"awesome business" and "massive potential" aren't mutually exclusive events. It can have massive potential, but never deliver and still be a terrible business.
Sure, it's got a lot of upside if you can buy it at the right price, but up till now, it hasn't shown advertisers (who make up the majority of their revenue) that it can deliver customers as acceptable CPAs. Until that happens, we'll still be waiting for facebook to be an "awesome business."
I don't think CPAs are the right metric. Facebook is massively engaging. I think TV is the most natural synergy b/c people socialize around it today but only in one household.
Facebook should also launch a web search similar to Google just go capture some market share in search-driven advertising.
Around the world, Facebook is the fastest loading website (it often beats Google). Its infrastructure is ready to make a truly global play of some kind.
Expect something huge after the stock price stabilizes a bit.
Facebook is massively engaging, but the ads they allow to appear on the site are incredibly off-putting.
I personally don't mind ads on sites, but the Facebook ads that I'm fed all appear to be for slimy businesses (I'm constantly seeing ads for Canadian Pardons that are using what I believe to be unauthorized images of celebrities) or have seemingly low-to-no production values.
They need to fix or curate the way ads are displayed, because I think it will eventually become a hindrance to their success.
Perhaps CPA is not the right metric. But a bunch of hype that glosses over the fact that Facebook doesn't really actually make very much money is not the right metric, either.
Yup. Especially considering their revenue has also been falling, that there are concrete reasons to think that it will continue to do so, and that they're operating in a notoriously brutal and fickle space. There's money there, but not enough to cushion a fall.
Facebook should sponsor and create content viewing events that are only visable via facebook.
What if there was a "real world FB" where FB users live together and drama ensues - and the only way to watch it is FB.com.
There are so many other things that FB could do to truly be a platform: Education via FB, Work via FB (think having a mechanical turk via FB where users could sign up to be a part of the service and use the FB platform to earn money), videoconference within FB, etc etc etc.
Sure, it's got a lot of upside if you can buy it at the right price, but up till now, it hasn't shown advertisers (who make up the majority of their revenue) that it can deliver customers as acceptable CPAs. Until that happens, we'll still be waiting for facebook to be an "awesome business."