It’s interesting that this story is released following the Labor Day break, and only a couple of days after Ira Glass spotlighted the theme of “Something for Nothing” on the radio program “This American Life.” Not to call Facebook a trickster, but the profitability on these purchases is quite high, I imagine, with little effort involved to start.
The newest tally, I should say, reflects reasonably well on the Facebook community. If one assumes that the sales number is mostly restricted to a small pool of enthused users (bulk orders are possible), somewhat akin to the purportedly skewed usage of the iTunes store for $0.99 purchases of music singles, the network on the whole arguably remains unseduced by the trinkets. Phew.
Lightspeed does make a valid point of writing in sales of digital goods as “a meaningful secondary revenue stream for the company” - a company whose CEO sees $300-350 million in total revenue by the end of 2008. But what precisely it can offer to users of value to the general populace is not certain. Gifts of this kind are never the be-all and end-all of online retail venture. Pitch your ideas, folks! Just remember not to hold all your cards for Zuckerberg the world to see.