Facebook: Start Doing Business

While the now infamous social networking site, that would rather refer to themselves as "a personal online directory" is making a marginal amount of profit from advertising, the real value just isn't there on a CPM basis as the ads have a terrible click through rate. Users love the site for its program type of look and feel, and simplistic advertising but the new age of users have become very blind to banner ads on the internet. Facebook clearly realizes their need to figure out a way to monetize more effectively this great service while keeping in mind privacy concerns. Mark Zuckerberg tried flowing "social ads" into the mix as a sort of friend endorsement through partnerships with other ecommerce websites. The problem was, people hated it and sometimes the technology gave too much information about a users buying habits.

The real opportunity here is the very under developed Facebook Marketplace "app" that is used. If modified correctly, Facebook could give sites such as eBay, monster, and Craigslist a real run for their money. I also know that these types of improvements would land Facebook more juicy start pages - including my own by being a more physical media rich environment. Facebook has tried to realize some of the actual ecommerce potential with Facebook pages, but has geared those more towards an informational "card" for businesses rather than a store solution. How better to control the flow of information if you can keep your users posting pictures, comments, and pokes right along side buying the newest Apple Gadget, and paying the bill online? That is synergy of products, all inside of the Facebook architecture. This type of product mix would also allow for them to muddle in the world of online search and give google a real run for its money. As the statistics show, each 1% of search engine market share worth a solid 1 Billion dollars. And besides, who knows what other kind of new search ideas they could come up with? Real time friend responses based on their personal knowledge of you?

Behold the possibility of a Facebook dynasty.