4.     Location Services and Monetization of FB

a.     Technical aspects of smartphones with GPS, WiFi, and cellular towers (“How GPS Phones Work”)

                                                    i.     Navigation and tracking

1.     “iPhone GPS aids in capture of car theft suspect,” Columbus Dispatch, 12 May 2011.

2.     Using an iPhone?  See “Tracking File Found in iPhones,” NYT Times, 21 April 2011, p. B1

3.     Want to see what’s logged on your iPhone?  See “iPhone Tracker” (only good up to iOS3.3)

4.     Youtube, “Set Fake Facebook Location check in”

5.     Youtube, “How to: Location Spoofer for Your iPhone and iPod Touch!

6.     Wikipedia’s “Web Bug” aka web beacons, clear pixel tags, etc

                                                  ii.     Military uses of social media (see NPR’s “US ‘Connects the Dots’ to Catch Roadside Bombers”)

b.     “Places” (Share Where You Are) feature of FB

                                                    i.     “Will Facebook be the Mall of the Future?” (2011)

                                                  ii.     “One Log-In Catches on for Many Sites,” New York Times, 1 May 2011

c.      Why does FB want you to use Find Friends feature?

d.     Advertisements

                                                    i.     Based on connections and type of “likes”—unlike, but no don’t like feature

                                                  ii.     Paid adverts on right side of FB

                                                iii.     Pages such as Dark Knight FB Page (with movie rental using FB credits); read about it

e.     Payment services

                                                    i.     Targeted acquisitions in 2011

f.      Corporate social media

                                                    i.     “Like” button usage: 25% of women will click versus only 11% of women who will write review (Teddy Wayne, NYT 16 May 2011)

                                                  ii.     KLM tweets during the ash fallout crisis

                                                iii.     Starbucks’ Formula

1.     705K on Twitter, 5.4M on FB, and 4800 on YouTube

                                                iv.     Foursquare and “Mayor” status based on checking in over past 60 days

1.     Who is the Mayor of the GSE&IS Bldg?

2.     Specials such as a discount or an award

g.     The Future of Facebook

                                                    i.     Current estimated value: at least $50B after Goldman Sachs investment (2011) or more (2012)

1.     845,000,000 users (December 2011)

2.     Value of one FB user=$59.17

 

h.     Questions/Assignments:

                                                    i.     Does checking-in work for you and your friends?

                                                  ii.     Do you like the idea of ads related to check-in at a place using FB?

                                                iii.     What are the privacy concerns, if any?

                                                iv.     Will FB have a similar future as MySpace?

                                                  v.     Why shouldn’t Zuckerberg cash in now?

 

 

Updated:  29 February 2012; created: 11 May 2009.