In the context of our collective efforts to foster and develop
BT Tradespace and the social commerce proposition – this was a truly amazing event -- and I wanted to share a few high level observations.
· The “Social Web” and “Social Commerce” memes are very HOT. Not just in the valley – but worldwide. The implications are potentially massive – and the key concepts inherent in the Tradespace proposition were repeatedly validated.
· Social platform vendors are at war! Although few people openly admitted it – the platform wars have officially started. The purpose of the war is to attract the hearts and minds of application developers. There are two main camps. The favorite: The Facebook Camp. The challenger: The Open Social Camp (led by Google and supported by a gaggle of others including MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Hi5, etc.) I went into the conference thinking that the two camps were evenly matched. I left the conference feeling like Facebook is definitely ahead – and the Open Social guys have much further to go than I had imagined.
· Facebook Platform Facts: The head start is huge…
o 200,000 developers actively evaluating or working on FB platform
o 20,000 different FB apps have been developed to date
o 900,000,000 = number of unique installs
o 35,000,000 = number of times in the last 24 hours that the apps were used
o 68,000,000 = number of unique active users in the past 30 days
o $15 billion = valuation of FB in Oct 2007 when MSFT invested $250m for
o $300 = value per active user.
· The Main Monetization Meme - Advertising. Most people (especially app developers) are thinking that advertising is the way to monetize social networks. There was a passive acknowledgement that ads inside of FB thus far have not been well monetized (few clicks) – but there were numerous examples of app developers doing very well with ads inside of FB – Speed Racer, Scrabulous, etc. There was a ton of conversation about why big ad buyers are not spending more on social media. What’s holding them back? What’s taking them so long? My informal poll suggested that most people think it is merely a matter of time – before either (A) advertisers wake-up and smell the coffee, or (B) the platforms and networks themselves get better at creating a truly powerful inventory driven by socially contextual ads. (e.g. we no longer have to guess at what ads you might want to see based on what we know about you from your social profile – instead we can serve ads to you based on what we know about your friends, and friends of friends – because, after all, they are the people that you know and trust.)
· The Other Monetization Meme – Commerce Transactions: A small, but seemingly vocal, group of people were pushing back on the advertising meme – suggesting that the real lever for social media would be commerce transactions between buyers and sellers. Ultimately, I think the answer is both.
· Everyone is going SCRUM / AGILE: Agile/SCRUM is increasingly the preferred method for developing!
· UI/UX and Design are Critical to Success: A critical area for investment. If you don’t get it right – your app will fail.
· A Few Areas of Consensus – One Massive Opportunity for Tradespace. I discovered strong consensus around the following ideas:
o mass markets are dead (fractured into millions of markets of dozens)
o mass media is dead (micro messages are needed for micro markets)
o consumers are spending more time on the web socializing with trusted groups
o consumers are bombarded with more choices than ever before
o consumers are increasingly deaf to traditional marketing messages
o SMBs, historically, could not afford to advertise via traditional media
o SMBs, historically, have depended heavily on word of mouth (social) marketing
o SMBs must learn to transfer off-line word of mouth marketing skills to on-line environments (promote, network, transact)
I think that huge rewards await those who can successfully facilitate this transformation.