If you thought the last redesign spelled the death of the Facebook platform, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Last July Facebook released their new design and within a matter of months, widget applications had become a thing of the past. A few of those applications were able to withstand the changes but there’s a grim picture being painted weeks after Facebook’s latest redesign.
While LivingSocial and Quiz Monster have become leading developers thanks to the recent changes, many top developers like Slide, RockYou, Familylink.com, and a number of others are getting punished. Many of the top applications have seen a decline in usage of between 15 and 25 percent. Causes, the number one application on the platform (at least for another day when LivingSocial should take the #1 spot), has experienced a 24 percent drop in monthly active users.
Causes reached the maximum number of monthly active users for any application on the Facebook platform ever, maxing out at 26,949,385 back on March 20th. Since then it has been all downhill. Want to see other examples of applications that are tanking? Check out Top Friends, who has seen traffic plummet since the redesign. There are plenty of other examples within the application leader board including Bumper Sticker and Slide FunSpace.
Not All Doom And Gloom
Is it all doom and gloom for application developers though? Not really. We decided to compile the total monthly active users of the top 50 applications over the past 30 days to determine what the net impact has been. The result was that there was an insignificant impact. While there was a temporary decline, the total number of monthly active users among the top 50 applications has risen from 317.4 million to 322 million over the past 30 days.
That suggests that there has been a flattening of the top applications. While Causes has lost over 6 million monthly active users, there has simply been a shift of the top 50 applications. It also suggests that there is a shift in what types of applications will be top contenders. By tomorrow, it is expected that Living Social will be king of the hill. That may not last if previous redesigns can be used as an indicator.
Last time around many applications were pummeled but in a short period of time, many applications figured out what was key to success and adapted. For the time being there will be a changing of the guard at the top of the application leaderboard. As we’ve learned with this redesign though, leadership positions on the Facebook platform are not the most stable.
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Unlucky for me, Ive seen a 40% drop in my MAU from 8,000+ on one app to around 4,900 MAU. Thats my most drastic decline, with my other apps following in toe. Its a drastic fallout of apps.
Comment by Facebook User — April 13, 2009 @ 7:20 am
This isn't a huge surprise. The recent redesign all but removed the exposure of applications, and made it so that people had to be very deliberate about using their favourite applications.
What this shows is that applications need to evolve to survive, and evolve quickly. The feed is more important than the utility of the app itself. Learning to leverage the feed (like Living Social has done) is going to be critical – at least until Facebook goes and changes everything again.
Comment by Kevin Fair — April 13, 2009 @ 7:24 am
The pageview performance of a single top developer is not a good yardstick for the health of any platform. Platforms exist to unlock innovation and support a business.
Comment by Jeffrey — April 13, 2009 @ 7:46 am
I'd be surprised if this is actually the result of the redesign and not just a realistic turnover point for the apps. They're pretty short lived, and without some sort of trending comparison, the statistics being used are, well, useless.
Comment by Josh — April 13, 2009 @ 8:11 am
It's interesting how similar the stats for one of my FB applications looks compared to the top chart posted above starting on March 20th. As a developer it puzzles me to think that Facebook's loss of developer mind share can be viewed as a "good thing". I would have suspected quite the opposite though given all the UI changes obscuring their platform it's clear that applications are not only not a priority but could well disappear over time.
If anything these rapid changes to the platform will serve to discourage developer's which in the end will lead to its demise so to speak.
Comment by Steve Trefethen — April 13, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
I've MAU for one of my apps go from 180K to 109K, and it used feed forms all along. What has really hurt, is the dropping of full story posts. Lots of complaints from users asking why "we" got rid of that feature.
Comment by Brent Baisley — April 13, 2009 @ 4:26 pm
I joined Facebook last week. My question is how in the world do you find these apps on Facebook? All I ever see is the Quizzes. Seems to me that there should be a drop down menu of apps.
Comment by Dee — April 13, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
I think there's a psychological barrier when it asks if the app can access all your personal details. I frequently stop at that point…
Comment by Martin Haworth — April 13, 2009 @ 9:44 pm
What about external apps, or apps that are using Facebook Connect? That seems to be a good tactic right now. Especially if interactions are posted to user's feeds. Thoughts?
Comment by Jackie Stukey — April 14, 2009 @ 6:41 am
As a frequent and continued user, after the 'honeymoon' with facebook, and all the widgets & apps. the thrill of the new and clever wears off, and became TMI. I prefer the straight communication with my friends. All the gimmicks may appeal to those new or young, but after a while, it becomes a bother.
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Hi- My question is when i like a photo or want to comment on a photo in someone ablum lets say.It never shows up on the section called Highlights which is on the homepage on the lower right side..Do I need to change my application setting? Thanks..driving me crazy
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