Facebook fbFund launches YC-style incubator | Hacker News Reader

Facebook fbFund launches YC-style incubator

developers.facebook.com

18 pointsALee20 comments

"Every month more than 70% of those folks use Facebook apps."

Do not be fooled by this impressive statistic. They are actually counting their "native" apps like Photos as Facebook apps. That means that if you upload a photo you are included in that 70 percent. That is like saying that anyone who used Safari on their iPhone used an iPhone app. By their definition it may be accurate but it leads you to believe that FB apps are more successful than they actually are. They are not dead but I would not say they are thriving either, at least not the vast majority of third party apps. There is a lot of junk in the app directory because the barrier to entry is so low.

I find it hard to believe that 30% of their user base never uses any of their own apps: Photos, Notes, Posts, Groups, Events.

You haven't spent much time watching a cross-section of society use computers have you? :)

I remember the first time I had to tell someone about how to use a scrollbar. A tab is almost nuclear physics from there.

The way Facebook counts users, you access an application and that counts as a "usage."

30% of Facebook's active user base, in other words, have never clicked on a photo? It doesn't make sense.

Well I am not a Facebook employee but whenever the company compiles statistics for applications they include the native ones and make it apparent. They may be calculating the number differently this time. I assume that they still count native apps though.

" whenever the company compiles statistics for applications they include the native ones and make it apparent. "

Do you have any references for this? I follow Facebook pretty closely and this seems unusual.

Really? I use most of those, but none of them very often. The heart of the Facebook experience--especially in the newest iteration--is the status news feed, with the profile Wall probably in 2nd place. And it feels like some of their apps, like Groups and Notes, are intentionally being pushed into the background. I have no trouble at all believing that newer users are staying exclusively inside the news feed, and maybe leaving messages on the wall or sending private messages.

I think a lot of people just use status updates and walls. I know that's how my mom uses Facebook. I don't think the status is an app; not sure about the wall.

Also, maybe they're including inactive (or nearly inactive) accounts when they say "users".

I agree. I was not into Facebook a few months (maybe a year) ago... Expecting to see some good apps, I was actually very surprised to find out that almost all of them are junk... Seriously, I just ignore all app requests now.

I had that same impulse when I first heard the stat. Do you have a cite on that definition, though?

I can't provide a reference that says that the 70 percent figure include native apps, however, historically they have made no distinction between native apps and developer apps when they count usage stats.

The main challenge in building facebook apps is figuring out how to monetize a user base that doesn't pay or click ads. It works for facebook itself because they have an unholy amount of traffic. But your app won't.

It works for Facebook itself? That's news to me.

There are outliers, Zynga for instance has people paying for fake poker chips.

Zynga isn't an outlier. Virtual Goods certainly isn't a new business model, and they're definitely not the only ones doing it on Facebook.

Besides, from all the anecdotal data I have, successful apps using virtual goods typically get 1/3 revenue from direct sales, 1/3 from CPA offers, and 1/3 from ad clicks.

what I'd like to know is whether or not they are looking for "viable" businesses(those that'll be able to generate revenue) or "cool" businesses(those that won't make money, but will have something that'll drive more traffic to facebook)

Your question makes me wonder: does facebook want more traffic? Lack of traffic isn't the reason they're having trouble. The reason they're having trouble is product/user mismatch. A really good idea will make them lots of money with their current amount of traffic. Actually more traffic just means more infrastructure costs (and probably more of the type of user that doesn't generate any revenue with fb's current products).

I suspect what they're looking for are "useful" apps that drive up the perceived value of their platform, regardless of revenue or traffic. Things like business or general utility, but not games (which by far do the best both revenue and traffic wise on the platform).

Be a remora on a starving shark.

Build and submit whatever you want other than an app that uses the Twitter API.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com