Facebook apps are a pointless business
I really don’t understand why people are putting so much effort into creating businesses around Facebook. Ok, they have millions of users but lets not forget the internet as a whole has a lot more. It’s plain to see that the first movers in this space had huge advantages with the invite wild west and the new comers are screwed.
The problem for people trying to break into this space is marketing. How do you spread the word of your latest and greatest? (Who the hell uses the app directory?)
Maybe people with 5000 friends might just find themselves being able to pimp themselves out to app developers to install apps so others can see them.
There is another problem with the domination Facebook and the top app developers. These guys can pimp out their latest features and app’s with ease to masses and so if they decide to take on your app then its lights out.
I think Facebook should do a weekly spotlight feature (oh the irony I bet it would be an app :p) and pick an app thats got low numbers but is worthy and tell all the users about it.
I also have a problem with the business model for apps because for it to pay off you need a lot of users to get the advertising revenue. Its a shame that Facebook users don’t pay for anything. In fact why don’t facebook create a market place around facebook points like xbox live.
Lets face it the gravy train has left the station for facebook apps, your not going to get any free marketing out of releasing an app these days and your not going to be able to use the system to spread it like a virus, So you might as well just start working on OpenSocial :p