This evening Venturebeat published a story which essentially suggests that Facebook is preparing to kill all viral channels. The effect would be dramatic, possibly killing off those developers that don’t invest in large ad campaigns to drive installs. In theory this would also drive up the cost of advertisements and boost Facebook’s revenue to the extent that top developers can afford paying top dollar for installs … the majority can’t though.
Here are the changes according to Kim-Mai Culter:
1) Notifications, which are at the bottom left hand corner of the page, may go away entirely or be tucked into a subsection of the site. [...]
2) Requests, which are usually at the top right-hand of the homepage, may get filed away into a part of the messages inbox. [...]
3) Facebook is also pushing developers to get users direct e-mail addresses, instead of relying on the social network as a communications middle man. [...]
4) The company may get rid of the ‘Boxes’ tab on the profile page.
5) In what may help some outside companies, Facebook may add a ‘Games’ tab to the left-hand column. This may make up some of the lost visibility. But it may not attract the Facebook users who play social games that don’t think of themselves as hard-core gamers.
As we’ve already written, the new homepage has dramatically affected the platform economy, reducing traffic by upwards of 75 percent for some applications. While the system has become more democratic, it also changes the entire business model for these companies. Advertisers will get more clicks on their ads however there will theoretically be a significant decrease in pageviews as the platform would be annihilated.
Does it sound dramatic? It is. The only problem though is it seems almost too dramatic. We received an invite to Facebook’s developer garage on Wednesday this evening but we know nothing else outside of there being a discussion which will provide a “sneak peek of the Facebook Platform roadmap.” If Kim-Mai’s source is accurate, there could be a massive backlash from developers whose livelihood depends on the existing viral channels.
At this point we have no information to confirm or deny Kim-Mai’s sources, however we are pursuing more information right now. We find this information extremely difficult to believe as it would have massively negative implications for all Facebook developers. If the platform didn’t die in July of 2008, will it die in October of 2009 with these new changes?
Update
We have no official statement from Facebook however we have heard from a number of sources that big changes are coming which will dramatically impact the platform. The other thing we’ve heard is that there may be new features which benefit developers, however we can’t provide details on those now. It should also be emphasized that the death of the platform is a recurring theme however we have yet to see that happen.
For Facebook to kill the platform would also require them killing off an entire development team which is dedicated to building out the service for devs. We’ll have to wait and see what the announcements are.
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they state notifications appear at the bottom left of the screen when in fact they appear bottom right of the screen.
Comment by mike ashworth — October 26, 2009 @ 11:48 pm
Um, what? No notifications? How will I know when someone’s written on my wall, then? This is stupid.
Comment by Miriam Mogilevsky — October 27, 2009 @ 1:20 am
Early in the article, it’s effect, not affect.
As for the notifications thing… I find it very, very hard to believe that Facebook will kill off such an integral part of their system. Same for the direct email thing, since I’m sure that this will spark another privacy debate – and I’m sure Facebook knows this too.
There will be changes, some for the good… some won’t be so good for people trying to profit from the platform. With the old new Facebook, apps were pushed down our throats and now Facebook’s rewinding that a little. Good riddance.
Anyway, developers will find a way to make money. One way or another.
Comment by Facebook User — October 27, 2009 @ 6:02 am
ok lets see what will be the major changes in facebook application developer platform.
but still not looking good.
Comment by Masood Ali — October 27, 2009 @ 7:01 am
Hi,
do u know how i can get my disabled account back? I have tried for over a month now, but they seem not to care. I think they disabled it because of overusage, but does that justify to kill my virtual me, which was huge btw. Many list and a lot of effort that i put into it. I am really pissed at fb about this. Can u help me out pls?
Rob
Comment by Rob — October 27, 2009 @ 1:29 pm
I too find this hard to believe.
The only benefit would be driving people to use their inbox more to see all notifications, updates and messages.
I believe Facebook would lose out on valuable business by not helping to promote applications and brands using pages as I assume this would apply to any notification you receive – such as a friend request?
It just doesn’t seem logical to me and a total disconnect from the viral share features that make social networks a success.
Comment by Natalie — October 27, 2009 @ 3:39 pm
Developers who decide to use Facebook as the platform for their applications are 100% at the mercy of Facebook. It isn’t right for Facebook to punish developers who are probably Facebook’s biggest advocates.
Comment by Kevin Kirkland — October 27, 2009 @ 4:09 pm
it's like the 2012 of Facebook
Comment by Matt Linseman — January 11, 2010 @ 1:08 pm
[...] by Facebook (we would never say Facebook would kill anything … except here, here, and of course here). However I’m not quite sure what value-add Foursquare brings to the table at this point. [...]
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