight.
So perhaps I am stretching this a little bit. Who receives priorities around Facebook? One developer accurately suggested that Facebook’s duties are in the following order: investors, advertisers, users, large app developers and finally small app developers. Want to bypass the bucket system enacted by Facebook? Pay a substantial fee. Do you think this is fair? Should advertisers be granted special distribution rights for paying a fee to Facebook?
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What did anybody expect? The company is still trying to secure funding, and although I'll probably get whacked on the head for this, I think that having a few Applications that truly demonstrate the community potential will be good for all Application Developers in the long run.I mean, invites alone aren't enough to seal the deal. If you want to take on the big boys at CBS, come up with a better idea, a better marketing scheme, and face the music: the social web isn't going to be fair for a while.Maybe until Google's "do no evil" mantra comes into play, and OpenSocial/FriendFeed rules the web.
Comment by Neil @ Facebook Insi — March 19, 2008 @ 8:30 pm
I really don't see why not. It's a good application. I just wish there weren't so many other applications so my friends would pay attention to the bracket invite I sent instead of ignoring it along with the 10+ invites they get from other apps every day.
Comment by Adam — March 19, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
What did anybody expect? The company is still trying to secure funding, and although I’ll probably get whacked on the head for this, I think that having a few Applications that truly demonstrate the community potential will be good for all Application Developers in the long run.
I mean, invites alone aren’t enough to seal the deal. If you want to take on the big boys at CBS, come up with a better idea, a better marketing scheme, and face the music: the social web isn’t going to be fair for a while.
Maybe until Google’s “do no evil” mantra comes into play, and OpenSocial/FriendFeed rules the web.
Comment by Neil @ Facebook Insight — March 20, 2008 @ 12:30 am
I really don’t see why not. It’s a good application. I just wish there weren’t so many other applications so my friends would pay attention to the bracket invite I sent instead of ignoring it along with the 10+ invites they get from other apps every day.
Comment by Adam — March 20, 2008 @ 1:20 am
You're absolutely right Nick. It's hard to come out and talk about this, as we don't want to get punished by Facebook.
Comment by App developer — March 20, 2008 @ 9:05 am
You’re absolutely right Nick. It’s hard to come out and talk about this, as we don’t want to get punished by Facebook.
Comment by App developer — March 20, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
so my account is now down for "maintenance" due to my outspoken views on the matter
nicely done, facebook.
Comment by senatuskienlee — March 20, 2008 @ 11:06 pm
so my account is now down for "maintenance" due to my outspoken views on the matter
nicely done, facebook.
Comment by senatuskienlee — March 20, 2008 @ 11:06 pm
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Comment by nulls101 — October 16, 2008 @ 10:23 am