facebook estimates they have 83 million fake accounts and some are avatars like i was, some are pets (clever pets!), and some are for spamming and to sell illegal “likes”
i liked having a facebook account for Ener Hax – it provided another channel for discussing blog posts but it was against the fb TOS
there are many active avatar accounts and it would be nice if they were allowed as personal profile pages (just add a pseudonym flag). the only way Ener Hax can have a facebook presence is as a Facebook Page which is what companies use but they don’t have that same personal feel as real accounts. i understand why that is not in the best interest of facebook – that interest being the ability to sell your data and command top dollar for it
lol, not actual size!
now that facebook is publicly traded they are stepping up their efforts to remove fake accounts because they have to estimate their legitimate accounts to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. the number of “good” accounts is what gives facebook its high value but that value has been beat up lately with shares falling more than 50%. their opening cost was $38 a share and yesterday they were down to $18.06 per share!
that’s a big drop and there isn’t even a competitor out there! it’s not like MySpace’s decline which was in part due to facebook as a richer competitive service
so why is facebook seemingly tanking?
there are lots of reasons from “lock-up expiration” to perhaps overly estimated initial worth. there is also the tremendous media hype that occurred when they first announced they were going public which put them under the microscope and set high expectations (sound familiar?)
apart from the financial market factors, i think we see something familiar here much like what happened with Second Life – tons of media hype with the thought that this was the next best thing ever and also the Gartner Hype Cycle. facebook is over eight years old and people have been there and done that. it’s natural for the shine to wear off and for people to move on
facebook isn’t dead (S3.7 billion in revenue last year) but it’s not the next best thing either – still, i wouldn’t mind having Zuckerberg’s bank account . . .
83 Million Fake accounts.
They are close to a billion “users”. I would bet that nearly half of those are fake and half of the remaining are more or less inactive.
My main problem with Facebook’s user count is that it counts things like when a person Likes a page, even if they don’t go to Facebook. Hell, for all we know they count how many times a FB user “touches” a Like button on a website, whether the page is actually liked or not.
I also see some of the recent changes made by Facebook as being part of the reason for it’s decline. I hated the new filtered view timeline deal when it came over, but I’m a persnickety tech cynic. When I am at my Inlaws, a group of people whom are considerably less technical, and the conversation ends up on how much they hate the new Facebook, that’s a problem.
Josh Miller
2 Sep 12 at 9:22 am
My problem with facebook (note the small letters) is that i was a brta tester of it!
So as soonas it ended i ended and will not use it al all!
ZZ Bottom
3 Sep 12 at 8:59 am
i don’t like their new layout either Josh and i bet your estimate is much closer too!
dang ZZ! you get around and are well connected – i never met an fb beta tester! =)
Ener Hax
4 Sep 12 at 7:38 am
No competitor? Really? Tell Google+ that. I switched to G+ months ago and haven’t even logged into my Facebook account since except to turn off email notifications. Facebook is falling on their face with Mobile, both in their app and their advertising revenues. G+ has the best mobile app ever in a social app.
CyberMage
4 Sep 12 at 8:41 am
G+ doesn’t like pseudonyms either but i do like its more utilitarian feel – the info is quick to find on other peeps profiles
Google knows a thing or two about the web – i reckon they are pretty clever in their road map for G+ =)
and if the mobile app is as good as you say CyberMage, then that is a huge plus for them (no pun intended!) =)
Ener Hax
4 Sep 12 at 1:39 pm