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"Today Facebook\u2019s vice president of product marketing, Chamath Palihapitiya, a former venture capitalist (Mayfield Fund) and once the head of AOL\u2019s AIM division, spent a few moments on stage at TieCon, where he proceeded to describe Facebook in a rather unusual manner. According to a quote published in a piece by Stephanie Olsen of CNET News, Palihapitiya seemed to start off well enough, but gaffed thereaft, so to speak:\n\u201CWe view ourselves as a technology company at our core. We're the cable company creating the pipes, and what they carry is social information and engagement information about people.\u201D\nOkay, I\u2019m positive he means well. Obviously. But his talking points could\u2019ve used some extra editing, for sure. Facebook, akin to a cable company? Creating plumbing for Web users? Wow. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens might as well raise his red flag and declare plagiarism here and now.\nNot that Palihaptiya is entirely off base. He\u2019s quite accurate. Facebook is indeed a network in which people can \u201Ccreate truly social experiences on the Web,\u201D as he explained. Which, technically speaking, is pretty pipe-like, yes? But there are truthful things you should say, and other truthful things you definitely should not say. Particularly with the advantage of some good ol\u2019 meme-happy hindsight.\nLooking at the summary of the man\u2019s presentation at TieCon provided by CNET, it would seem in Facebook\u2019s best interest to not generalize its role in networking as much as its marketing rep at the conference allowed. Yes, in its most basic form, it is a social platform. (Dime a dozen, right?) But it\u2019s a valuable piece of kit in and of itself. Billion-dollar kind of valuable, even. (Of course, $15b is a fantasy, but I\u2019d say it\u2019s got $1-3b worth of pop at the moment.) So, yes, by all means, Facebook\u2019s representative can harp on about the proverbial social stack and various elements that make up our communicative Web 2.0-enriched experiences. But it seems Palihaptiya, in relaying his sermon, tried to tear down the barriers to entry for developers so much so that Facebook essentially took the guise of a commodity, or a service provider devoted to maintaining the cables whilst third-parties run (almost) free.\nAs for how well outside developers are doing financially, the VP claimed 33 percent of Facebook applications makers report profits of up to $500,000 a month. \u201CUp to\u201D being the key phrase. He also alleged 25 percent of all applications are currently catering to an average of 100,000 daily users."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/05/17/facebook-cable-company/>