I have heard lots of talk recently about the rise of this or that platform, mostly Facebook and Twitter. Are these truly platforms? To answer that, we need to come to a conclusion about what a platform is. In the simplest sense, it is a means by which services are delivered and facilitated.
Microsoft Windows is definitely a platform and the Internet is certainly a platform. Is Facebook a platform? They have >80 million active users, and are one of the fastest growing social networks. However, MySpace still has over 20 million more users and is continuing to grow. At the core, though, is Facebook at platform? Are services delivered and facilitated by its technology?
Yes and no. A lot was made out of Facebook widgets, but are they providing full communication, lifestyle, business, or other services to Facebook users? The current answer is no. it does have one thing going for it and that is its user base. To become a full fledged platform they need to do the following:
- Completely open up its data to outside providers
- Allow developers to create full fledged applications to run internally
- Become more than a site and expand into a full operating system – via a browswer
- Expand to more of a mainstream audience – Until my mother uses it, it won’t be a platform (I am calling this the “Mother Test” and it applies to most technology)
- Needs to integrate with external IM and email. This having to go to the Facebook site to correspond with people is lame and annoying and a long term hinderance to adoption
I am certainly not an expert on platforms, but I do know it when I see it… If you disagree, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
I want to also take a look at Twitter. The problems it faces in becoming a platform are relatively simple:
- Reliability – A platform can’t go down and be unavailable at even a fraction as much as Twitter is down
- User base – There are simply not enough users on the site to provide the critical mass necessary for a platform
- Technology – Is Twitter a broad enough service to provide the scope necessary for unknown applications? Will it be anything more a simple communication system that compliments phone calls, email, IM, SMS, etc?
I know what I think… Do you agree or not?
About nathan kaiser
Hi Nathan. A service can still be a platform even if it is a narrow, crappy platform. A platform doesn’t have to be open, “full fledged”, or reliable. In some cases the narrower the better. I would call Twitter a crappy messaging platform. Crappy because it is unreliable, but I think their focus on tiny messages has definitely opened up their platform to more uses.
Hey Nate,
I totally disagree with your Facebook assessment. There is a burgeoning set of application engineers that are essentially monetizing the platform. That company IS the next big thing…though their ability to fully monetize their platform, their users, and the loads of traffic is still a bit down the road. I have no doubt, they’ll figure it out…