Archive for August 2007
Is Facebook the next AOL?
In the early 90’s it was very clear that AOL sat at the top of the Internet world. A world full of dial up connections and bad websites. There were many players in the dial up game (Juno, Earthlink, NetZero, and MSN), but AOL stood above the rest. They capitalized on the new market by providing an integrated online experience through its portal. AOL provided the means to get online and helped organized your experience with their portal.
That portal was essentially a platform and that along with great branding (I miss the free CDs) separated AOL from the bunch and stood dominate for a long time. AOL became the place to advertise if you wanted to reach a high quality audience with your online marketing efforts. I still remember buying AOL keywords. Times have really changed, but have they?
Facebook’s story is the new version of AOL. They created a platform that keeps the user in the experience with limited ability to customize. The buzz around companies building applications for Facebook is either a sign that this model will work or these companies fear they will miss the boat on the opportunity.
Over the last 6 months, we’ve seen MySpace, the most popular social network in the US, decline in popularity and we are starting to realize that people have profiles on multiple social networks and loyalty is not a high characteristic of this audience. Facebook will continue to have astonishing growth for the next few years, but like all history tells us, it will come to an end. Enjoy the ride!
