Remember when being into computer science didn’t exactly score major cool points? Things are changing… thanks to the decision by social networking giants to open up their platforms to outside developers. Facebook made that bold move first last spring, and MySpace followed suit this winter. Now, the kids growing up within those digital communities can create new features anyone with a profile can use. Youth Radio’s Ankitha Bharadwaj reports on how young developers are trying to convert their newfound social cache into cold hard cash.
My friend Caitlin Grey sure has some caring pals…
CAITLIN (on tape)
Gifts I’ve gotten lately—a pair of red stiletto heels, a bowl of Vietnamese noodles…and a panda!
Of course, these aren’t real gifts! Caitlin received these presents virtually, via Facebook applications. They’re kinda like accessories you add to your Facebook profile to jazzify your page…and interact with your friends in unexpected ways.
NICO (on tape)
There’s my profile picture, (DUCK THIS UNDER) which is me from prom of last year, in my tuxedo, next to our rented Lincoln Navigator..
That’s my friend, Nico Savidge…He’s got like twelve apps on his profile page. And they’re not all about gift-giving. There’s an application that lets you play virtual Scrabble (N: here’s one of my applications). Another one lets Nico rate movies, and see how his tastes compare with friends—including me...
NICO (on tape)
How could you not like Ace Ventura, Pet Detective!
because, Jim Carey gets under my skin!
NICO (on tape)
He’s a genius! (duck under) How could you not like Goldmember?
You see how this conversation evolved? That’s pretty much the point of apps like this one… Well, according to Brett Keintz, anyway. Keintz took a whole class on Facebook apps at Stanford last fall. He and some classmates created one that lets you chuck snowballs at your friends.
BRETT (on tape)
Me throwing a snowball at you, I could be flirting with you, I could be mad at you, or I could be just saying hi. Even though it’s virtual, it’s not a trivial thing, there’s a lot of meaning in that snowball…
The most popular applications make people want to spend more time on sites like Facebook. That’s why the company let outside developers tinker with their code. Facebook VP Chamath Palihapatiya says it’s lured in a quarter million app developers.
CHAMATH (on tape)
We were never going to build everything for our users, because it’s just not possible. It’s not possible from a practical sense, to hire 250,000 people.
So instead, Facebook acts as a small business incubator for developers, who try to make money by placing ads on their applications. Keintz—you know, the snowball guy—he launched an app company with Stanford classmate Dan Ackerman-Greenberg. Soon after the business took off, Dan put in a little phone call to his dad.
DAN (on tape)
“Hey dad, I’m having so much trouble juggling school and this business we’re running.” And he basically told me, If you don’t drop out of school tomorrow, you’ll regret it for the next thirty years…Kinda silly to say I dropped out of school because I made an application called Hugs…
Greenberg’s app lets me send a picture of a fuzzy creature of indeterminate species to all my online buddies with the caption, “Awkward Hug” from Ankitha.
KARA (on tape)
Hugs are very nice…it’s fine, it’s terrific...
That’s Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal website, All Things D.
KARA (on tape)
but it’s not a business that is sustainable. And that’s really what we’re talking about here.
Some critics take a look at all this enthusiasm about apps and flashback to the first dot-com bubble, especially with high-flying valuations like 550 million dollars for one app company called Slide. But developers who’ve struck a chord with their apps are making hundreds of thousands of dollars through advertising. For lots of young techies, that’s reason enough to keep pulling all-nighters and cranking out code.
In Oakland, I’m Ankitha Bharadwaj for Marketplace.
