FB Apps and the Facebook Brand

What I think is most brilliant about Facebook’s openness is the branding behind it. Really. I haven’t heard this mentioned and maybe it’s an unintended consequence, but this move really switches Facebook from being a “Cool” brand to a “reliance” brand. The sustainability of the brand greatly increased through this initiative… and Facebook didn’t have to do that much.

If you’re not familiar with FB apps the elevator pitch goes something like: people build applications that run completely within facebook. This exposes the app to a huge number of users and takes advantage of the viral nature of facebook. It’s working very well for some - for example, iLike has more people using the site on FB than on the iLike site.

So I know what you’re thinking - if it’s all about the third party apps how does that boost FB’s brand? I’d say that there are two ways. First, the creators of the apps will be pushing big time for them to spread on the site. This is what I mean by switching to a reliance brand. It’s no longer just cool. If I develop an app strictly for FB I have to rely on that brand being around and the site working flawlessly. Essentially, the third parties will be promoting their own apps, which in turn promotes increased usage of Faceebook. It’s one thing to promote FB because you like it, an entirely different thing to promote because the success of your business (yes some of the apps have business models) depends on it. If I tell someone to use Facebook because I like it, and they don’t sign up, there’s no real loss. If I tell them to sign up because I depend on having people use the site to grow my web apps, and they don’t sign up, then there is a real loss.

Second, Facebook no longer has to create the next big thing - they just have to have the next big thing created for Facebook. Has Facebook added anything new since the launch of Apps? I really don’t know. But, I can tell you about a ton of new features that have been created by companies not called Facebook. So all these great new things are happening, but since they are created on Facebook, FB gets the most recognition all while doing the least work. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

So maybe $2 billion would have been a good deal.