Congratulations to Facebook on reaching one billion users milestone, this is undoubtedly an huge achievement and must be accoladed whole heartedly!

1 billion people sharing and connecting and making the world more open. Truly amazing to have one platform for this. Congrats Facebook!

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Josh Elman (@joshelman) October 04, 2012

But I might be wrong, it seems to me that Zuckerberg has carried away with sheer number of users and good words from a stalwart like Steve Jobs about his stubbornness to remain product focussed and not interest based revenue-centric, and although he ended up building the best social network platform, so far he has failed to leverage it for shareholders (shares are already down by 40+%).

Facebook shares down 10% to $20.70. Barron's said over weekend $FB is only worth about $15/share. #ohsnap

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CNN at the NYSE (@CNNNYSE) September 24, 2012

And when he really tried to please them by launching various FB apps and bombarding users with ads, sponsored status and promoted stories, users become disgruntled about a timeline so full of commercial page links that they have become more listener than participant, and are confused as to why they need so many apps to manage their accounts!

my whole facebook timeline is filled with spam and advertisements #whathappened

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realshit (@stefBIGdreams) September 27, 2012

Ew! Wish there was some way to minimise the hideously overpowering ads that have suddenly popped up EVERY where on Facebook 😦

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Jess (@BlackCapsNo1Fan) October 02, 2012

100% agreed. MT @chaykak: "Facebook's new practice has a whiff of extortion: 'Pay to promote your post or nobody will ever see it.'"

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Culture Craver (@craverco) October 04, 2012

So what exactly went wrong with Facebook? I think, they followed Apple theory too religiously; they built beautiful product (like all iProducts) and then tried to control their ecosystem (Like App Store) in order to monetise it – but can Facebook really follow a purely Apple model?
I don’t think so. Why? Firstly, they don’t have ‘must have’ products for users – social engagement can be substituted or complimented by email, SMS, phone, or via rival networks. Users of iPhones and iPads have no choice but to use Apple by-products, only be available on their devices, including the highly deprecated iMap on IOS6! Whereas they have many choices and no compulsion when it comes to using Facebook and its applications.

Twitter number 4 in UK Coolbrands survey. Interesting. Facebook not cool. Apple coolest. BBC iPlayer pretty cool. #cool bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

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Ged (@MisterGed) September 24, 2012

In other words, Facebook can’t really push things on their users; it should try to build on what is already working, like Zynga games, Spotify music sharing, or the recently launched Facebook Gift!

I'm gonna set up a spotify account on my other facebook so i can get a free trial of spotify mobile 🙂 🙂

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Krissy (@BrianLoganFales) September 28, 2012

Zynga dominates this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by MAU bit.ly/ULj9D4 /via @InsideNetwork

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Medias Sociaux (@VeilleSMO) September 24, 2012

I think Facebook Gifts are a great idea and can replace the way we do transactions, specially buying products for family, friends and loved ones – because stats suggests 80+% of us like to buy things from word of mouth recommendations or friends’ suggestions – and there is no better place than Facebook to get recommendations from friends.

So excited that gifts on Facebook launched today--people whose birthdays are upcoming, you are in for a treat 😀 fb.me/sCjz7w8g

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Julie Zhuo (@joulee) September 27, 2012

In summary Facebook needs to build products with tightly coupled commerce ability not push advertising like pages you may like, sponsored posts or sponsored stories. Along with Facebook gifts (i.e. currency, or credit) let’s build a more open ecosystem for developers so that Zynga- and Spotify-like companies can build really lucrative communities to pour some money in and make Facebook a $100bn company!