I think Facebook is about to reach a very critical point in its development. It needs to answer a very basic question: Does it want to be needed or loved as a brand and as a service? I always pondered this question back in the good old days of AOL’s development.
Is it a fun, community-based service that is free and aside of one’s life focused on one to one communications and chat? Or is it a utility that becomes a front page and starting point for its customers who pay with time and click streams and live their life on the net? Is it consumer based or more of a B to B platform for others to reach consumers? Very few franchises get to be BOTH needed and loved. AOL reached that point of max valuation and consumer usage for about three years and now only Google can claim that position. It is both popular and respected. It is used like a utility but people feel great about the brand and the company. Apple is loved. Nike is loved. For many, Comcast is needed. Microsoft is needed too. Being loved means having a feel good brand and a service that rides over someone else’s utility. A consumer chooses the service and feels good about using it. Right now I see Rock You and Slide becoming more of the brands that are loved with Facebook being more of the platform and the underlying technology that is needed. To grow into a $15 billion valuation, Facebook may be forced to become a brand that is needed and hope it can keep its sheen as a populist brand and take on a Google-like positioning. That task is a tough one and there is even some alchemy and magic that has to happen to pull it off. If Facebook wants to be a utility and be needed, it will have to do a more focused job on basic network operations; scale; speed of the service; cleanliness of the interface; and better tools and communications regarding safety and security and privacy. The company will also have to be transparent in its communications to developers to not compete with them but also to create a set of rules of the road so that the open community doesn’t slow down the service as it does today. It will also have to innovate and redefine utility-like services such as email, messaging, search, chat, storage and self-expression. Today, many of those functions on Facebook are poor imitations of the real thing in the real world. Facebook has to look at itself as a fast growing city with citizens. It has to police the streets; keep the brownouts at a minimum; provide clean water and a good place with low taxes to conduct commerce while it needs to welcome new people to its community. And the people who move in need to feel that someone is watching the store and making sure the platform is working 24/7. That sounds grown up and responsible and the company to date has reveled in its youthfulness and anti-grown-up ethos. Money changes everything. Facebook will change. It will be very interesting to watch how it morphs now and how will it affect its budgeting; services launched; policies; and look and feel. We will soon know because today, the city I live in called Facebook, is getting crowded and noisy and I am not as proud of my neighborhood as I once was. So Mark, “Would you rather be needed or loved?”