Just for Fun
Thursday, June 12 2008
I did a blog post back in September suggesting that 'platform' is to today's Web economy as 'eyeballs' was to the insanity that was Web 1.0/'the dot-com boom.' In other words, 'platform' has become the anchor point for what can only be described as irrational exuberance (with all due respect to Alan Greenspan). The topper for me was the move by Accel and Founders Fund to put together a $10 million kitty for Facebook apps, followed by Bay Partners upping the ante with their $25 million Facebook app fund. Anyway, today I happen upon this post by CNET blogger Caroline McCarthy:
Study reveals shocking truth: Most Facebook apps are silly, pointless
According to a study by Flowing Data and released by Facebook, out of the 23,000 apps built on Facebook's 'platform,' nearly 10,000 of them do not fall into tidy categories like 'games' or 'business' or 'sports', but rather the newly invented category of 'Just for Fun.' Last time I checked, there was no business opportunity for 'just for fun' apps, unless you consider them a viable socket for ads that no one clicks on anyway, which Google and MySpace are finding out the hard way, but that's a separate issue. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go super-poke someone.
