Dear Facebook, It Could Really Be This Simple
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
"And, if it can leverage the physical goods loophole on iOS, it can become the social shopping platform.
So buh bye lame “Social stories” and buh bye Amazon (which currently has a $100b market cap, around twice that of Facebook)."
Really, Facebook's save is social shopping... and that would upend Amazon?
I doubt Facebook will get into the SVOD, publishing, mobile device and supply chain business that Amazon is in because Facebook decides to build a wishlist app.
But look at the site its coming from. Most of what they pump out is hyperbole about ycombinator(or some other VC pal of theirs) companies, lacking meaningful content, and it seems they write about their every move, no matter how trivial, from the company's start to end. I remember an article published about Kevin Rose saying he'd "shoot" bad ideas in the head. An entire article, just to tell everyone he wouldn't waste time on bad ideas.
I speculate that facebook's price will continue to go down post lock-up. Insiders aren't ignoring the poor news or outlook and I think they'll sell for more reasons than those. That's not necessarily because these insiders don't trust their company. They may have to pay off expensive things (maybe a nice home?) they bought when the company IPO'd and can't risk the uncertainty of facebook's future value. Also, if you ask any investor, they'll tell you that diversifying your portfolio is important.
Another interesting thing to think about are tax implications. I know a lot of facebook insiders were happy that their IPO was pre-July because otherwise, the lock-up would have crossed into 2013. This is when taxes on capital gains are expected to rise and it can cost them a lot of money.
I'm curious to see the performance of the stock in the coming months. Especially with the uncertainty of growth, possible tax increases, and the implications of the lock-up expiry, this will be an interesting journey for facebook.
In the case of the former, we already have Amazon wishlists, or I suppose someone could go through my Pinterest and see what I like. In the case of the latter, if anyone actually bought me a digital gift then they'd probably get unfriended.
If Facebook can come up with a wishlist system to rival Amazon's then people will absolutely flock to it.
The same thing that holds true of a YC company is true of large corporations. To channel Lombardi, "management isn't everything, it's the only thing"
It was being widely shared throughout FB. Why isn't Facebook attaching an affiliate link under these types of photos to where I can buy the product or service?
Facebook moves into real goods, to compete, Amazon then needs to start a social network.
If Google starts gaining market share on Google Plus, Facebook will step into the search space.