Should Facebook imitate Mall of America?
One of the biggest investment repellents in global business is when a country becomes unstable. If it seems like industry nationalisation or any other grand idea is likely to take place, investors disappear like rats from a sinking ship. In its post “Facebook Takes Another Jab at Developers”, Allfacebook reported yesterday that by changing its interface and decreasing the visibility of third party applications without keeping its developers in the loop, Facebook is causing uncertainty among the developers for its platform. Facebook isn’t alone: • April, 2007: MySpace blocks PhotoBucket (it has since reversed its position, aquired photobucket and launched a platform of its own). • August, 2008: Ning shuts down WidgetLaboratory. What Facebook and other platform providers should do is imitate shopping malls. Instead of blocking applications or decreasing their visibility, they should increase their visibility. Alfred Taubman, the shopping mall mogul, describes a mall’s layout like this: Y
