One thing that interests me a lot are business development models. Particularly those that have seen recent (read: last 2-5 years) successes revolving around ecosystems (and somewhat communities) such as Google, Facebook, and Apple has setup.
I’ve thought (and said) for a while now that Apple (chronologically) took after Facebook’s Application Platform when they released their iPhone App Store. The difference between the two ecosystems (as both are walled gardens) was that Apple made their platform a lot better. How? Think about the main difference- they monetized theirs (something Facebook still has issues with).
What’s interesting, though, is that a company finally came out with a means for developers to monetize their applications. The company is called Zuora, and they’re coining this method of monetizing the apps on social networks as Z-Commerce.
Honestly, while a bit corny, coining the term Z-Commerce is a great marketing move, especially if they can really establish themselves as a player (guarantee more will follow) because I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this coming down the line as social networks continue to evolve (more established methods of revenue is a testament to the evolution).
