So, as of my latest perusal of facebook’s usage statistics (as per Zuckerberg’s f8 speech), the number of daily returning users is “24 million and growing, 24 million and growing…” < If you read that last phrase out loud, it may have sounded like something Zuckerberg said in his f8 speech. Indeed, it may sound very funny! But, I believe quite strongly that this phrase is actually profound enough to be repeated twice, in fact thrice, four times, and maybe as many times as possible, till it rings clearly. This is not just another rant, so please read on…
Although I cannot claim to be a marketing guru, a sales professional, or a visionary of the future, one thing should seem fairly obvious to anyone, as it does to me. That is, if even a small percentage of these returning visitors had even the slightest real reason to pull out their credit card, debit card, or paypal account information, they would. It is no secret that more than 50% of the current facebook demographic are out of college (source: http://static.ak.facebook.com/press/facebook_statistics.pdf). Why do so many people insist that these are poor college students and that their buying power is not high enough to justify real apps? That is such bull$%#@! As soon as someone finds a business case for these users, and stops thinking about how to make the next widget, I will personally pull out my credit card/debit card (linked to dwindling bank account — ahhh, the joy of being a startup founder), and enter the 16 digits, followed by the expiration date, and the security code. And, please, don’t tell me, you (if you are a facebook user) won’t do the same, when faced with a facebook app that actually does something useful.
Alex Notov has been writing code since the age 10. He is a web application developer since the age of 17. Now 23, he is managing editor at Startupism.com, and Chief Geek (he isn’t a fan of formal titles) and co-founder of a Silicon Valley startup.
