At some level, do you not make an assessment of value and the expenditure of resources? In some cases the return may not be direct revenue, but in good will, economic stimuli or just because it is the right thing to do, but there is usually some measure for the effort and expense.
But in the case of a 'for profit' company, fiscal responsibility and the care taking of shareholder investment would seem to drive some notion of a plan. To that end, a site might be deemed successful at somethings it does, but certainly not at 'being a business' until it is profitable. Lot's of folks invested in Facebook. Facebook took their money with a promise of return. To Jared's point... that return does not appear likely or even a remote possibility. Facebook might have been successful at many things, but it is not a successful business. Unless, of course, you consider obtaining financing an end game (and some, no doubt, do). Mark On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 12:44 PM, Christine Boese <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What if the whole idea of a "revenue model" is the wrong question? Coming in > from left field here, but does anyone ask, "What is the revenue model of the > Boston Commons? The town square?" > > The implication is that if something does not have a revenue model, it > cannot exist and does not deserve to exist. By this argument, poetry does > not exist. Commons do not exist. > > The odd question here is not WHY users dislike ads, with the presumption > that they HAVE to be enculturated to somehow "like" ads. I dislike cold > showers, and all the persuasion in the world will not make me like cold > showers. Has anyone stopped to think that perhaps what we are witnessing is > something like truth breaking through the dominant (and perhaps oppressive) > media programming of an audience, to stand up and say, "No, no matter how > much melamine you put in my processed box dinner, I do not like it Sam I > am!" > > For some reason, I don't feel the need to ask the question of why users > dislike ads, any more than I need to ask why I dislike cold showers or > processed box dinners. What I have to ask is why people seem to presume that > with enough applied persuasion, I can be made to LIKE those things, and that > I ought to be made to do so, as some kind of a moral imperative, to be able > to sustain somebody else's idea of a business model, when, last time I > checked, Town Commons, electronic commons, have sustained themselves just > fine any time people feel the need to get together, and share ideas, and > talk. > > The odd thing to me here is that the presumption, the baseline, appears to > be "How dare they feel the need to get together and share ideas and talk > without listening to us tell them to buy things. The nerve of some people!" > > Any other view of what people do when they gather together is framed as > beyond the pale, outside societal norms. To that I say, "Says who?" No > business model? What will those people DO when they come together? Just sit > around and be wankers and not buy anything?! > > I just can't imagine what they might do, especially since it might come out > of their own heads, instead of being predefined by US. > > Hmph. > > Chris > > On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Steve Baty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> I was quite happily ignoring this thread until I hit this: >> >> "> I do think that Facebook has yet to produce a meaningful business model. >> > And this is a huge problem. >> >> >> Wasn't for YouTube. Or Skype. Or MySpace. Etc. >> Looking for multimillion-dollar pay-off problems?" >> >> I can't but think that being bought out by someone else is not a business >> model. Not having a revenue model for your business *is* a problem because >> it indicates a lack of thinking about the future relevance of your >> business, >> and it's a failure to secure the future of that business. Sooner or later >> that's going to bite you in the ass. >> >> Regards >> Steve >> >> >> >> 2008/9/22 Kontra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> >> > > I do think that Facebook has yet to produce a meaningful business >> model. >> > > And this is a huge problem. >> > >> > >> > Wasn't for YouTube. Or Skype. Or MySpace. Etc. >> > Looking for multimillion-dollar pay-off problems? >> > >> > -- >> > Kontra >> > http://counternotions.com >> > ________________________________________________________________ >> > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >> > To post to this list ....... 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