I enjoy NextDraft, an email newsletter penned by Dave Pell each day. I value point of view and voice in any medium, and Dave’s got it. I think Searchblog readers would appreciate this item, so I’ve reposted it here. Dave, I hope you don’t mind…
The Gift of Data
Facebook knows a lot about you. But there are a couple things that would make its collection of personal data a whole lot more valuable: Your home address and your credit card number. In addition to having a big revenue potential, Facebook’s new birthday gift store could lead to a data treasure trove (and herald a new era when just typing “Happy Birthday” when prompted is no longer enough).
“But there are a couple things that would make its collection of personal data a whole lot more valuable: Your home address and your credit card number.”
My buddy and I were talking about this today at lunch actually. It is totally beyond me why FB hasn’t launched a payments system already. That would literally print money overnight and, though it would take time, the downfall of Paypal would be inevitable. I believe all other revenue streams they are considering are peanuts compared to the payments opportunity.
it’s an area fraught with complications and conflict, I’d guess. I’m no expert here but some of Facebook’s biggest clients are the financial services folks, and they’d really have to get this right to win….my guess is they buy their way in …
They would be their own financial services company if they did this right — and probably make way more money than they are making from their current clients. But I agree, it’s not an easy market to enter.