According to a Wall Street Journal article that is out today, many developers on the Facebook platform are already profiting from their applications. The article states that some developers are already bringing in over $500 a day. Not bad for spending a few hours on a quick application. While it doesn’t mention which applications are bringing in revenue, a quick browse through the application directory will give you a good idea of who’s profiting. I found it interesting that the article says developers are having major challenges with the platform. The article states:
Facebook still faces some hurdles. The company is still tweaking its platform, to the frustration of the third-party service providers that have to scramble to keep up with its changes. The site has also slowed at times as it has struggled to handle the surge in new information now moving between users, Facebook and the third-party companies. “They launched it in a huge rush,” says Jia Shen, founder of RockYou. “They’ve really made it brutal for us.”
Have you faced any issues since Facebook launched their new platform? I haven’t heard of any really significant issues aside from the fact that some applications are breaking due to the massive influx of new users. After reading the article, I’m starting to wonder if Facebook underestimated the impact of their new development platform. If they consider iLike a robust application (it is in its capacity but not in its feature set) then they might be in for a surprise. Soon enough we will begin seeing much larger scale applications popping up given that there is practically no barrier to entry. With Myspace it was much more challenging to build an effective application. I have a feeling we are going to start seeing a bunch of Facebook application development shops popping up.
I haven't found too much trouble with the platform, but there is certainly some issues.I feel that its more important for targeted advertisers like Google and the other big CPC players to pick up the pace and allow us to place ads on our facebook apps.I have been turned away from a few of the bigger advertisers out there because my ads would be appearing on the canvas page instead of on my own domain.What would be useful is for Google and Facebook to work something out where they would allow their javascript on the canvas page so that Google's contextual advertising would work.
Comment by Ryan Price — June 22, 2007 @ 10:10 am
I haven't found too much trouble with the platform, but there is certainly some issues.
I feel that its more important for targeted advertisers like Google and the other big CPC players to pick up the pace and allow us to place ads on our facebook apps.
I have been turned away from a few of the bigger advertisers out there because my ads would be appearing on the canvas page instead of on my own domain.
What would be useful is for Google and Facebook to work something out where they would allow their javascript on the canvas page so that Google's contextual advertising would work.
Comment by Ryan Price — June 22, 2007 @ 11:10 am