Last night Facebook finally turned on the invite restrictions that they have been speaking about for the past few weeks. I went and checked out a few of my apps all of which had now been limited to 12 invites per day. This drastic decrease in invitation limits is strangling the virality of applications and may soon kill much of what attracted developers to Facebook: the ability to quickly grab a large user base.
Without investing in advertising campaigns, new applications will find it increasingly difficult to experience much growth at all. Facebook argues that good applications will naturally spread and will in turn be rewarded. That nobody has come forward and suggested that their application has invite limits greater than 12 may suggest that there are no applications that have effectively leveraged the social graph.
One of two things will occur: (1) Facebook will end up killing all the virality of applications, or (2) better applications will begin to launch that offer users much more value and enable significant viral opportunity. The real test at this point is to find the first application that succeeds at this. Additionally, it would be great if Facebook provides developers with a little bit of advice on how to best optimize for the platform.
Has your app been placed in a good bucket? Have you seen any highly effective applications that enable you to invite more than 12 people at a time?
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"Without investing in advertising campaigns, new applications will find it increasingly difficult to experience much growth at all." Maybe a push for Social Ads is part of this? (Doubt that's the main driver, though–I imagine they genuinely were trying to improve the experience as app spam speeds up Facebook fatigue).
Comment by Mary Specht — February 29, 2008 @ 5:40 am
"Without investing in advertising campaigns, new applications will find it increasingly difficult to experience much growth at all."
Maybe a push for Social Ads is part of this? (Doubt that's the main driver, though–I imagine they genuinely were trying to improve the experience as app spam speeds up Facebook fatigue).
Comment by Mary Specht — February 29, 2008 @ 6:40 am
Our application, Flip Cup Drinking Game has invite limits set at 14 invites.
There are still a couple final tweaks we are going to be making to the invite/game creation process.
Comment by Keith — February 29, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
sorry, its at 15… I forgot an invite I sent out earlier today
Comment by Keith — February 29, 2008 @ 7:50 pm
Yes, they are trying to monetize the platform, and appease platform moguls like Rockyou and Slide are a) don't want competition and b) want to make money off apps that want users. I give Facebook 1-2 more years of relevance.
Comment by Anonymous — March 1, 2008 @ 11:18 am
I'm seeing a mixed bag as far as invites go. Plane Crazy is only letting me invite 5 friends, while Premier Football is letting me invite 20 and Scrabulous says 15.
Comment by David Berkowitz — March 1, 2008 @ 11:46 am
Yes, they are trying to monetize the platform, and appease platform moguls like Rockyou and Slide are a) don’t want competition and b) want to make money off apps that want users. I give Facebook 1-2 more years of relevance.
Comment by Anonymous — March 1, 2008 @ 3:18 pm
I’m seeing a mixed bag as far as invites go. Plane Crazy is only letting me invite 5 friends, while Premier Football is letting me invite 20 and Scrabulous says 15.
Comment by David Berkowitz — March 1, 2008 @ 3:46 pm
Nick, our application (we're related)has had up to 25 per day and currently is at 15. I suppose it depends the day for us… I hope this helps.Jasonapps.facebook.com/we_r_related
Comment by Jason McGowan — March 2, 2008 @ 9:32 am
Nick, our application (we're related)has had up to 25 per day and currently is at 15. I suppose it depends the day for us… I hope this helps.
Jason
apps.facebook.com/we_r_related
Comment by Jason McGowan — March 2, 2008 @ 10:32 am
It is silly at best… Turning the screws on news feeds makes sense because those are not necessarily user generated…Limiting invites which are user generated is odd. Basically Facebook is telling users (not application) that they can not do something as basic as sharing something with their friends… I mean is that not what social networking is all about? Perhaps instead of limiting what users and can do Facebook should think of improving invitation relevance… one though could be to rank invitation from people who are more relevant in ones life, though I am sure there are other options.I feel that with this one Facebook is really punishing the wrong group…
Comment by Sam — March 3, 2008 @ 4:57 pm
It is silly at best… Turning the screws on news feeds makes sense because those are not necessarily user generated…
Limiting invites which are user generated is odd. Basically Facebook is telling users (not application) that they can not do something as basic as sharing something with their friends… I mean is that not what social networking is all about? Perhaps instead of limiting what users and can do Facebook should think of improving invitation relevance… one though could be to rank invitation from people who are more relevant in ones life, though I am sure there are other options.
I feel that with this one Facebook is really punishing the wrong group…
Comment by Sam — March 3, 2008 @ 5:57 pm