Aardvark Daily

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It's a gamble but...

According to recent reports, Facebook is doomed.

It is doomed, just like AltaVista, Geocities, DejaNews and a massive number of other, formerly "top" sites before it.

Why are such websites doomed?

Well, because the only constant on the Net is "change" and eventually either something better comes along or people tire of the "same old same old".

According to a Princeton University study, it is predicted that over the next three years, Facebook will lose around 80 percent of its users. They have likened the growth and demise of social networks to similar growth/decline patterns for infectious diseases.

Personally, I think this is great news!

It's not necessarily that I'd like to see Facebook in decline but, to use another old saying "as one door closes, another opens" -- and this means that all the people who leave Facebook will be looking for something else to do with their time.

Now *THAT* is a massive opportunity.

So how do you, I or the entire country take advantage of this opportunity?

Well the way I see it, every week, millions of Kiwis "invest" tens of millions of dollars in Lotto in the full and clear understanding that their chances of receiving anything back from that investment are very, very small.

Most people will likely only ever win a $20 or $30 payout even if they do get a few numbers in a row -- yet they keep pouring cash into the black-hole that is Lotto -- in the vain hope that one day they might just strike it big and win a paltry million or two.

What a waste!

Well, while discussing Facebook, let's take a look at Sheryl Sandberg...

Thanks to Facebook shares closing at a record high the other day, she has become one of the youngest female billionaires on the planet. That sounds a whole lot better than just winning a couple of million dollars in a lottery -- doesn't it?

So what am I getting at here?

Well it's something I've mooted before... a national VC fund that is generated by small weekly contributions from regular Kiwi folk.

Instead of spending $10 a week on Lotto, why not spend $5 on the lottery and invest $5 in the National VC fund?

Careful management and application of the fund towards fostering and sustaining really good Kiwi ideas and hi-tech ventures could pay dividends that go far beyond that of Lotto. Imagine for instance that this money helps fund an online venture that becomes the "next big thing" and captures all those disaffected former Facebook users...

Instead of just recirculating money and redistributing it in the way that Lotto does, a national VC fund has the potential to create new export-earning ventures that make *everyone* richer by increasing the nation's wealth and net-worth.

Nothing Lotto does increases the net worth of the nation or its people -- but a single Facebook-sized hi-tech venture that saw money pouring in from other countries would have the potential to significantly lift our standard of living and the personal wealth of every single Kiwi.

Yes, putting money into such a fund *would* be a gamble -- but Lotto is a bigger gamble with a much smaller payout.

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