I quickly noted here and here that Facebook was in its interim period.
That period lasted for half a year from March 2009 to October 2009.
This is the visualization of the shift in Facebook’s direction.
What was Facebook intention for moving toward content in the first place
- Experiments for innovation. Even Mark was surprised that web games was loved so well
- Competition with Twitter
Why the move back in October 2009 makes sense
Firstly, the most Facebook can be is a content aggregator and hosting, not a critical content creation platform. Holding the position on the content side is not sustainable.
Secondly, content on Facebook serves the purpose of building relationship. The key is still relationship. Abandoning relationship to be on the content extremity was not sustainable either.
The gap
The shift to maintain balance between relationship and content leaves creates a gap between Facebook itself and its clones. e.g. Zing Me
And a gap is an opportunity.
@anhhung wrote a review on Mimo, the Twitter clone that supports SMS as I had envisioned.
I don’t intend to dig further on Mimo. Just this thought crossed my mind:
When an original product innovates, it creates a gap with its clones. This gap either forces to clone to chase the cloned, or allows the clone to innovate and differentiate itself.
If the second action is taken, an opportunity has been realized.
3 things I like best about the Facebook homepage design Oct 2009
- Live Feed is back
- Live Feed items are larger than they appeared last time before Mar 2009
- “More about these friends” option is back
The new homepage design blends relationship and content:
- Friend adding updates are back
- High-lights are now omitted, that area is for suggestions to improve relationship
[Social Media] create low-cost and widely accessible tools.
Low cost does not mean cheap.
Low cost creates margin. Cheap only return cheap results.
Low cost is optimization. Cheap is arbitrary.
Low cost refines. Cheap creates messes.
Now, replace [Social Media] with “Your strategy”.
Social Media and Alpha
From the perspective of a funds manager, social media create:
- Information inflow: for alpha capture
- Information outflow: to influence the market
Social Media and Corporate Governance
1. Individual investors have more tools for monitoring the companies they own.
2. Bargain:
Traditionally investors have certain tools in hand to influence the companies: board, proxy fight, external audit, internal audit, credit rating agencies
Social media supplements mass media in strategies in corporate decision, social attitude and regulation bargaining.
The power of Social Media should not be overlooked, as many will be tempted to use these low-cost tools.
Finance
| 
agency, alpha, audit, bargain, board, corporate-finance, credit, investment, market, proxy, social-media
Comments (3) 
