Comments on: How social gaming offers create value for everyone (not just Facebook, Zynga, and Offerpal)

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:47:11 +0000

I don't think any of the recent actions Facebook has been taking will pose an existential threat to the offer providers in the short-term… it's the medium-term where continued degradation of the UX will cause FB to take big, unilateral steps…

By: Matt McAllister

Matt McAllister — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:27:11 +0000

I'd bet closer to 6 days than 6 months. Actually, most of the questionable offers have already been removed. Facebook is cracking down hard, and has been since last week. We've decided to err on the side of caution and remove anything in the gray area undefined by their policies. I think we and the other offer providers will take a revenue hit, but that in the long run it's good for the whole “ecosystem.”

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:08:21 +0000

That's right, current offers don't make sense at all. Right now the industry is just opportunistic, and not thinking about the long term.

By: rashmis

rashmis — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:04:48 +0000

Andrew, Most of these offers don't fulfill the “Makes sense” criteria in the context they are shown. For Amazon type of product bundling where end user gets real value, the whole industry would need to be much more algorithmically oriented (and only show relevant offers).

It can be done, but I don't see any of the current players in the industry as doing it. There is too much low hanging fruit with the spray and pray approach.

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:02:44 +0000

Matt, I think that if you guys don't get squeeky clean soon, Facebook will regulate you guys out of existence because of the public uproar it's causing... You guys need to get a LOT better on the user experience sooner rather than later.

They'll do to leadgen what they are doing with bad actor apps and advertisers.

I bet you guys have 6 months to figure it out, max.

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:47:11 +0000

By: Matt McAllister

Matt McAllister — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:27:11 +0000

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:08:21 +0000

That's right, current offers don't make sense at all. Right now the industry is just opportunistic, and not thinking about the long term.

By: rashmis

rashmis — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:04:48 +0000

It can be done, but I don't see any of the current players in the industry as doing it. There is too much low hanging fruit with the spray and pray approach.

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:02:44 +0000

By: Alexander Ainslie (@AAinslie)

Alexander Ainslie (@AAinslie) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:19:16 +0000

MacHeist comes to mind as a good example of add-value bundling.

By: Alexander Ainslie (@AAinslie)

Alexander Ainslie (@AAinslie) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:19:16 +0000

MacHeist comes to mind as a good example of add-value bundling.

By: Matt McAllister

Matt McAllister — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:16:14 +0000

An awesome read, thanks Andrew. I have to agree with everything you said — even, I'll admit, the part about the offers business standing room for improvement, although I think it is far from broken. It's actually very strong. But for it to remain strong it will have to be even more vigilant than ever in fighting fraud and keeping spammy, scammy offers at bay.

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:21:29 +0000

Thanks for the comment James. Just read your section of Adam's book “Viral Loop” btw, fun stuff.

I think you are probably logged in via Facebook for Disqus and there's something weird there. Might want to try the Twitter OAuth instead.

By: Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:06:03 +0000

Yep, I totally agree with you on the user experience issues. My point is just that I think it's possible for the offers industry to actually provide end user value, though clearly they are far from that, and I want to give the rationale for how something like that might happen.

Thanks for the comment