Posts tagged Facebook

Enough to spend some of that IPO money on TV? [ via Wallblog ]

1 China 1,339,724,852; 2 India 1,210,193,422; 3. Facebook 845 000 000; 3 United States 312,946,000; 4 Indonesia 237,641,326; 5 Brazil 192,376,496. The largest virtual community today aggregates a population which would make it the third largest nation on the planet. And its only currency is our behavioural and experiential data. From today, that data will be worth more than ever. As Emma Barnett points out in the Telegraph, Facebook’s IPO, which is expected to see the company be valued at $100bn, has put it under more pressure to aggressively sell its users’ data. I wonder how more than 1% of us are ever going to find a way of drawing some commercial benefit from this new valuation of what is at the end, the stuff of our lives. How big is the economy Facebook’s network can facilitate and what shape will it take? [ more in The Telegraph ]

The integration of all our devices and appliances in our web of personal media continues apace with the announcement that Mercedes-Benz USA is bringing Facebook to its cars, with a stripped-down version of the service that is built-in to a new in-vehicle telematics system.

What puzzles me is why manufacturs eagerly facilitate services which appear to pamper the customer but won’t extend this courtesy to the vehicle itself  — which they have spent so much time developing. They could very easily enable the car’s intelligent systems to allow approved support technicians to maintain the digital “timeline” of a vehicle — this would “hard-wire” its service history …. and greatly improve the value of used vehicles. Imagine: your car’s legit service history on its own Facebook page … OK. Now I get it. Classic misdirection to keep the focus of wealthy drivers on new products.

“One of the core things that people do on their screens in the car is GPS navigation and the ability to see which of your friends are nearby is something we think will be really interesting for people,” said Facebook exec Dan Rose. Aaagh! How sweet. Personally, given I already own a smart phone and a pad-computer which can both perform this function (bear with me while I channel my idea of a Mercedes owner), I would rather have my in-car telemetry hook up in real time with the closest brand-approved workshop.

Customer focus? Not so much. It’s high time motor manufacturers were called out for their refusal to make our vehicles as smart and networked as they really could be. [ Reuters ]