Facebook Platform matures, time for acquisitions?
Published by Blake Robinson February 4th, 2008 in Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Facebook Applications, Facebook acquisitions, Facebook f8 platform, facebook Business, facebook developer.
A lot has happened since the launch of Facebook Platform last May. The company has seen some controversy, launched some other products (controversially), gotten investments and it continues to grow exponentially — all while Platform matured. Although many developers still haven’t figured out what to do with it, others are making keen uses of Platform that contribute to the bases of their actual businesses.
With this growth, it’s become more and more practical, and profitable, for Web based companies to integrate functional aspects into the framework. There are many reasons for integration, but the only one that really matters is audience.
Developing a Facebook app gives a company instant access to the 7th most trafficked site on the Internet — a number that has many translations. At the outset, Facebook represents a community of roughly 60 million registered users, but it’s the value of each of these users that makes that number so important. It initially being comprised of largely college students, then business professionals and now our parents, all of which are attributable to the existence of an actual person with email, makes Facebook one of the most tangible communities Online. As a comparison, MySpace has about 300 million accounts, but with its registration protocol, each account doesn’t necessarily represent an actual person.
What got me thinking about all of these numbers was a blurb on TechCrunch last night about the breakup of Yahoo. In this hypothetical situation, Yahoo would be chopped up and sold in pieces to various bidders. One of those pieces, the core search and advertising assets, are said to be going to Facebook if this deal plays out (and it’s a big IF, that depends on about a million improbable variables).
Facebook would then be able to implement a fledgling, but established ad network and probable combine it with some future iteration of beacon. As for search, it could do any number of things with that functionality, but none of the things that come to mind sync very well with Facebook’s privacy initiatives.
It’s an iffy acquisition, but one that made me consider possible Facebook acquisitions. I was looking for one. The one that made the absolute most sense, it isn’t Plaxo and it probably isn’t even possible, but it occurred to me: Why doesn’t Facebook buy Blackboard?
It would be the ultimate acquisition for Platform. One that would further solidify Facebook’s domination not only within universities, but, with Blackboard (NSDQ:BBBB) used by more than 2200 schools worldwide, with the universities themselves . Unlike most Platform developments, this would be symbiotic. Facebook would expand its presence, while Blackboard grew deeper roots with an expanded user base. The combination would make it hard for any school to not utilize its services.
I know Blackboard isn’t in trouble and hasn’t made and statements that might suggest it’s for sale, these companies have such similar interests that a rollup would be beautiful. Think about it.
Blake,
Great post. It would be interesting to see something like this happen. It will be more interesting to see if Facebook looks at its applications to see what it can learn about its own enhancements, or if they’ll leave the app developers alone (e.g. iLike) and worry about higher level enhancements/acquisitions like Blackboard.