One of the oldest tricks in the book right? The used car salesman who raves about the quality and durability of their cars but when you bring the “pre-owned” vehicle home it turns into a lemon. The credit card company that offers a 0% APR on balance transfers only to tack on transfer fees that accrue interest at 24.99% and only get paid off after the transferred balance amount is paid. Or the cell phone companies that hook you with a great product and good coverage but lock you into a 2 year contract and then modify the fees associated with your plan. These are all shady and deceptive tactics used by major corporations to squeeze every last penny out of the consumer’s pocket. Is Facebook any different?

Facebook started as a small exclusive network for college students which became wildly successful. You couldn’t join unless you had a .edu email address. However, the capacity was finite and demographics narrow so Zuckerberg opens the gates to everyone. Users love the functionality and navigational ease of the site. You can share photos, poke friends, set your privacy settings, and more. There are some ads but they’re minimal and this network really seems to cater to the needs and interests of the users. However, Zuckerberg has a problem, and he’s wondering how to REALLY make some money with Facebook. The widgets thing is cool but not making much money. It does increase the site’s functionality a billion times over and Zuckerberg doesn’t have to do any development work, just approve or disapprove the widgets as they line up in the queue. He could sell the site but there’s much more potential than can currently be seen and he doesn’t want to risk losing control. Zuckerberg has larger plans. The personal data that all these happy Facebook users are voluntarily supplying has the ability to turn lead into gold but only if you have LARGE quantities of personal data. So the game plan is obvious, keep the ads to a minimum while continuing to promote and support the user’s privacy until the audience numbers significantly increase. Once the network is significant enough, sell the user data by signing up advertisers to piggyback ads into user content. As Zuckerberg states “They’re going to feel like content to a lot of people”. In other words, I’m going to take away your privacy and disguise ads as genuine content from your friends.

Is this just not another bait and switch tactic? Will Facebook users continue to supply personal data even though their messages and status updates will be commandeered by major corporate advertisements? Is Facebook’s greed going to turn turn-off its audience? I do believe that there will be quite a backlash but if there’s serious money to be made in the meantime, might as well screw your users and get it while it’s hot right Mark?

Related Articles:
Mashable: Next Stop For Facebook: World Domination
TechCrunch: The Facebook Ad Backlash Begins
GigaOm: Is Facebook Beacon a Privacy Nightmare?

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