So, is Facebook a media firm or a technology company? In case you don’t know, the conversation was spurred by Mark Zuckerberg’s comments at the iMeme event (held in SF during late June), which I attended. Mark takes the perspective that the company is in the technology business. This existential-like question is difficult to wrestle down, not only for Facebook but for the industry more broadly.

Facebook’s position on the matter is very timely, and somewhat predictable, since platform is the strategic mantra of the company now. In case you’ve been living on Mars for a while, Facebook is an engine gaining steam despite its existing scale by opening-up. It’s demonstrated the horsepower to haul the core social networking market but is gaining the strength to pull along all kinds of adjacent services. Under the hood, it’s a jumbo-jet. But the plane has many, many empty seats where applications can sit. These applications are, of course, best sourced from the market and third-parties. Facebook’s core has therefore become open to others to wrap around the social networking phenomenon. Powerful stuff. Keep in mind, not all platforms are alike….plenty of companies have developer programs but they’re offering more of a bus-ride, rickshaw experience or mini-jet seat, compared to Facebook’s Dreamliner. Playing enabler, the company has deduced, supports the notion that it fits “lower in the technology stack” than where media businesses reside. Read more »

• Facebook's Plan to Hook up the World
• Repeat After Mark: Facebook is Not a Media Company
• Facebook: “Not Media Business”
• The Best Facebook Apps
• The Race to Buy Facebook Apps
• Should Yahoo Try Again for Facebook

Filed under: User Experiences, Web Apps, Web 2.0, Innovation, Traditional Media | 2 Comments »

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Much of the dialogue about web content over the last few years has focused on the long-tail. That’s been for good reason – the idea was one of those mega-trends with rippling consequences. It came onto the scene in a big way because it nicely encapsulated many diverse developments in the media world. But along the way, we may have lost sight of it’s equally important cousin – mainstream content.

It’s true that mainstream is not what it used to be. But it’s still around – alive and kicking. In fact, you could say mainstream is bigger than ever. If you don’t think so, just consider the popularity of the Super Bowl, which has always been ubber but continues to grow in reach and cultural significance. Last season (2007), it was watched by over 141mm viewers versus 91mm in 1993. The 10 most-watched programs in TV history are all Super Bowls, according to the NFL. This in no way diminishes the advent of the long-tail, though it raises important questions about how these two cousins will get along and work with each other. Things may be in flux, but there’s no doubt they’re two pieces of the same puzzle.

Mainstream is anything that has universal appeal to consumers despite their differences. Differences in taste, preferences and affiliations. In a globalized world, mainstream content will grow not shrink in terms of audience. There will always be a common denominator that links people. In a frictionless medium like the web, where instantaneous diffusion is built into the system, anything that can capture global consciousness will have a field day.

It would be interesting to know how many things in the public consciousness have wide recall factor and whether this figure is growing. In other words, the number of items that enter into pop culture and how quickly. Safe to say that more things go mainstream and they get there faster? Of course, there’s no precise bar for mainstream. Something doesn’t have to be mainstream at the international level to qualify.

If mainstream is still big, then what’s changing about it? Read more »

• Wikipedia Page on Long Tail
• From Niches to Riches
• The Rise and Fall of the Hit

Filed under: Web Apps, Innovation, Traditional Media | 3 Comments »

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