Fraud by Facebook?

Can’t say I’m surprised, but what a depressing if enlightening 8 minutes that was!

Thanks for posting. I think the guy did a really good job of laying out a complex topic in a very clear fashion.

I’ve been on FB since 2008 and although I really don’t like FB I find it a very useful place for (a) keeping in touch with people in other places/timezones and (b) a virtual watercooler for my virtual office.

I don’t think I have ever clicked on a FB ad and although I’ve liked a couple of business pages when there’s been some sort of charity giveaway that a friend was trying to get people involved with, I generally try to stay away from any “big business” sites. Small businesses of friends and family are different – I think I can trust them not to start spamming me with crap.

This is no surprise. Facebook is a company that has sold “nothing for something” and made billions. It makes millions by selling advertising that doesn’t really work for the most part, but the numbers look good on paper so they sell well to new investors.

The world outside the US and UK now make up a huge part of the Internet. People are making a very silly assumption that clicks outside of the western world are useless. He has a point about the click farms though. I would go so far as to say that Facebook outsources to those very click farms.

Jo

Unless you sell a product all people want, my personal belief is that online advertising is about branding and awareness not sales exactly. It’s about building up a business and it doesn’t always pay, but it does take time for results regardless.

The challenge with Facebook is that a lot of people have started blocking the ads through plugins so the bubble is becoming very fragile. At some point it will burst. Investors are not THAT stupid!

Jo