you are right, successes are rare. But most of the time we are looking at companies from outside that go “into” Facebook to do their marketing.

I wonder if we see specialized ecommerce startups that come from inside and will be successfull in Facebook first, because they know much better what Facebook users want/need than marketers from outside.

IrateMonkey tries do it with their shirt contest app, but I wonder if there are better ways to do it.

I agree with you, Facebook is not a commercial site (but Zuckerberg would love that to change). But it is a sandbox that marketers can play around in, and Stylefeeder and Victoria’s Secret Pink group are rare successes.

I really don’t mean to slam marketers for trying. Honestly, I think kudos are due for the effort – you never know unless you try.

And even eBay is starting to get better …
http://www.excitingcommerce.com/2008/06/ebay-live-200-5.html

Jochen

Here’s the catch. Developers are only focusing on how much membership they can raise, as one of the derivatives to benchmark for their eventual selling price. Where does user experience or retailers’ interest come into the picture?

The potential’s there, but nobody’s focusing on it.