O'Reilly Radar's Ben Lorica writes that
Facebook has been growing steadily on a
global basis, and suggests through the data
that Facebook adoption is deep and
widespread. Most intriguingly, he finds that
in North America working-age users is the
fastest growing demographic, while the teen
segment is growing much more slowly.
I could have saved him some time.
Yesterday I got my haircut, and Valerie, the
lady that has cut my hair for the past
20-plus years, started talking to me about
how she uses Facebook. Valerie is one of the
least technically-adept people I have ever
met. If she's using Facebook, the entire
planet is.
Take my mother, for instance. I wrote
before that my mother has started IM'ing me
through Facebook, which was a pretty good
indicator of mainstream adoption of the
social-networking service. Between Valerie
and my angel mother, I have enough proof
without reading a shred of statistical
evidence that if I wanted to find my
fourth-grade crush, I'd almost certainly
find her on Facebook. (In fact, I did.).
The big question for Facebook now is how
it will monetize that widespread adoption. I
still find Facebook tedious and
time-wasting. Things like its Facebook
Connect service may make Facebook relevant
to me without me having to "go to"
Facebook.com, and is a step in the right
direction.
But Facebook needs to figure out how to
make "friends" on Facebook meaningful, both
in commercial and other contexts. Once it
has done so--once it has effectively mapped
my social graph--it wlll have data that it
can turn into dollars. At that point,
Valerie and Mom will be able to enjoy
Facebook while it enjoys dramatic revenue
growth, which will be good for all involved.
- Matt Asay, CNET
