Could Facebook Become The Next Microsoft?
Amongst all the noise today over Facebook's acquisition of Parakey, little has been said on what the acquisition means for Facebook in the broader sense. Robert Scoble says that Facebook is the new data black hole, noting that many of his favorite apps are now appearing on Facebook.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook had already built a meaningful third-party application presence, including more than 60 travel-category listings, while News Feed was being positioned as a marketing channel. An earlier examination of why Facebook mattered in 2007 captured the company’s accelerating strategic importance.
The Parakey acquisition adds a corporate move to that platform momentum: Facebook is not only hosting applications but bringing another startup inside its organization as users’ applications and activity concentrate around the service.
First-order effects
- Facebook absorbs Parakey, ending Parakey’s standalone position and adding its team and assets to a social-network operator already expanding its application ecosystem.
Second-order effects
- Developers and marketers building around Facebook gain another reason to treat the network as a central distribution and attention channel, rather than merely one destination among many.
Third-order effects
- If acquisitions and application growth reinforce one another, social networks can become platform gatekeepers: controlling the audience, the discovery surface, and an increasing share of the services built around them.
The trend: Facebook is becoming a platform business in which user attention, third-party applications, and strategic acquisitions compound each other’s value.