It's been almost 8 days and I'm here to announce the winner, but before that - I would like to thank every single one of you for participating. it was by far the most successful contest I have ever done. The comments are full of great content and I'm thankful that you took some time to respond with your insights.
The best and most detailed comment, in my opinion, is @davidallenjones's comment, which is why he's the winner, here is his comment -
If you look what is happening with Facebook right now, I believe you can see that it was bound to happen and will continue.
Facebook has a business model that centers around collecting data on members. This is not a bad thing and in fact most companies have built into how they operate collecting data on customers and potential customers in order to improve their ability to sell more products and services. This is good business.
The problem with Facebook is how they collect data. Instead of creating relationships with members where they can ask them to offer up their data if they so choose, Facebook uses analytics that rely on never actually interacting personally with members. Instead they have sophisticated methods to extract data from members while they socialize on their platform.
The problem with this model is that over time people become resistant to the tricks used to get their data and Facebook is forced to use more and more tricky ways to get that data.
The platform now in terms of the advertisements, contests, surveys, and even people/bots you are interacting with are nearly all designed for the specific purpose of either feeding you ads or getting data from you.
Facebook must continually refine these tools and and make them more invasive, and as a result their entire business has turned into this giant data collection tool and nothing more.
The next step which the current scandal shows they are working on and using in some cases, is to be able to use additional tools to dictate and control the behavior of members. If they can tell advertisers that have an ability to do this, they will be the most valuable company on the planet.
Imagine, if they are able to manipulate the thinking of more than 1 billion members (by the way I do not believe Facebook’s claim of 2 billion members).
Everyone complains about fake news on Facebook, but why would they stop if it keeps you engaged longer, they are able to extract more data from you and they can use it to make you think a certain way that they can predict? They simply do not care what you are being exposed to only that you spend more hours on Facebook and let them experiment with their data collection tools.
Because they do not have real relationships with their members and offer no real benefits to them they have to operate the way they do. If Facebook asked members to take surveys, hardly anyone would respond, and those that did would not be honest. Why would they when they have no idea what is happening with their data?
So Facebook is in a terrible cycle;
It is a platform that no one trusts and is filled with anger and hate speech making members inclined to trust it less as time goes on.
They have a terrible relationship with content creators who they do not pay and who cannot even manage their audiences on the platform.
They have advertisers who are unhappy with the billions they spend on the platform each quarter because they are not getting quality data or member interaction with their products and services.
There are large numbers of shady groups who want to exploit Facebook's data collection and will pay any price for it, and Facebook is ready to sell it to all of them.
They have to satisfy investors with rising revenues each quarter which means they need more money from advertisers, which means more invasive data collection methods.
All of these together means that the bad news will keep coming for Facebook. We will discover that what we are seeing now is only a small portion of what is going on constantly at Facebook.
What can they do to stop it? In my humble opinion, they are doomed because the platform is only designed to be a data collection site. It is not designed to build relationships which is the way Facebook could work its way out of its current problems. They do not have strong relationships with any of their stakeholders. They would literally have to start all over and do things totally different.
I have been saying for years that they will hit a wall, simply because their business model is filled with contradictions. No company like that can sustain forever and with the delicate nature of social networks, bad news can end your company quickly. I am not saying the company will die tomorrow but what I am saying is that Facebook has peaked and between member, content creator and advertiser revolts on one side, and government intervention and regulation on the other, the good times are over for them.
Thanks.
I don't agree with the claim that Facebook is doomed. but I loved the comment.
Here's your 5 SBD prize.
