Did Facebook just miss a huge ($3 Million+) revenue opportunity?

Scott,

As usual, it didn't take long for your perceptiveness to emerge. Yes, Facebook, missed a huge revenue opportunity. Let me expand upon it even further and see if this makes sense.

What if Facebook used their micro-payment platform to charge consumers .99 PER MONTH on autopay? I think people would have had no problem with that. Then we're looking at a $36 million dollar missed opportunity with, IMHO, almost no drop off.

Let's take a look at businesses. As a business would I pay $5 bucks a month for my vanity address which Facebook could verify as authentic? Absolutely. Just how many tens of millions of dollars did Facebook pass up? We'll never know the true number of that opportunity. It passed as of last night.

I've been thinking about revenue models a lot over the past couple of months and looking at the current landscape of companies the biggest barrier they have is the fact that Facebook and a number of other web companies never started with a business model. It makes it that much harder to actually implement a revenue model when you have to back into one.

Finally, when you have to back into one, then the roll out of that model leaves you wide open to lost revenue as you so correctly pointed.

Pete

I think your IMHO is correct, not to mention the annuity on that revenue. That is just with the personal profiles. Fan Pages with 1,000 or less followers were precluded from participating with the Vanity URLs. Imagine if corporations were able to overcome that obstacle with $$$, I think you would have seen corporation ponying up multiples to secure their URLs.

Facebook here is giving people something they expect on any other service - MySpace, Google, LinkedIn, etc. Creating a barrier to entry would have stood in the face of the democratization of social media. That customized names were needed at all was a design flaw. That they made it a PR coup was brilliant. That they left revenue on the table was a smart business decision.

As an aside, it wouldn't have been anywhere near $3 million. I'm sure a large number who did it enjoy the bragging rights and badge of honor, but it's not something they'd pay for.

Thanks Dave, as always your perspective is huge. Do you really think it is just a "badge of honor"? Or an essential element for a some of the marketing campaigns that you and I are both involved in?

For marketers it's becoming more and more essential. But what fraction of the 3 million are involved in marketing? A bigger question for Facebook's model is regarding keeping branded Pages free. As much as I like free stuff for my clients and agency, I'm all for some kind of B2B revenue model. This was just one area, and one of many, where I think they were especially smart, turning a usability bug into a successful stunt.