Just Another 24 Hours » data

Is Facebook flat lining in Australia or even worse losing users

Daniel Young — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 05:21:16 +0000

In this post on November 11, I ran a few advertising queries on Facebook to see if the social network continues to grow. The weird thing is that four out of the six segments I tested are exactly the same.

The notable thing is that the sixth segment (the youngest group that I looked at) has declined significantly.

Nov 11: Australia – age 18 to 64 male and female = 9,290,380
Dec 11: 9,290,380 Flat

Nov 11: Australia – age 18-24 male = 2,048,140
Dec 11: 2,048,140 Flat

Nov 11: Australia – age 18-24 female = 2,096,240
Dec 11: 2,096,240 Flat

Nov 11: Australia – age 25-45 male = 3,091,620
Dec 11: 3,091,620 Flat

Nov 11: Australia – age 24-45 female = 3,560,300
Dec 11: 3,563,300 Up by 3,000

Nov 11: Sydney – age 18-24 = 1,979,840
Dec 11: 1,149,060 Down by circa 800k

Either I mucked up my search the first time around or something weird is happening. Facebook couldn’t lose 800,000 Sydney users in one month could it?

Facebook does include the caveat that numbers are estimations only but still it seems strange that four out of six numbers are exactly the same. Obviously the social network can’t grow exponentially for ever. How would Facebook handle the PR around a user exodus do you think… that would be an interesting comms challenge?

Back in one month.

The Facebook Irony: Recent Facebook outrage and privacy debate doesn’t ring true

Daniel Young — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 05:37:09 +0000

On the topic of recent Facebook ‘outrage’ around privacy issues.

A significant section of the media/Web commentariat has expressed its dis-satisfiaction with Facebook’s policies and management. I can’t help noticing the irony here.

Individuals who have built businesses and reputations on the basis of the models that underpin social media and digital advertising are now outraged at the fact that Facebook wants to make money from user data.

Really?

These people have the right to express a view, and Facebook has not managed its stakeholders well.

But…

The issue here is that Facebook wants to access, use and profit from information about its members. Shock! Horror!

The opportunity to do both of these things is why Facebook and other services like it exist in the first place!

Many seem to think that Mark Zuckerberg provides Facebook as a service out of the goodness of his heart. This sense of entitlement makes us the ‘dumb f*cks’.

Others seem to think that they can re-define the terms of their usage after they agreed to an End User License Agreement, which handed control of their content and data to Facebook.

User data underpins the business model. What was once considered private information will become more public.

You have a choice.

Great Tool: Forester Technographics Profiling

Daniel Young — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:16 +0000

Revenue streams for Twitter – Will Google and Microsoft provide an answer

Daniel Young — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:05:11 +0000

Twitter is in advanced talks with Google and Microsoft to provide them with access to its data, according to a report in All Things Digital. If successful, this would provide Twitter with a sizeable revenue stream, which would prevent it having to clutter the interface or alienate users by introducing advertising.

On the other hand, Twitter needs to be sensitive to perceptions around privacy of information. Twitter uses may not be entirely comfortable with Twitter selling information about their preferences, interests, habits etc. to third parties – particularly to Microsoft and/or Google.

Twitter would gain added legitimacy if it were added as a Vertical Search option in Google alongisde Images, News, Blogs, Maps etc. Ultimately, Google and Microsoft are attempting to improve their access to the worldwide Web and extend the usefulness and reach of their search engines. For more on the Real-Time Web check this post by ReadWriteWeb.

Books as back-up?

Daniel Young — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:36:10 +0000

Interesting article from the NYT on data degradation. I hadn’t heard of this issue before and part of me suspects that it may just be a money spinner for the technology industry. My guess would be that data degrades very slowly but platform and hardware obsolesence is obviously a real issue.

It gives rise to a question that I have pondered for some time: How much does data weigh?