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Comment by jameslk | Hacker News Reader

This seems like a strange thing for Facebook to build. I'm sure I'm missing some grand idea of why Facebook would make this. I just don't see how they get much out of this and how it fits into their mission.

Edit: I missed that this was coming out of NPE (New Product Experiments). Still I'm not sure why this would make sense for FB to run, but it's less odd knowing that it's an experiment.

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I think it actually makes sense, potentially, as a way for FB to try and circumvent the publisher vs. platform debate.

If they can credential experts based on some metric that isn't based on their editorial discretion, they have more grounds to call themselves a "platform." Not saying I agree, but makes sense given their position.

Prediction markets could eventually be a lucrative industry comparable to stock exchanges. Why wouldn't a giant tech company try that out?

economics and mechanism design is in the DNA of both Facebook and Google — core business of both is running auctions. that background tends to go with thinking prediction markets are cool.

Well, why try so hard to predict what people think, when you can just ask them and they will gladly tell you? As a bonus, you also get a motivation that can be exploited for much better targeting of, uhm, educational ads?

Data gathered from here is explicit, and this much more reliable than what you can implicitly infer from users' behavior.

This was my first thought. My guess is the team making the app are all about it's potential and fb are happy to give it a go because of the potential for improved data capture

> I'm sure I'm missing some grand idea of why Facebook would make this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRUA0o-rJjU

The same reason Facebook marketplace makes sense: sheer force of how many users they already have available.

I was talking to my team recently and we realised there's 2 reasons why we use facebook these days: marketplace and events.

Drive engagement?

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