I think this author fails to understand the business model of selling the user data to marketing companies.
That 'like' is a data-point about that user which which adds to the mass of data that FB sells. Also, the 'like' promotes that product within the system providing content for FB visitors to feed on. It isn't even a loss leader, it's a part of building their content.
The off-site 'like' has as much value to FB as the YouTube player adds to YouTube, and is a small percentage of the value that AdWords (or have I got the wrong product) provides to Google.
Interesting article. The MAU number which Barry comes up with (161 million) seems to be more line with what Quantcast says Facebook MAU is (142 million).
That 'like' is a data-point about that user which which adds to the mass of data that FB sells. Also, the 'like' promotes that product within the system providing content for FB visitors to feed on. It isn't even a loss leader, it's a part of building their content.
The off-site 'like' has as much value to FB as the YouTube player adds to YouTube, and is a small percentage of the value that AdWords (or have I got the wrong product) provides to Google.
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