Slide was not too happy when Facebook temporarily pulled one of its most popular applications, Top Friends, from the social networking site for exposing too much profile information to people who were not friends.
Ahead of today’s F8 developer conference, I asked Slide CEO Max Levchin what Facebook could do to make developers’ lives easier. Not surprisingly, he’d like to see clearer rules about what is and is not allowed, as well as more formal, contractual partnerships between Facebook and app developers. (Facebook is expected to announce a tiered partner system today, and Slide may not qualify as one of the “preferred” partners because of the issues that led to Facebook’s police action).
Slide’s VP of Strategy, Keith Rabois, goes even further. He warns that if Facebook keeps shifting the foundation on top of which app companies are built it will threaten their viability. This might all sound like sour grapes, but coming from the biggest provider of apps on Facebook it does carry some weight.
Levchin, who was one the co-foudners of PayPal, also thinks that Facebook needs a universal payment system so that developers can start charging for apps like they can on the iPhone. The question is whether anyone would ever want to pay for a Facebook app.
slide must already be working on their next app – for a small monthly fee, you can see anyone’s profile page!
FB’s first implementation of third party apps was clearly half cooked and they are learning as they go. The question is if someone could have figured out all the implications beforehand to avoid a lot of the problems – very difficult. Over all I’d say that FB damaged it’s platform more than it gained with rushing into the developer apps scenario – a lot of people where turned off by the chaos. Let’s hope for them that they get it right this time.
Wow, paying for apps on Facebook?
I have yet to find an app that I actually interact with regularly, much less something that provides enough value that I’d be willing to pay for it.
There’s just so much junk on there. And this is coming from someone who works full-time in social-media for a major media company.
I agree, I have yet to actually find a single app that is useful for me on FB, or which I even look at on a regular basis. Hence, paying for an app is not even going to happen.
I’ve stopped looking. If people had to pay for the apps 98% of them would go away.
What developers need is more restriction. It is way too easy to violate people’s privacy via facebook apps these days. It’s the achilles heel of facebook.
Users paying for apps on the iPhone are paying for convenience and portability.
If the apps on facebook were usable on mobile devices it would be a different story.
In addition, I forgot to mention that I too have not found an app that has made my life any easier. I think I’m speaking for many when I say that when facebook opened their platform, I started spending less time on the site.
pay for a facebook app, wtf?
Great comment Peter, I also find it interesting that Max wants more formal contractual agreements between Facebook and app developers. Of course he supports this now but before Slide was so large he never would have promoted this idea! I don’t like this because it takes away the opportunities for the “small time” developer to contribute. If it moves that way it will be Slide and RockYou only.
Almost true, unless they create a boiler plate agreement that any LLC can sign. Of course the larger players, slide and rockyou being two (Zynga just raised $29M, for example) will negotiate better terms.
This is why you don’t build a business model on top of another business. You are totally at the mercy of Facebook, and always will be.
True. Many a company crashed and burned trying to do that on top of eBay. And that’s a platform where the sellers actually would pay. Sometimes. Once a in while, oh hell, almost never because eBay has already nickeled and dimed them to death.
eBay should be a prime example of a platform that could be built on top of and monetized but can anyone name a company that has successfully done that? And if so how much are they making, probably not much.
And even if you do become successful, the rules can be changed. You may as well build your house on a raft floating down a river.
umm.. Max Levchin himself did this with Paypal. Ebay tried for years to stop paypal, even launching their own direct competitor, but Paypal still won. eventually, ebay capitulated and bought them
Building a business where there is already traffic makes sense to me. If you were going to build a Walmart, would you put it on a dirt road or near a major thruway? The answer seems obvious. Further, in a way, everyone builds on top of someone else’s business model. This is even more true online. Many online businesses intend to promote themselves via. SEO on Google search. That’s building your ad strat. on top of their platform. And, many burn cash or get their organic positions shifted everytime they change their PR strat. That said, FB needs to stabilize their reqs. so apps can build stronger biz models. BTW, Johng is dead-on with his assessment. A great exit strat. for popular FB apps is selling out to them. Check adonomics.com to see the value of specific Facebook apps. Some are worth a pretty penny.
I’m surprised more developers haven’t put more pressure on facebook to monetize the widgets or create some sort of payback system, that puts some dough in the hands of the people doing the hard work to make these applications! Traffic is not payment enough.
Jeff
http://www.read...ex.php?RTA=web2
I disagree with Max. Implicit contracts would make people feel excluded in the long run. Not just for facebook but for any service.
For example, I was going to use the new Yahoo! Buzz Up service on TL, but found out that publishers need an exclusive contract with Yahoo. Though I know somebody at Yahoo, Peter Ford, through my interview there, I do not feel good about calling Yahoo up and negotiating that explicitly.
I think a lot of people are the same. I can see where Max is coming from wanting a special relationship with Facebook if he is basing his business on that, but you have to be at least a little crazy to base your business on something you don’t have a real relationship with in the first place, so I don’t think he can complain at this stage in his game.
TL – http://offur.co...rThanTechCrunch
So Max Levchin is responsible for both slide (top super spam wall) and paypal?
Two of the most hated internet products ever?
Sorry no sympathy for his whining here.
if you are not happy, don’t use it. don’t whine. you are living under people’s roof.
People on facebook won’t pay to use 99% of the apps that is on there. Also, don’t forget the cause of this uncertainty is because of fb platform abusers, cough cough.
One reason you haven’t seen any app worth buying on FB is precisely the lack of a payment system for them. I for one have been waiting on the sidelines until this happens. Once developers can charge for their apps, Facebook can become an AWS-like platform for delivering any app, and all of FB’s social features become nice add-ons to the app you bought. In other words, it turns the whole paradigm on its head…brilliant!
Most people pay for iphone app because they are native, meaning:
-take advantage of phone HW features
-better performance
-capable offline
FB apps don’t have these advantages and there iis probably a site that will perform the function for free or much better on its own.
Max probably did not explicitly mean “people will pay for apps”, but many apps already monetize through paypal. Paypal requires separate signup (and dealing with their hideous service). With an FB payment system it will be easier to get people to actually pay for:
virtual goods
premium features
some crap i can’t think of
If people won’t pay to use FB they won’t pay to use FB apps either, payment system or no.
iPhone users pay for apps because they pay at least $199 to buy it and $69.99 per month to use it so in that context a few extra dollars for an app isn’t much.
Slide needs Facebook more than Facebook needs Slide.
so
Is it just me or would the vast majority of facebooks actual users be just as happy without 99% of the applications out there?
I’d be willing to bet that most of the people adding a lions share of the apps don’t even really like them.
The level of utility coming out of these apps is pathetic.
At Leapways, our motto is: “A Hiring Manager’s primary job is not HIRING”. Leapways Team is helping the hiring managers in many ways so that they can focus on their primary job. Our job board site leapways.com is primarily aiming on Technology start-ups. We have a free service for both job seekers and employers. Apart from simple job posting, we have end-to-end hiring solution starting from job ad to technical interviews and help on H1 processing.
There will be no payment system announced today.
Great Post! I also have a short post on my blog that examines:
“Will Facebook treat its developers like eBay has treated its sellers?”
There are many similarities between the two companies and history often repeats itself. I would love it if people came to check out the post and added their thoughts to the discussion.
http://ebayobse...r.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
I don’t think anyone would want to pay for a Facebook app, simply because Facebook is a free social utility, the iPhone people pay for to get so you really cannot compare..
http://blabtech.blogspot.com
waaaaaaaaaaaaaah, facebook is making it harder for me to make money on their website. now i’ll have to find some other website to make money off of instead of starting my own or getting a job, waaaaaaaaaaaah
If facebook really knew and understood how to play the (royal) game, it would assist developers in making their apps work via the FB iApp. I’d much rather be able to use many of the apps that make FB worth participating in to begin with…especially via my iTouch. Why shouldnt scrabulous, where in the world, etc be accessible in an iFormat?
Oh, and if FB starts charging for apps…its game over.
a lot of people where turned off by the chaos. Let’s hope for them that they get it right this time.
i would actually pay facebook $20/ year to BAN slide and rockyou.. ironic isn’t it..
“he’d like to see clearer rules about what is and is not allowed”
The TOS are quite clear, and he has blatantly been on the other side of them for a long time, with immunity that no other developer has enjoyed.
I’d pay for an app to never see a facebook application request ever again.
I am going to build an app that helps you to filter out slide and rockyou. 5$ lifetime usage. anyone?
Slide is a joke and Max is one of a seemingly *giant* list of people that claim to be the founder of Paypal. My guess is that Slide slides into failure at some point in the future!