Matt Britton argues Facebook's move toward stronger privacy in one-to-one messaging is an evolution, not a revolution: consumers likely won't see immediate changes, and Facebook will still derive most revenue from advertising and the mobile newsfeed. He explains that Facebook has said it will stop scanning private one-to-one messages for ad-targeting, but public posts will still be used; younger users prefer ephemeral platforms like Snapchat, and one-to-one messaging is more like replacing SMS than altering social networking. Overall, he predicts the change won't substantially disrupt Facebook's business but may increase emphasis on private messaging.
Matt, what is this going to mean in terms of a change for Facebook's business?
I think it's going to be an evolution, not a revolution. I think it's going to be a slow change in features and functionality. I think from a consumer perspective, you're not going to see much right away. You know, consumers are already using messenger, they're already using WhatsApp to do one on one communications. The question that many users have is is this secure? You know, is this information going to somehow become leaked after all the media coverage about the Russian hacking and them sharing data. But I think, you know, this to me doesn't change the business model in a substantive way for Facebook. They're still going to get a majority of their revenues from advertising. Consumers are still going to spend a lot of their time through the mobile newsfeed. But I think Facebook's really going to ramp up that one to one communication versus just the one to many that most people know of Facebook as.
But to that point, what is the change here? This is for individual private messages will no longer be read for advertising, informed information purposes.
Yes.
So public posts will still be.
So we really don't know exactly what it means. But Facebook does scan your messages to see if you're mentioning Toyota and then all of a sudden you'll see a message in Toyota. Consumers don't like that because they could be talking about very personal things to another person and they don't want Facebook to be looking at it, even if it is just artificial intelligence looking at it. So what I think Mark Zuckerberg saying is they were no longer going to conduct that practice anymore, that they will no longer mind one to one communication data for the purposes of mining consumer and segmentation data for advertisers. But Gen Z, you talk to a young kid, age 11, 12, 13 years old, they're all over Snapchat and that is the next generation. And Snapchat originally gained popularity due to their ephemeral messaging, due to the fact that people can share information and know it's not going to stick with them forever. Facebook tried to catch up with Instagram stories and other platforms, but this is them really going even further in that direction while maintaining their stronghold and more traditional social, social media networking, if you will.
The big question I'm trying to figure out is can they redefine the way people use social media or are they going to open up a space for a competitor?
See, I don't think one to one messaging is social media. I think this is replacing text messaging. So you look at imessage I'm texting you. It's a one on one piece of communication. Just like if I'm using Facebook messenger or just like if I'm using WhatsApp. It's just another tentacle to their business. Social networking is a one to many communication one which is still going to stay prominent, and that's why I don't think it's going to have a substantive impact to Facebook's business.
