Wow – I’m not exactly sure how many times I LOL’d while reading this – but defending Twitter and Facebook is starting to get old.  Its absolutely silly how the “old media” type just cannot wrap their mind around new ways to do web.

From the post:  “Why I hate Facebook”

For the record, I am not on Facebook, and the recent fuss about privacy doesn’t affect me — I’m not a disgruntled user with an axe to grind.

No, your an “outsider” who has not invested any time to understand the concept.  Facebook is a place, a gathering spot.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a Facebook fanboy.  But I get it, I’m not in the target audience…but I get it.  I love how someone can say “XYZ” is stupid – I’ve never tried “XYZ”, but damn is it ever dumb.

Then he goes on to show more close-minded thinking when he blasts internet based business models.  Here is what he has to say about Facebook’s growth.

In the Fortune story, there is a chart showing how quickly Facebook got to 150 million users compared to other technologies such as the iPod, cellphone and television.

While it’s impressive that it took Facebook only 5 years compared with 7 years for Apple to “sell” 150 million iPods, who has the better business model?

Facebook merely signed up people to use their service…for free. Apple sold a product…and a pretty pricey one at that. What’s more, Apple makes money when people buy music from iTunes for their iPod.

OK – this is where I have to call the “old”, “closed-mind” cards.   Dude.  (I love to use “Dude”, because it makes the old, closed-minded people cringe.)  Seriously – DUDE! The people ARE the commodity in web world.  Facebook isn’t selling products…they are selling people – at least selling access to those people.  So, as Facebook sees and surpasses 150,000,000 users, they are building an arsenal of marketing data.

This is not about selling units, there is no full-fillment center – that’s not how Facebook rolls.  They are selling data.  Advertisers are evolving – they will begin to see the value in qualified leads.

See my post on “Wish lists” – if you can give advertisers three names of people who are genuinely interested in the product you sell…they will pay.  Gladly, they call it a “qualified” lead.  Cha-ching.  I’m sorry – is that the sound of money?  How are they ever going to make money?

Put on banner ads – that’s what many Web 1.0 people will say…

Even if users tolerate ads on Facebook, I’m not sure they’d actually click on them.

Exactly.  Facebook could put up banners on the site (in fact, they do a little).  But guess what – people hate them.  I hate them – I think we can all agree, banner ads are not very good.  The web is not a newspaper in electronic format.  We cannot turn print display ads into web-tastic banners.  It doesn’t work.  We need a new way.  Like “Wish lists“, I’m telling you.  (This is a good idea, read about it – give me feedback.)

To me, Facebook seems to be growing for growth’s sake without a plan for making money. And that’s really risky in a recession as bad as this one. Not only is Facebook faced with the prospect of ad spending declining this year; it also has to likely deal with the rising costs to manage the increased amount of data as it signs on more and more users.

So while I applaud Facebook for its ability to attract a loyal base of users, I just don’t get how it will ever be a financial success.

That I agree with, Mr. La Monica – I’m not sure he’s spent the time to understand the web is breeding a new a model.  It’s not about how many “units” a company pushes a month.  It’s a focus on the relationship.  It’s about how you become part of the community – not how you watch from above in your ivory tower and count your Benjamins.

So I leave you with Paul R. La Monica’s word from the beginning of the post:

The social networking wunderkind may be cool. But enough already! How’s it ever going to make money…especially in a recession?

Now – let’s get to the real question.  Will Facebook quit messing with things until it can prove customers are important!  Yes, I’m asking Facebook to leave the privacy terms alone.   I guess we’ll see! 

UPDATE:
I almost forgot to add this…the only reason I wrote this blog post was because CNN doesn’t have comments turn on for their site.  If they would have – I would have probably spammed him inbox! 

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