I am a bit confused on how they are doing it. As a developer I sign up and put my app on sale. I decide the number of units I want to sell. Buyers buy it through the website. Now how do the buyers get the actual app?
I think that is why they have kept it. It will give them insanely high publicity. Moreover, I think they might be able to keep it too. It's not like Oracle sued Matrix team for having an Oracle. :)
Also, to the people who are saying images are not displayed in most of the email clients, browsers, don't forget smartphones where there is no option of blocking images.
zferral seems to be a good option for affiliates who will continuously market your product. I am looking for a system which can help me release campaigns to my existing users. For example, if they post about my product with my link provided on twitter/facebook or simply email it to their friends and their friends purchase the product, I should be notified so that I can provide the offer to my existing user.
The problem here is that FB makes more money by making user profiles more public. They have shown it already. And, I doubt you will disagree with me on this fact.
Now, you can argue that making private information public to generate revenues is not selling, however, IMO, it is, given the fact that they started out as a completely private social network.
So, are you saying that instant personalization was adding no value to their revenues? Making status updates public was in no-way an answer to twitter and generate a real-time news source? Linking interests to direct pages otherwise blank pages was making them no money? I know you work for FB, and it seems a lot of fb employees are following this thread and trying to generate a positive vibe. I am not against FB, but the way they have done things lately, it is almost impossible for me to believe that they wont do it again. I was one of those people who used to post things without thinking much on fb, and now I have completely stopped. Hopefully, every user will understand and would start treating it as a public forum.
Their intentions are to make butt load of money. The only way they can do it is by selling users data one way or another. One of the main reasons I user facebook is to keep in touch with my friends and know what they are doing without having to do much. Big announcements or happenings are also passed on through facebook, nowadays, which is fine. However, this information is just between friends. Unless, they somehow make most of this information public, I dont see a way for them to make loads of money. They have a funding of $716M and a lot of it at $12B evaluation. What else are they going to do?
I don't understand why people are jumping back in the band-wagon. Facebook has shown its intention, clearly. Reverting back is only a temporary solution.
I think it is going to be an iPod Touch with 3G, a video camera and OS4.0 for ~$300. I haven't heard any rumors of it yet, but I think it can be disruptive.
It is a strange thing to say given that your products are already in the market. You sound very confident in your posts and you sound awfully scared in this comment of yours. Are you particularly scared of HNers?