I am predicting that Facebook will become the epic 21st century failure: the poster child of how NOT to run an internet business, the textbook case that business schools will refer to for the next century or two.
Why is that?
Because Facebook, for all the money they’re making, is almost completely ignoring their customers.
I could understand, to a degree, ignoring the typical user that just uses facebook to keep up with their friends, along with the occasional venting and propagating viral false information. The caveat there is that the content that the typical user produces is what brings people to facebook in the first place.
But to ignore business page users, well it’s just bad practice. When enough things break for enough people, something will become the straw that broke the camel’s back sooner or later. For now they’re banking on the platform being too important for advertising for businesses to walk away. There will come a tipping point where the frustration, waste of time and waste of money becomes more than the value of the advertising.
Add to that the hot water they’re getting into with the federal government for neglecting content and accepting advertising geared towards influencing the election by foreign governments and individuals.
The crash will come swiftly for Facebook. Not real soon, but my guess is sometime in the next 10 years or so.
It will have been fun while it lasted.