While Mark Zuckerberg Is Studying Cryptocurrencies, Facebook Changed Its Algorithm For "More Meaningful Interactions"
A few days ago, Facebook announced a major change of their newsfeed algorithm. According to Mark Zuckerberg, they will be focusing more on “helping you find relevant content. The new goal is to help you have more meaningful interactions”.
As you may already know, until now, their focus was more on news and relevant content. But following the 2016 US elections blunders and the avalanche of fake news, they apparently decided this approach is not profitable anymore.
One of the consequences of this shift is that Facebook users will see more information from the people they follow, and less from pages or groups built around media outlets. Getting your news from Faceboook will be less and less relevant and you may have to rely on other sources for that.
I confess I couldn't refrain myself to connect this statement with Mark's new years resolution to learn more about cryptocurrencies. They may be completely unrelated, but hey, I am free to assume that they are, right? Of course, I may be wrong, and I'm ready to accept that.
But there is some common ground between this "users first, corporations later" approach, and the empowering we get from decentralized organizations. No, I don't think Facebook is a decentralized organization, on the contrary, but I think they are smart and they take from the current trends whatever it might be useful for their business.
Although there was no direct mention of crypto currencies in this announcement, and although I'm well aware that the only mention of that is on Mark's personal post about his 2018 resolutions, I do think the recent change is part of a bigger movement, which was - at least partially - generated by the latest "crypto-craze".
There is a major shift in wealth from corporations to individuals and who else can see this trend better, if not the people who are incessantly monitoring more than one billion people activities? We can only guess and infer, while they also have hard data to back their decisions with.
So if they see more value in user interactions, rather than in news, I guess they know something.
Or maybe they studied the user interactions model that we already have and use here, for almost 2 years now? They may have learned that there really is some financial vale in a "like", after all, not just some ego validation. And probably they also learned you can measure this with, you know, a token...
This doesn't mean Facebook will launch their token this month. They may not even launch a token, as we know it.
But it does mean their business model is shifting dramatically, from a corporate-driven media bucket, to a more user-centric approach. It remains to be seen how much of the data generated by this user-centric approach will be again sold to advertisers and in what form, but until then, let's see how this new model will unfold.
And let's accept the fact that some social media experiments in the crypto world, like Steemit, may have been a part of this business model shift from Facebook.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook decided to go the ICO route, or they maybe be even be working on their own consensus algorithm that will somehow inteface into their platform.
I would be incredibly surprised if Facebook decided to implement some of the major cryptos into their platform. That would send the entire space into a decade-long bull market.
I very much doubt they need the legal aggravation of an ICO...
I keep hearing the rumor that Facebook will be supporting Litecoin as a payment channel. I can't see how this would benefit Facebook at all, so I am pretty skeptical that this is the case..
But I am holding some Litecoin ;)
Interesting rumor, never heard of it. It will make a lot more sense to have their own token, though.
I'm not sure Facebook creating their own token is necessary or smart. Seems like it would be a hindrance in many ways, potentially ruining in others. Just my thoughts - Facebook is a massive platform. Building another platform of crypto on top of that seems overly complex, but you've given me something else to think about
From a technical point of view, Facebook building a token will be trivial. There's more tech and AI in their messenger bot platform, than in a simple, centralized token, so throwing in a "coin" is really, really simple for them.
The only question stopping them to do it is: "how much more money a token will bring us, than we're bringing in now, with our current business model?"
I'm referencing issues regarding regulation - Facebook has already been approved (along with Google, if I remember correctly) to operate within the technical framework of a bank in the UK, I believe. Also M (the AI layer inside of Messenger is/has been canceled for the meantime).
They don't need to launch a token to get a cut of tokenized transactions, they already have the infrastructure to add the layer but perhaps would be savvy to shy away from the politics of initiating their own.
I think their best bet would be to accept all the other major coins for payment - amazon too - they would have massive explosions in people using their crypto if the could do it.
I don't know why they'd choose Litecoin and I don't think it's something more than a romour... But if It happened I'll be happy... I already see a future for Litecoin as a currency... That's something I think less and less for Bitcoin these days.
Strongly agree with your perspective here. I do believe that Facebook is trying to migrate towards crypto in a sense. I believe the Messenger platform has already begun integrating Bitcoin for payments or is intending to (haven't kept up on this lately but remember seeing some news about it a few weeks ago).
It's pretty clear that the biggest social platform in the Western world is going to have to adopt and adapt to the emerging crypto movement or will be at a disadvantage to platform like steemit that are already integrated (in a sense). However, I have some new thoughts about how Steemit is utilizing tokenization both here, on exchanges, and into the the Steem Network that I may address in an article soon.
Great post today
Great post @dragosroua Here is my take...Facebook is so powerful, it's only a matter of time before they implement a crypto into their platform. They even have a large enough user base that if implemented correctly could ultimately be the coin that would go mainstream and replace fiat currency.
The same thing for search. If Facebook wanted to get in the search/PPC business, they could immediately implement a "local search engine", promote it, and immediately take revenue, if not replace Google. Facebook is already making a huge dent on Google revenue with the current ad formats, and they are only going to add more options on Instagram, Messenger, etc.
It would definitely make sense for Facebook to implement their own coin as opposed to using an existing coin.
...and they probably wouldnt even need to charge transaction fees because they make so much money as is, but imagine if they even implemented a super low cost transaction fee how much revenue it would add to the company.
One other modification to the algorithm they did last month is that they're cracking down on people using the wrong kinds of words.
I work(worked) for a tech news outlet and we share a lot of our news on Facebook. But since it's a lot about "Asus announces something" or "Samsung's new Galaxy something something" or "Major security flaw in Lenovo something or other", Facebook though these were commercials. That we were putting ads on the network and they weren't getting a cut of them. So they just blacklisted the entire site. The change was done without any sort of warning, and after we managed to get in touch with them, we were told that there will be further changes and none of them will ever have any warning.
So that's why Zon@IT couldn't post anything on Facebook for a month. Even now, they're watching for words related to brands to just gut the site.
Their goal is of course two fold, learn as much as possible about you (they are already doing good job here) and earn as much money as possible. So what could be reason for looking at crypto currencies world? Probably to implement some kind of payment system like paypal into FB.
First step would be to easy send money to another user, second step to start being some kind an Amazon a little bit, a store and getting a cut from every transactions, product advertising, and of course intelligently connect users with products based on users profile...
Make more money, that is my guess. "...let's cash in better our huge user base..."
Despite it's flaws and at the risk of sounding like a Steemit champion, this really confirms my deeper emotion that Steemit, is just - more practical than other social media platforms - despite some of its unique flaws.
I mean - how many social media sites have a Common tongue term along the lines of "Facebook Depression."
I'm glad to see that them abusing game-theroy (dopamine based, nonsensical dopamine hits aka all the facebook depression junk and the manipulating peoples emotions) is back firing and people are becoming aware, or at least they are being forced to look themselves in the mirror.
and what would be the Steemit equivalent of "Facebook Depression? Steemit blues? :)
Maybe "Whale Hunting" or "Worrisome Wallet" or "Sad Minnow Syndrome" or "Steemit Sadness" or - well. I guess there could be a lot.
That is interesting. I think they're finding out the profits they make increase as user retention is increased.
I think people are getting bored with spam content based on their likes and using less of Facebook. I think this shift will be more like what youtube already does as far as keeping people on their site as long as possible to see more ads on a per day basis.
How is this happening? Sorry, but not much YouTube for me these days, what did they change?
The entire algorithm of youtube is set-up to constantly figure out what you view and try and introduce you to new similar content by suggesting similar videos. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but from watching people that make a living off youtube, youtube tracks all your actions on youtube to try and keep you on the site. The longer you're on the site the more ads that you watch.
I saw that statement too and didn't even think about how those two could be connected. I think if they were to launch a token it would fall into what you said of it being not something like we know it. I think we are at least a year out from whatever they do though.
Nice post...
Please upvote my post...
Many of my FB friends belong to a pro-Steemit group on FB. My experience here on steemit, with its blog flavor, has lead to me having a much greater insight into those same users which had been my friends on FB for a couple of years now.
If that is the direction that FB wants to go then good luck to them. There is little they could do to pull me away from steemit, however it may be a better environment for those that remain.