Would You Pay to Use a Facebook Application?

There are a lot of things that I hate. One of them is painting. Unfortunately for me, I found myself painting this entire weekend. You might be asking yourself, “Garrett if you hate painting so much, why don’t you just hire someone to do it for you?” Your right. I could have just paid someone to paint my house. After all, there are hundreds of painting companies in the area. Truth be told though, even though I hate painting, I don’t VALUE the service that painters provide me enough to pay them for it. Therefore I simply sucked it up and did it myself.

The Pay-Per-Installation Facebook Application Revenue Model

Over the past two months I have spoken with numerous Facebook developers about the revenue models for their applications. Over this time I have heard numerous different plans (some good, some bad). Most of them centered on advertising or selling to the highest bidder once they hit “X” number of subscribers. Not a one, though, has mentioned a pay-per-installation model.

This revenue model is not new. It is perhaps the oldest and simplest revenue model that exists. I make “X”, you pay “Y” to use it. This is the model that has been used by millions of businesses for hundreds of years. Yet in today’s Web 2.0 world, more often then not companies are giving away their service for free in hopes of selling advertising space to keep the boat afloat. No one seems to want to charge anyone for anything these days and no where else is this more visible then with Facebook applications.

The Pay-Per-Installation Model is Simple But Difficult

The pay-per-installation or even pay-per-use model is simple, but the reason more developers (and businesses) do not consider it is because it is difficult. It is difficult because it requires them to A) make something that has VALUE, B) make something that is USEFUL, C) make something that people NEED, and D) actually pro-actively SELL and MARKET their product/service. Ironically, this is business 101. So how comes no one is using this model?

Because most Facebook application developers are not making applications that people would pay for. Amateur do things for free. Professionals get paid to do things. Application developers need to think like professionals and starting getting paid for their work, but what do people pay for?

What Facebook Application Would You Pay to Use?

I would pay to use a Facebook application. I would pay for a Facebook application that has VALUE, UTILITY and fills a NEED for me. As a business user, there are numerous tools that are missing from the Facebook platform that I would pay for upfront or a monthly fee to use should they become available. Heck, I pay for LinkedIN every month to use their service. I suspect other business users would pay for Facebook applications as well.

The problem is though, most developers are so caught up in the Web 2.0 model of giving their service away for free, worrying about their subscriber count and how many blog mentions they have got to focus on making VALUABLE, USEFUL and DESIRABLE applications. Instead they focus on low-end consumer applications that play to the desire of the average Joe, but serve no real purpose and in the end have no real value. In the business world, if you are not unique and you provide no value, you are not going to succeed. Ultimately, I believe the same rule will apply to Facebook applications and the developers behind them.

If you are a Facebook developer building an application you should ask yourself, “Would someone pay me to use this?” Even if you never charge anyone a dime to actually use it, building an application that someone wold pay to use is a sure-fire way to ensure success.

If you are a Facebook developer building an application that you would believe someone would pay to use, why have you not tried to charge for it? If the application you are building is really that VALUABLE, USEFUL and NEEDED, people will pay for it.

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