14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like Facebook is having some trouble in becoming the "second internet." Or, rather, companies that treat Facebook like a second internet are starting to realize that there isn't a direct one-to-one relationship between the "real" internet and Facebook.
Facebook, for a long time, has tried to emulate the structure of the open web, but in a walled environment. It still does. Businesses could set up Facebook Pages, just like they would a website, and have a guaranteed audience, but would have to play by Facebook's rules.
It went beyond simple pages, companies started experimenting with all sorts of ways of using Facebook's key advantage, the audience, to prop up their businesses.
People have been experimenting with renting movies on Facebook, or have even set up full online shops on their Facebook pages.
In the latter case, companies are finding it hard to translate the audience and the activity into sales.
Bloomberg reports that major retailers like Gamestop, Gap, J.C. Penney and others have already shut down their Facebook stores. People in the know say that these storefronts were simply not driving enough sales for it to be worth.
In retrospect, it makes sense, Facebook is the place where people come to check out what their friends are doing, keep up with their favorite artists, or just hang out. It's not a place associated with shopping so people aren't buying.
There are a few lessons to be learned here, though there's nothing particularly surprising. For one, Facebook can't be anything to anyone. It's simple enough, Facebook is big and there's plenty of things you can do on the site, but that doesn't mean you can do everything.
But that's a lesson plenty of companies have learned, the hard way, when trying to translate a real-world brick-and-mortar business into an online one. Some still haven't learned this lesson, the recording industry for example.
That's not to say that it can't be done, it just means that the differences have to be taken into account. That goes for converting an online business into one on Facebook, or simply adjusting to the social web.
Some things will work, some won't and the social aspects have to be taken into account. So, even though many of the first stores have failed, that doesn't mean that someone won't crack it. Chances are, some small business is already doing great selling on Facebook.