Even though yesterday was the big iPhone 5 announcement, it was a tweet about Facebook that got me thinking (full disclosure – I own FB stock). This was the tweet from Brandon Winnie:
My first reaction was two-fold:
- That’s expected – Older people compose a larger part of the population and fall later in the adoption cycle.
- It doesn’t matter anyway – Something doesn’t have to be “cool” to make a lot of money or get used a lot.
The first point is pretty self-explanatory. As Facebook becomes more and more ubiquitous it naturally starts skewing toward higher age groups. Since these people are the parents and grandparents to the early adopters, it becomes inherently “uncool”.
The second point is more debatable, but two examples come to mind.
- Microsoft Office – This software has been around forever (in computer terms) and has never really been “cool”. However, that hasn’t prevented it from being a multi-billion dollar profit center for Microsoft and a must-have on virtually every computer (Mac and PC).
- Google – When Google was the new kid on the block they were mega-cool. They had all that white space and delivered results that were head and shoulders above the competition. They quickly dominated the market and haven’t looked back. But as they’ve been copied I feel like Google isn’t so much “cool” as they are ubiquitous. They’re a freaking verb used for searching the internet. Does that stop them from making tons of money and holding on to over 2/3 of the search market? Nope, sure doesn’t.
In conclusion, it doesn’t matter that Facebook isn’t cool anymore. Sure it may get less press and the stock price has dipped, but they have almost 1 BILLION users and they’ll find a way to monetize them better. Facebook is not going to be the next MySpace and collapse in a matter of months. Agree or disagree?
