It's huge, but not $16b (lol at previous FB evaluation?) huge.
The thing is that maybe, it isn't huge enough precisely because current tools aren't that good. Setting up a focus group is a PITA.
Letting any business make questions to a big audience is awesome. If FB restricts this kind of polling only to big companies, it will fail (for varying degrees of fail, specially expectations on FB making lots of cash). Because it's the big companies that have the money to gather this kind of data currently.
Now, if any business could tap into the Facebook audience, that would be cool. Google has proved that < $1 dollars transactions, in internet scale, can make billions. Now if the mom and pop pizzeria on the corner of a NY street could do their market research on FB... or if anyone looking to expand their business can reasearch what's the average income on neighboor town, what kind of sauce they prefer, what they drink...
Also, there's a huge PR opportunity there. This data could be free to the government (and ngos). A few press releases here and there saying how you helped to determine what citizens want would generate good karma for FB.
Do you remember when everyone was afraid of MS? If this FB stuff gets any kind of traction, Google will release its own thing. You can't be better than Google at data mining. Granted, there's not much personal data with Google than FB has. But why do you think FB doesn't like the idea of cooperating with Google on OpenSocial?
The thing is that maybe, it isn't huge enough precisely because current tools aren't that good. Setting up a focus group is a PITA.
Letting any business make questions to a big audience is awesome. If FB restricts this kind of polling only to big companies, it will fail (for varying degrees of fail, specially expectations on FB making lots of cash). Because it's the big companies that have the money to gather this kind of data currently.
Now, if any business could tap into the Facebook audience, that would be cool. Google has proved that < $1 dollars transactions, in internet scale, can make billions. Now if the mom and pop pizzeria on the corner of a NY street could do their market research on FB... or if anyone looking to expand their business can reasearch what's the average income on neighboor town, what kind of sauce they prefer, what they drink...
Also, there's a huge PR opportunity there. This data could be free to the government (and ngos). A few press releases here and there saying how you helped to determine what citizens want would generate good karma for FB.
Do you remember when everyone was afraid of MS? If this FB stuff gets any kind of traction, Google will release its own thing. You can't be better than Google at data mining. Granted, there's not much personal data with Google than FB has. But why do you think FB doesn't like the idea of cooperating with Google on OpenSocial?