It was a strange conversation at a panel today at Graphing social. At a panel that featured folks from Bebo, Friendster, Meebo and Netvibes, at one point the panelists were talking about the impact third party applications have on the user base and the platforms.
I was very surprised to hear Jessica Alter from Bebo bring up “regulating” third party apps and developers so they behave well on all platforms. It seemed to get quick yays from Friendster and Netvibes, to the extent they were all ready to create a working group right then to regulate these apps.
It seemed to me a case of the platforms suddenly turning prude, especially one like Bebo. I think even Facebook’s recent strategy to turn down the ability of apps to tap into the social graph falls into the same category. Social networks — Myspace, Facebook, Bebo — are all largely built around very inane set interactions. None of these networks have any really deep collaborative components, or even anything that is significantly useful. So they turn to third party apps to build it on their platform.
What they don’t realize (or they realize but refuse to admit) is that users on their platforms aren’t really in the mood for deeper apps. Deep, rich apps don’t do well on Facebook. It is a reality. Spammy, inane apps do quite well — and that is a reality as well.
So they try to force it upon external developers. Turn off virality. “Regulate” them. If the trend continues, like it seems to be, the story of open social platforms will be a short one. Myspace, Bebo, Hi5 even mentioned that they would prefer to open the gates to virality slowly. Maybe they are justified in worrying about the impact to their user base, but they should probably set their expectations right as well.
On the panel, thankfully, Seth Sternberg from Meebo voiced an opinion against the cry for regulating apps.
In fact, even otherwise, Seth Sternberg impressed me on that panel more than anyone else. I’ve not interacted with him before, or heard him before. I hope to, though, in the future.
Tags: bebo, gsp, gspwest, gspwest08, gspwest2008, platforms, Social