We are constantly observing how the technology landscape is changing where we are (Singapore), and recently we have come to know of a Malaysian web startup, FongFeiKei.com, that aims to be a marketplace for people who need to sell off their concert and event tickets urgently because their previously-going-with-them friends stood them up. While the concept itself may not be new, we have come to realize that one viable way of discovering what the grassroots wants is to literally sit back and watch our Facebook News Feeds for hours and monitor how people are using Facebook in a way that facilitates or results in money transactions. Anyone with the habit of trawling through their News Feed on a daily basis would already see trends in how their friends use Facebook to fulfill certain needs.

Indeed, this method was how we got the idea for our flagship product, Zuupy FriendAdvisor, an online store add-on that lets shoppers consult their friends on Facebook for shopping advice while still shopping in the online store itself. In 2010, we saw that many people were asking for shopping advice by posting links of products, and, most of the time, friends were egging them on to buy. Can we say... conversion optimization opportunity for online retailers? Keep in mind that Best Buy relatively-recently implemented the “Ask Friends” feature in its Facebook Store, a feature that is very, very similar to Zuupy FriendAdvisor.

The fact is that, as Facebook grows in the number of functions that it serves, the News Feed will become less useful, considering that the signal-to-noise ratio will be increasingly unbearable. There exists multiple opportunities for vendors and entrepreneurs who can identify pockets of niche markets by picking out very specific yet sizable use cases of the status update feature. The rule is, of course, that your friend list must be large and diverse enough for such deeds of scrutiny of the grassroots population to be carried out effectively. For example, we at Zuupy have identified that using the status update feature to garner votes for contests and causes has become very prevalent. Perhaps there exists an opportunity to create a voting platform based on a vote-for-me-and-I’ll-vote-for-you model that monetizes via the sale of votes or ranking/prominence advantages on the platform.

The great thing about the Facebook News Feed is that it helps to crystallize the needs and wants of the demand side. As with most things, where there is a demand, there is a supply. Do you think that this method of understanding consumers is viable, or do you think that it is flawed or can be improved?