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OpenSocial ( Google + MySpace + Rest of the World ) VS. Facebook - Finally I Am Motivated to Try Social App Development
If you can't fight the biggest player. Unite others to fight him.
OpenSocial API, proposed by Google, and supported by popular social networks including hi5, iLike, Slide, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Ning, Bebo, MySpace and SixApart, but excluding FaceBook, are going live in any minute(supposedly to be open tonight).
The open API will have three parts(from Oreilly Radar
- People
- Storage
- Activity stream
All of these calls will have a GData counterpart and they will use HTML and JavaScript only. Google is considering adding OAuth (Radar post) to the API. On Thursday the following links should go live:
- http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial -- the documentation for OpenSocial
- http://sandbox.orkut.com - a sandbox for testing apps
The biggest winner is Google cause it just creates a alliance to corner its biggest upcoming threat Facebook, and opens up another big data collection channel. All along, Google's business model is centered in gathering, analyzing, monetizing on top tons of data. The common API accessing social networks can give Google access to so much interesting social behavioral data, and it can develops revenue sharing solutions to be used across social networks easily.
The next winners are developers! When Facebook's platform was hyped up, I was holding out because it doesn't make sense to learn a new markup language FBML to develop a social app in a walled garden. Google is really smart to use plain old HTML/JavaScript for OpenSocial cause every web developer is already familiar with these. I bet the interest in developing social apps just skyrockets because of OpenSocial API.
Niche social networks can also benefit because once they support OpenSocial, users from other social networks may stumble upon the niche networks through an OpenSocial application.
The loser is obvious: Facebook. I don't think Facebook has any choice but supporting OpenSocial. One can argue that if MySpace hadn't supported OpenSocial, Facebook would be able to hold its ground. Facebook growth is largely built on top of its platform ecosystem. When the builders of its ecosystem flood to use OpenSocial to build more innovative viral social applications, Facebook just can't afford to lose these builders(free labor).
Another big loser: Microsoft. Microsoft spent $300-$500 million to buy 5% of Facebook valuing at $10bn earlier last week
Did Google bluff Microsoft into over paying for Facebook? That'd be brilliant! Could Microsoft not know about Google's OpenSocial plan at all given that it involved so many social networks? Another thing is that Google probably has known that given the participations of so many social networks(especially the bigger one like MySpace, Bebo, SixApart), and the momentum created, there's no need to write a big fat check to a closed social network which will be forced to open soon.
Facebook decided to turn down all the acquisition offers and got a truck load of VC money to pursue IPO. It's a really critical time for Facebook now. Before yesterday, Facebook was the darling. Since the OpenSocial annoucement, Facebook has been in a really hot seat. It may never get the ROI that they and their investors have hoped for.
But for me, I am just really happy to explore OpenSocial to build some social apps!
