This is the kind of business people dream and fantasize about it. Facebook was launched in February 2004. In November 2007, reported that Microsoft bought a 1.6% share of the company for 240 million U.S. dollars. You can do the sums to check how the market seems to think that Facebook is worth now, in less than four years.
So, you think you might want to do something similar. There is even software available, called Ning, that can get you started. You will not need to hire programmers galaxies to set it up, which would mean that you should not go cap in hand to find some venture capital. But if you want your developers and the whole story that goes with it, about 50 million U.S. dollars will do nicely.
Of course, now there are hundreds of competitors out there. But this is not the problem. With crowds of people on the internet and the numbers growing, there will be some interest groups out there in cyberspace that could be served by placing an online community. Do you remember that smart thinking Chris Anderson on the Long Tail theory.
to think quickly, and here's one for you, feel free to use. social network site that caters for people who love dressing up as pirates and pirate speak the language. This group would like to live a pirate life for more than just one day of the year, the international Talk Like a Pirate Day 19th September You are sure to think about myself a lot.
impatiently Until now, you will be tapping your fingers on the table. Where is this free advice? So here it is, and you can thank me later, after you've made your Mega Millions. After your social network site is up and has several thousand members, is open to outside developers.
Is this, I can hear the chorus. This hardly sounds like a magic formula. But it is. Business giants of this century, present and future will be those that open their operations to outside participants. It really makes sense, and in any case, why do it all alone, when there are so many willing participants out there?
for some light entertainment heart, watch the video on YouTube, where you'll find Steve Ballmer that precise point. He's just been a bit overdone! Ballmer is the CEO of Microsoft and his little dance and scream routine is all about celebrating developers.
external developers in that context, the individuals or companies that are developing products to start with, or enhance, those of primary products. Developers do it for yourself at risk, by investing its resources in projects that they hope will be popular with the same clients, as an example, Microsoft products are used.
Facebook has done just that by starting API this year. It's definitely me sit up and think that social networking can be around much longer than I originally thought. The purpose of social networking has escaped me. After all, I am a member of the start of the year so far, all accumulated from 17 friends, of which only a true friend! Top of difficult customer.
API in techie terms, the acronym stands for application programming interface, the interface is the source code. For us amateurs it means to give a parameter to allow other developers to write small applications that can run on the mother ship, so to speak. As an example, the programmer has written a software application that allows Facebook users to play scrabble with other Facebook members. This program caps on Facebook software.
This creates a kind of participation, in the case of Facebook, more buzz, more fun things to do, more interactivity with their friends, in other words, a whole new fun time to be had. And all without the high costs of development for Facebook, which is more than the price they had to spend to develop their own bits and pieces.
Microsoft, for example, does the same in providing APIs for developers to write their own software to run on MS Windows. This means that companies such as Adobe Flash to develop software to run on Vista. And it does not cost anything Microsoft. At the same time it adds tremendous value to the operating system.
this is sounds so logical, one would think. However, have a look at some of the industry and instances where it does not happen. mobile industry in particular has been locked to outsiders. This meant that the development of technology and phone services offered to users is crawled along very slowly.
With a large number of users worldwide, the mobile phone market is certainly big enough to make it worthwhile to develop a large number of additional items. But what is available? Nice little bag, fancy headphones? Even Apple, who knows the value of external developers, has buttons down the iPhone.
music, film and broadcast industry is similar to the isolation of someone who is encroaching on their terrain. Jealously protect their industries and intellectual property. In this way, it will certainly contribute to their death. Protecting what you have rather than encouraging people to develop for it, and thus finding new ways to do the job, will be a business killer in this society where the digital revolution has allowed sharing of anything.
See the excellent TED talk Larry Lessig, Stanford professor and foremost authority on copyright issues. While the entertainment industry is trying to rein like Napster and YouTube, they do not miss the ship? Instead of seeing what the digital age can do to enhance their business they are trying to raise the barrier.
So, if you're considering setting up a social networking site, or in fact with respect to any business venture, to keep it open to everyone. Of course, some people will try to take you on a ride. However, the benefit of having a lot of brains and energy involved in your venture will far outweigh any small bits of theft committed by trolls out there.
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