Web 2.0 business models, just add water

Facebook TV, Facebook Talk, Facebook Cola:

So the creators of Web 2.0 apps build these massive communities that everyone uses everyday and they do it because they can and its really cool stuff. They then spend more hours than the whole system took to build initially, somehow working back to a sustainable revenue model? Right?Wrong! Ok...maybe.

As a colleague pointed out, Facebook is evolving into a ‘platform’ rather than just a website. By opening itself up and allowing developers to create and load apps onto the network, this platform is starting to show that it has the potential to be far more than a simple way to hook up with old buddies. With 24 million active members, growing at a rate of 3% a week one has to wonder why they turned down a 1-billion dollar buy out offer from Yahoo.

The potential of the Web 2.0 platform:
I recently heard an industry exec talking about how Facebook is looking to grow their mobile apps. What would happen if you linked GPS enabled mobile phones, with social networking sites, advertisers/retailers and service providers/operators?

What if your FaceBook profile on your phone intelligently alerts you to the fact that a mate of yours is also walking down a particular road/visiting a particular shopping mall. Using Google Maps and your built-in GPS module, it plots your location and that of your mate, tracking you down to 1 meter. It then cross references a Facebook database that intelligently profiles target markets based on all the interactions you have had online (and your friends/communities) and pops up another layer of info. This layer is a map of possible meeting spots and the quickest way to get there, suggesting that you go to a Mugg and Bean/other partner stores as a joint meeting place. If you agree to meet, you get an electronic discount voucher on a coffee or whatever from the retailer that has an agreement with the Facebook platform.

Some refer to this new breed of website come application as a mashup. Mashups are mish mash of info, easily collated and pulled together, with different layers automatically pulled and provisioned into a usable format that is far more than the sum of its parts.

Facebook might soon start to offer VoIP calls, apparently looking to provide the service off any Symbian handset or any other mobile operating system. How would MTN/Vodacom reacte to the news that their lucrative voice revenues would be bypassed for cheaper VoIP data rates? Would they embrace or continue to fight?

What's next? Facebook TV, Facebook branded Internet service provider, all on one bill and paid for online? How would DSTV/Telkom counter this? Talk about being side swiped.