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Why don’t Facebook promote “partner program”?
Partner Program was firstly put forward by YouTube in May ,2007, which is a system based on AdSense which allows the uploader of the video to share the revenue produced by advertising on the site. (Biggs, J. 2007). YouTube has gained great profit as well as popularity through this program, then one may ask, why don’t Facebook promote Partner Program?
In the founder’s perspective, it is easy to find the different characteristics of these two media: Facebook is an online social networking service while YouTube is a video-sharing website. That means, Facebook mainly focuses on create a private space for its users to chat, share ideas or experience with a group of friends, YouTube, however, doesn’t require lots of personal information, and provides a global stage for its users to share some interesting or meaningful videos with anyone who clicks the link. Thus the click rate for the content contributed by users doesn’t matter for Facebook, while it matters a lot in YouTube which can help select most popular videos for recommendation, advertising or other commercial purposes. For this reason, Facebook doesn’t need to inspire its users to upload attractive videos or messages, and users can say very simple words to express themselves, which is costless with no specific purpose, thus there is no need for Facebook to use Partner Program as a “reward” or “stimulation”. In reality, the private space provided by Facebook is exactly what its users need, and that is enough.
In the users’ perspective, their psychology is crucial for the policy that Facebook founders will take. With more personal information required during the registration in Facebook, users concern mostly on the security and privacy, and sometimes it’s dangerous to draw much attention. Meanwhile, as they always send some simple messages just to express ideas or mood, they won’t focus on the click rate, just hoping to been seen among the friends. What’s more important, there doesn’t exist commercial purpose among the majority of users, Facebook is just a place to release feelings, thus the Partner Program won’t be advocated by the users.
To draw a conclusion, Partner Program won’t bring interests to both founders and users of Facebook, and do no good to protect security and privacy, which are the most important things for this media. Therefore, there is no need for Facebook to promote Partner Program.