Declaring Bankruptcy

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Declaring Bankruptcy

I've done that a few times on this blog, both times related to email overload. It's a dangerous thing to do. Bankruptcy is a loaded work, particularly coming from someone who's in the money business. The media loves to run a headline with the word bankruptcy in it. I still get pinged by journalists wanting to talk to me about "email bankruptcy", a term I did not coin, and I've been working hard to distance myself from.

So it was with mixed feelings that I read Jason Calacanis' post declaring Facebook bankruptcy. Jason's as media savvy as they come, particularly new media. So he knows exactly what he's doing with that post. He's drawing attention to the problems with Facebook that have gotten glossed over as the techcrunch 50,000 have fallen in love with Facebook in the wake of the opening up of the service.

And I share Jason's frustration with Facebook. It's just not my world. The web is my world. Blogs are my world. Flickr is my world. Twitter is my world. Facebook aggregates all of those features, wraps a social network around it, and provides a turnkey solution. It's better in many ways. But when you make it easy, you get overload. And that's what Jason is facing. And that's what I am facing.

Jason put a picture of his Facebook request roll on his post. So I'll do the same. It's nutty. I manage my requests daily. And yet I've got 182 unanswered requests. It's as bad as my email inbox, but at least my inbox has good stuff in it along with the crap. The ratio of good stuff to junk is a lot worse in Facebook, at least so far.

But here's where I differ from Jason. I'm not giving up. Because I think Facebook's an important phenomenon, maybe as important as Google over time. That's a big maybe, but you have to pay attention to maybes.

There's also the issue that all of us who have been building and/or investing in web apps for the past 10 years are facing. Do we have to learn a new bag of tricks? Does Facebook mean all that work we've done on the web is suddenly worth a lot less and we need to retool our work for Facebook? I bet that is part of what is bugging Jason. He's building a new search service, people powered search, on the web at Mahalo.com. Does he need to scrap that and build it at http://apps.facebook.com/mahalo/? I think the answer is no, but he sure better figure out how to let Facebook users access Mahalo from within Facebook and also how to tap Facebook users to build new serps on Mahalo.

Giving up is not the answer. As much as it feels good. Our mutual friend Tom Watson has some words of wisdom for Jason. Get through the bankruptcy Jason and come out the other side with a clean balance sheet and give Facebook another shot. It's going to be worth it at some point.

Jason has also closed comments on his blog. I've said my piece on that before too. That's not the right answer. Take some time off from blogging Jason. It's exhausting. Blogging and running a company at the same time is a ton of work. You might need a vacation from blogging. You certainly can't take a vacation from Mahalo.

Comments (21) | Posted July 28, 2007 in Venture Capital and Technology

Comments

I'm note even sure that its easier to use, I find it quite a high friction environment compared to the usual web tools:

- its difficult (impossible?) to just get feeds of everything thats going on to one place asynchronously - it all has to be done online

- you have to wade through loads of screens to do anything

- to see any app that friends have, you usually have to load it too - more hassle.

All in all, it just seems to take a lot longer to get things done.

Posted by: alan p | Jul 28, 2007 5:48:57 AM

Part of the issue here is that Facebook applications haven't had much time to evolve.

Right now, viral adoption is the guiding principle of Facebook app development. Eventually, developers will focus more on solving problems for users. As that happens, I think your Facebook inbox will become manageable.

Posted by: Rick Burnes | Jul 28, 2007 10:53:54 AM

Someone once said to me that Facebook is "pretty much like training wheels for RSS and blogging for less tech savvy people".

I'm inclined to agree. Personally, I have no use and see no utility in Facebook whatsoever: I have a blog, I have e-mail, I have IM, I have a Flickr account. Facebook doesn't give me anything I don't already have through that.

The observation that Facebook is "training wheels" is pretty accurate: it's the reason why social networks are so transient and non-sticky, they don't have anything compelling to offer that the different features (such as blogs and Flickr) don't already offer standalone and better.

Posted by: Wille | Jul 28, 2007 1:53:37 PM

Excellent post Fred. I'd suggest that it is now up to Facebook to rise to this occasion of their great prominence and keep making it easier for other sites and aps to integrate with Facebook, and perhaps as importantly make money from doing this.

If Facebook succeeds and we can all start using Facebook as our Social networking tool without sacrificing *any functionality* on other sites then they deserve the huge rewards this would bring them.

Posted by: Joe Hunkins | Jul 28, 2007 1:58:22 PM

I think http://tomatic.com/s/itsallbrokencom sums it up - we need a new meta layer something...

Posted by: Michael | Jul 28, 2007 2:53:29 PM

Facebook will be dead and forgotten in a short while (maybe after selling out for a billion or two, but still.)

Facebook is the AOL of today: proprietary platform running on top of the Internet, principlally exciting to users because of simple but sophisticated -- and closed -- communications tools.

Also, I would argue that both AOL and Facebook had/have highly questionable advertising models, businesses and ecosystems, largly driven by buyers perceptions of trends and not by actual value creation.

The only question is, who will be the next Gerry Levin?

;)

Posted by: Steve Kane | Jul 28, 2007 3:32:03 PM

Fred - I think the big difference between jason and you is that you are a VC. You are in the investing game. Therefore, you cant afford to leave FB where all the new startups are flocking too. A lot of pitches on the web 2.0 side must have a FB strategy to it.

On the other hand, regular folks like me dont necessarily need to go through the noise in FB. I have already opted out of every app request. They are becoming a nuisance.

Posted by: Nolan | Jul 28, 2007 4:05:37 PM

I'll straight up admit that I don't "get" Facebook. As other people have said, it essentially aggregates a lot of tools I already use in a less than elegant interface. But I'm forcing myself to get involved and try some inexpensive experiments. The Web has evolved a ton in the last 10 years and it's dangerous to assume that people who grew up with the Web and cell phones and IM are just waiting to "graduate" to how we use it. I think it's more likely that we graduate to how they use it.

Posted by: Eric Marcoullier | Jul 28, 2007 9:31:45 PM

As a facebook user, and someone who jumped on the bandwagon when it was really skyrocketing, my personal opinion is Facebook is just a fad.

For most of us "regular" folks, who don't have 200 friend invites a day, once the initial few week rush of finding all the people you forgot about in highschool or a previous job or just in life in general is done, what else is there?

Really? People don't care that much about monitoring every aspect of everyones lives. It wears off. Eventually Facebook users will stop going to the site as much and it will fade...

Posted by: Chris Stark | Jul 28, 2007 9:32:49 PM

god- i feel like a facebook/communications loser compared to you - its not the least bit overwhelming for me. i wonder if the avg person isnt more like me, and less like you - the self confessed hyper communicator (love the blog, btw!!)

Posted by: eatokra | Jul 29, 2007 12:09:01 AM

I'm with Steve and Eric...I think FB will reach critical mass and start fading out.

What does it really provide the millions of "regular Joes" out there whose worlds don't revolve around the web? What is the real value proposition for people who don't need anything more then email, IM, and a few feeds?

What does an online happy hour do for someone who has no friends in the new place they moved to? How is FB helping?

Frankly when it comes to meeting new people and connecting via online networks, communities like MyBlogLog and Pownce have been much more useful. Interaction is quick and direct. Thoughts, ideas and recommendations are instant. It's difficult to meet new people on FB and once you have reconnected with lost friends you do what I did yesterday, you give them your direct email address, exchange phone numbers and make a date to go grab coffee or lunch.

I haven't been on FB for the last three days since then...

Posted by: Ann Bernard | Jul 29, 2007 12:14:55 AM

Me too i going through the same thing...

Althoug its good to be able to click onto each blog from facebook & keep abreast of your freinds with aquick glance rather than having to read theuir page all the time..

Posted by: Barry rutherford | Jul 29, 2007 6:40:42 AM

"If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse."
Henry Ford

Posted by: Dimitar Vesselinov | Jul 29, 2007 7:33:10 AM

I share some of your frustrations with Facebook, Fred, although my level of friend-request overwhelm is, shall we say, *somewhat* lower than yours.

But there's one sentence of your post I want to pick on. I acknowledge that I'm coming late to this debate, but you err when you're talking about turning off comments on a blog and say, "That's not the right answer."

I assert that there is no *one* right answer for blog comments. By cold observation, there isn't. If there were, then either you and Robert Scoble and all the other comment-accepters would flourish, or else Seth Godin and Marc Andreessen and all other other non-comment-accepters would flourish - but not both. But observation tells us that both groups have success in shaping online conversations in fruitful ways.

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and while your own *view* on that is valuable (probably much more valuable than mine!), not even you are in a position to tell Jason (or Marc or Seth et al.) how to skin their cats.

That said, thank *you* for keeping comments open so that I can say this here rather than posting it on my own blog and counting on people to find it that way. ;)

Posted by: Tim Walker | Jul 29, 2007 10:20:29 AM

I just have to add that the reason why I'm on Facebook is that some of the people with whom I want to keep in touch are there. If not for them, why would I be there? It's no fun to fiend people you don't know and try to form a relationship via the web. So, it's not Facebook, it's my friends that drive me there.

Posted by: Shaine | Jul 29, 2007 5:52:07 PM

Posted by: Shaine | Jul 29, 2007 5:52:19 PM

Barry's quote from Henry Ford was the best comment. F/Book is part of an evolution, not an end in itself. Right now it still has a novelty value as does the Platform, which with the benefits of accumulation make it a big star. When it will start fading is when its younger prospective members decide that it's something which the last generation of older siblings did & want something different of their own. 'Oh FaceBook is for the oldies & so
Establishment. We don't do that.'

Posted by: Maggy | Jul 29, 2007 6:16:15 PM

Hey Fred- if you're bankrupt, you should consider setting the Privacy settings so that your profile doesn't come up in search (I'm not sure if it does now). But that might limit some of the friend requests at least, which would be helpful. Most of us don't have as much of a problem, but unfortunately you've got a certain draw to people.

good luck...

Posted by: Phil | Jul 30, 2007 10:59:38 AM

I am struggling with this issue. Do I continue down the path I am going and launch my service or do I wait until I am ready to launch on Facebook also? What are your thoughts Fred? Does Facebook give me enough value as a startup that I should wait until the Facebook app is ready to launch? I have seen several people saying that I should only be working on a Facebook app (one of the founders of Hot-or-Not included) but I am just not sure. I was never one to be excited about putting all of my eggs in one basket and that is what Facebook seems like it might be.

Doug K.

Posted by: Doug K. | Jul 31, 2007 1:23:06 PM

I think facebook will remain viable for the demographic it was originally intended for - college students. Facebook has the highest concentration of people I went to school with, and I stick with it to keep in touch with them.
For someone who has mostly geek friends, facebook is redundant. But most of my friends don't even know what RSS stands for, so facebook is about their level.
The key to facebook management is to keep the number of apps you use low. Skip over the toys and games (those are definitely fads anyway) and stick with things that actually provide you useful information.
Facebook's app platform actually is pretty interesting (if buggy) but right now it's mostly used for RSS feeds. As the platform and developers grow, I think we'll see a lot more interesting things going on with it.

Posted by: Kelly | Aug 2, 2007 9:09:30 AM

I came in on facebook when it was nice and simple and just limited to ivies and a few liberal arts colleges, when I was a senior in college. I am now 3 years out of college (tho i am in grad school) and use it even more now, and most of my friends who use it are out of school too. I use it to leave quick messages for people, to show them my pics, and to play scrabble! I don't have a flickr acct because flickr limits how many photos you can upload, and facebook doesn't, and almost all my friends are on facebook, which means I don't have to spend energy sending an email out to people to let them know I want them to see their pics. I don't have a blog because I am not interested in broadcasting my thoughts to the world, but only to my friends, so anything I want them to read, I put on facebook. The apps annoy the heck out of me (except for scrabulous and a couple others) b/c they clutter and you need to install them before you can see what other people have, but solve that by not having many.

I'm just saying as a 25 year old, facebook is not going anywhere, it is what I consider my homepage.

Posted by: Tina | Aug 17, 2007 6:35:42 PM

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