Slashdot Mirror
Facebook To Be 'Biggest Bank' By 2015
angry tapir writes "The explosion of social networking commerce will lead to the unlikely candidate of Facebook becoming the world's biggest bank by the middle of the decade, according to a technology observer and entrepreneur. People who don't have a Facebook account should get one or risk having a financial profile created for them says founder and president of Metal International, Ken Rutkowski."
How will it work culturally to have rip off bank fees on a "free" social networking site? If someone complains in a post about being ripped off, will they censor? Or will it be part of the criminally enforceable terms of service not to disparage FaceBank?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
No, do not want, and Ken Rutowski and his shitcock little outfit can pound sand.
Banks who give out accounts should require a little more detail before handing out money.
More like Mental International, if he thinks anyone believes bullshit like that.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
People who don't have a Facebook account should get one or risk having a financial profile created for them says founder and president of Metal International, Ken Rutkowski.
If that's true its a crap bank. Can you imagine Bank of America, Barclays, or BNP Paribas saying "if you don't have an account already you better open one or someone else might do it in your name and build up a financial profile in your name"? If they are going to be a bank they should do some level of customer checking.
Did I read this article correctly or did it say "they" will be using your FarmVille credits as a measure of your worth? What if you don't play FV?
LOL - You know there is an "new" internet bubble when they start saying Facebook credits are going to be worth more than the money you have in the bank. Hmmm - I wonder where we've heard this before?!?
I suppose now as good a time as ever to cancel my facebook account. WTF are they thinking? Farmville, free ipad spam, and now banking services? sigh.
I find this article to be somewhat lacking on credibility.
This is some guy who claims to have invented "Web 3.0" telling us that traditional banks will be creating Facebook profiles on our behalf to track our credit rating? Based on what?
This is some marketing idiot who is trying to push an idea.
I'm sorry, but this stupid article doesn't do anything to make me want to get a *(&%^&*$^ Facebook account. In fact, it reinforces the perception that Facebook is overhyped, with everybody thinking it's the most significant thing to ever happen.
Biggest bank by 2015? Mandatory Facebook accounts? What drivel. Someone needs to give this guys a smack.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
In other words, please refrain from feeding the trolls. Yes, I'm aware this is the Internet, but still: try to contain the impulse.
Facebook bank? Anxiety attack. A thought that leaps to mind is that we can't have the clowns that run this world running this world. We need to kindly but firmly revolt against the wealth- and power-elites and organize human life on this planet right, decentralized and without hierarchies, IMO.
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
WTF? This guy says they are going to be a bank and the currency will be for playing games? And if you don't volunteer your information they will just create a profile for you anyway? What fucked up kind of bank is that? I don't do business with bank of america and I am pretty sure there are rules against them just commandeering my financial info and making me an account against my will.
This cocksucker is essentially saying facebook is going to own us all
like niggers on a plantation. Don't want to sharecrop? tough.
Well, fuck you, farley. I don't need your crackhead credit.
I'm sure everyone is just going to stand by and let their credit worthiness be determined by the parasites who make their living selling shit like farmville and dog wars to compulsive computerized crackheads.
Mod +1
Agree it's a load of shit. Out of the hundreds my Facebook 'friends', the ones that use it the most are generally the most retarded. If anything there is probably a direct, inverse correlation between Facebook use and creditworthiness.
http://kenrutkowski.com/biography.html
Ken Rutkowski is one of the most broadly-informed and connected people in the media, entertainment and technology (MET) market
Looks like he created/ edits his own WP page too http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ken_Rutkowski&action=history
Why do people do that?
More like Mental International, if he thinks anyone believes bullshit like that.
Close. It's actually *Mental Institutional*
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Apparently the admin desk at /. has been unmanned since April fools and they are just catching up.
I mean seriously, this is worthy of Slashdot?
The fact that this story was selected makes me seriously wonder why I come here any more...
"Also, I invented the question mark", Rutkowski added.
Proverbs 21:19
"...People who don't have a Facebook account should get one or risk having a financial profile created for them says founder and president of Metal International, Ken Rutkowski."
OK, who the hell is THIS guy to say that we all "need" to get a Farcebook account?!? Give me a break, real banks can barely manage real money, and yet we expect a social networking site to somehow manage it...better? Gee, I can't wait until my paycheck comes in the form of Farmville credits.
God knows how the hell you would ever trust Fuckbook to handle real money with their privacy policies that change with the wind. Oops, sorry, we didn't mean to reveal your checkbook transactions to friends of friends of friends, but didn't you get that memo?(Office Space)
I'm expecting Obama to call up Zuckerberg asking for a bailout soon...
I predict Facebook will be a bigger version of itself in 2015. Not a bank. Not a sparkly unicorn.
In other news, Facebook will be the largest realtor by 2020. Better sign up and purchase a Facebook mortgage or else you might miss the bubble pop.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
what the fuck is that ? i have a goodly amount of people in my facebook list, yet i havent seen a single one of them buy something from facebook, its 3rd party interests or each other.
i guess a suit is inventing a new buzzword to shake the fools' money in wall street.
Read radical news here
Will facebook still be around in 4 years? I half expected something else to have majority share by then
I just created Web 4.0, it's all magic. The cloud is gone in Web 4.0. It has become a fog. Go to the fog. It will really obscure your view of anything real.
Wonder if I'll get funding?
As for the article, what a load of BS. These social sites only have value because eyeballs are watching them and nothing more. Once the eyeballs go away, so does their value. Much like a highly watched TV show. When it's hot actors and the stations get $$$$. Once it jumps the shark, they get canceled. For if anything holds true, Facebook too will jump the shark one day.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
This comment made more sense than the original post.
Tom Geller
I have a few questions....
1) If Facebook is becomes the biggest bank, does that mean they will be considered too big to fail and have to be bailed out when they do fail?
2) Will Facebook have to comply with all banking regulations both in the States and abroad?
3) If not #2, then won't this allow Facebook to be the new money laundering scheme of the this decade?
How may years ago was it that Myspace was the big deal? Less than four I believe. And before that, there was Geocities, and AOL. Facebook may well going the same way eventually.
But I've long since deleted my facebook account, and many of my friends / family have done the same over the last few years or have stopped using it all together. I know its anecdotal evidence, but it seems to me (at least in my group of friends) that the website is already on the decline.
"People who don't have a Facebook account should get one or risk having a financial profile created for them says founder and president of Metal International, Ken Rutkowski."
This sounds like some sort of big money making scheme mixed with scare tactics to push people to get on Facebook for someone else benefit rather then their own.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
This article was nothing more than verbal diarrhea by yet another self-appointed "expert" (interchangeable with "consultant" or "analyst".)
Biggest bank? Errr... no. That would be BNP Paribas, with $36B in capital and $3T in assets. While I could see Facebook setting up some kind of money transfer service (ala PayPal), that's a very long stretch from being an actual bank
And what is this crap about credit ratings based on non-existent facebook profiles? Web 3.0? An organization that "launches" 1,000 companies a year?
Maybe Rob Enderele will hire this clown!
Suddenly those privacy leaks that happen every once in a while sound much scarier.
The empty suit. Seems to be exactly what is needed for this story.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
Facebook to apply for TARP funds from the Obama administration. :-)
[Insert pithy quote here]
This is by far the dumbest thing I've heard thus far today. It's going to be hard to top. Filing this statement and this guy in my "Where the hell are they now and how are their predictions doing?" folder to be opened in 2016.
I can't believe this hasn't been posted yet...
http://xkcd.com/605/
Ken Rutkowski should spend some of his Farmville credits on something resembling intelligence. What a piece of trash of an article.
A bank makes loans and does so by storing money and returning a percentage to its holders for holding that money.
I think you misunderstand how modern banks work. When you get a loan from the bank, that bank then packages the loan up, rates how much risk there is and sells it to someone. This is why the banking system basically collapsed - a load of high-risk loans were sold on under the pretence of them being low-risk and when this was discovered the whole thing went to hell. If the banks still worked the way you describe then this would never have happened as there would have been no reason for them to misrepresent the risk.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
I know this is a bold claim to make, but I have never before seen such twaddle posted on slashdot. I don't even know where to begin in describing how ludicrous this idea is.
we might have to face the awful reality of it not bursting (in any reasonable time period)
Other than fucking your privacy in exchange for some petty gossip, facebook delivers no measurable value. It's just light entertainment, an interactive soap opera. There's no reason to believe this bubble won't burst.
If you're after a social network that may bring some monetary rewards, look for linkedin, that's where you go to when you need a job.
Rutkowski runs the Founder Institute in Los Angeles which launches about 1000 companies year and prides himself as being the fist person to coin the term “Web 3.0” during a press conference with Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
What an Idiot! I very much doubt this guy knows anything at all.
And for the record I am coining the term "Web 4.0" right now. It is on record here and I am very proud of my new accomplishment. Brand new term, nothing similar has ever before been uttered.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
seen too many hypes of things to be the next big thing.
It's quite a logical development, really... Companies already have bigger turnovers than some states, often have their own police/security force and their own infrastructure... why wouldn't they have their own currency?
Yes, it does do foreign keys, but:
1) I'm referring to the general attitude which MySQL and fans used to have of "who needs foreign keys" back when it didn't have them.
2) FKs are only enforced with InnoDB tables, which people who are using MySQL for the speed don't use. Sure, you could use them, but why use MySQL then?
MySQL is great for general web purposes. I'd say MongoDB is fine for much web data, and it makes MySQL look like a fuddy-duddy. But not for banks.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
The increase in clouds (from cloud computing) will cool down the planet and we will have a new ice age.
Damn it. They stole the name of my Scorpions cover band.
If Facebook ever gets a bailout humanity officially becomes a doomed race.
I don't know how many years on this Earth I got left. I'm going to get real weird with it. - Frank Reynolds
I predict the day Facebook introduces a bank is the day people stop using it.
It's one thing to have friends of friends commenting on your dumb photos or status updates, but having those same people one click/exploit/phish away from your bank account? Even the most security clueless of Facebook users are going to feel uncomfortable about that.
Maybe not. After all, Google is still around...
But then again you could argue that Google adds value to all internet users through its web crawling and indexing, whereas facebook just provides one more avenue of communication for teenagers and middle aged lonely divorcees trying to get back in touch with old friends. Not the same market.
I had a facebook account at the beginning. I canceled it as soon as I realized they don't take security seriously, and I am never going back. The trade-off between perceived value and lack of privacy just isn't worth it for me.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I put $.25 in on monday, $.50 on tuesday, $1.00 today. I will be a billionaire before the middle of next month, and by June, my savings will be on par with the Worlds 2010 GDP. If I new it was that easy, I would have started saving months ago.
Farmville, one of the attributed credit sources, wasn't sufficient to hold the interest of my 9 year old for any length of time. I hear its really popular with meth heads, so maybe he meant "Facebook will corner the market on meth-heads by 2015"?
This is a completely worthless article. The guy can't stay on topic for even a sentence. “If you play games on Facebook, which, by the way 40 to 50 per cent of the time spent on Facebook is playing games, and those games – like Farmville and Mafia Wars – are paid for and you have to buy credits for that and they are called Facebook Credits.” This is exactly how I would expect the squirrel from Over the Hedge to explain it. Finally the article closes comparing Apple's and Tiffany's retail stores. How does this relate to Facebook? The guy is all over the map.
"Screwed by the USA and it's Mortgage Racket" counts.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Every new generation thinks they are the first to do something, even if it's been done by previous generations for decades.
College kids will still think it's funny to get drunk and post pictures, uneducated will continue to make stupid illogical statements that will be made fun of, and it will all be pretty new to that generation.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This sentence is from the above article: "Let me tell you why it’s important why you do.” In good English grammatical style this sentence should read: "Let me tell you why it's important that you do" This guy is in severe need of remedial education. I wouldn't take anything of the tripe that he spouts as being in any way important.
I actually feel betrayed by this article. It's as if you've stopped caring about me and my needs. I really trusted you to have something substantive behind that ridiculous headline. I guess I'm not mad at you, I'm just mad at myself -- for thinking that you were different.
This is they kind of guy who would pay $10,000 for a nice lakeside cabin in Second Life.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
I already have a 'financial profile'. Through the traditional banks and brokers that I do business with. If there's some implication that Facebook will create one for me in the absence of my utilizing their services, then they will be committing fraud.
From TFA:
Facebook is already doing deals with the banks for credit profiles.
I have no financial relationship with Facebook. If my bank or credit card company hands them any details of my financial status then my banker goes to prison.
By the way, if you don't have a profile they will make one for you so it's better for you to create it and manage it then them. That's why you want to be selective with what you put on there.
On the other hand, I can see some smart con artists creating multiple personalities on Facebook and maintaining them over the years. With stories about their yacht and condo in Monaco (good luck trying to verify property information in that country). So when some moron decides to do a credit check on them using Facebook, they'll be prime candidates for a confidence game.
Have gnu, will travel.
Dear /. -- please keep this bullshit off my timeline. Cheers, me.
I'm sure there is. But it doesn't matter. It's 2011 - banks don't care about old-fashioned criteria like 'credit-worthiness' or 'proper identification'.
That doesn't change GP's underlying point that banks are about the exchange of money - I can put it in in the form of savings and take it out in the form of loans. I don't see FB offering an equivalent service. Being able to pay into a service and take delivery of the service at some future date, or pay into a service and allow someone else to take delivery does not a bank make - even if said service sets up some arrangement with real banks to make payments more efficient.
Metamod 30 posts in 6 batches of five per day maturely mostly modding up, except for a goatse down, without playing games and you'll get some soon.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Really if you pay attention, the demographic that Facebook was built on has pretty much outgrown it. Look at the people in their mid to late 20s. Most of them have gotten away from it. Sure, they might still have accounts that they "use" but its not the same level of use. At least in my experience people in that age range have stopped updating statuses multiple times a day, stopped only sending invitations through it, and generally don't know everything that has been on facebook like they used to. I think the popularity has radiated out from that group of people who were in college when Facebook hit, to older and younger crowds. If the core is getting tired of it, it won't be long until the follow-up demographics get tired of it too. You're exactly right when you said it's just teenagers and middle aged women.
You see this trend all the time, especially on the web. lolcats were funny for a while but were mostly a nerd thing, then it slowly spread out, so by the time my less-nerdy friends (or the population at large) started to come up with "hilarious" cat pictures it was already old hat. Its called going mainstream. Facebook had a much longer lifespan for its novelty than cat pictures, so naturally the core demographic was still interested when it went mainstream. Now its losing steam and may be around for a while to come, but of course its a fad. Its not really useful at all, and there are a billion ways to do it better that don't make Zuckerberg a fist full of cash (so Facebook CAN'T compete with upcoming offerings). We just need to wait for a while. The technology that obsoletes Facebook is around, we just need to standardize it and get a couple of big players to support it. Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and the W3C will crush Facebook in the same way broadband crushed AOL.
If I can just reach out with my words and touch a butthole, just one, it will all be worth it.
1) The guy looks like Bob Odenkirk playing one of his trademark slimeweasel businessmen. Bob Odenkirk... Ken Rutkowski. Huh.
2) According to TFA, he prides himself on being the "fist person" to coin the term "Web 3.0". He does look like a fist person.
I see you've spent $500 this month on Farmville. We're denying your credit application on the basis that you are idiot.
I think in the US that any nonbank financial entity worth 50 billion or more is subject to regulation under the "too big to fail" law. I wonder what that would look like in Facebook's case?
What concerns me with all this is his comment about "Who doesn’t have a Facebook profile?".
I'll tell you who - anyone convicted of a sexual offence. You may not think someone in that situation deserves any pity - however think of this. You're not just talking about serial rapists and paedophiles, but the 16year old boy who has sex with his 14year old girlfriend and gets reported by her parents. Is he seriously trying to suggest that as well as everything else that gets in his way, he also has his credit rating ruined for life - AND an account created for him by the 'Bank of Facebook'?
Yeah - that sounds fair.
Show me a CEO that doesn't think his company's product isn't the most important innovation since fire. The graveyard of defunct companies is full of them.
I was going to say that Ken Rutkowski was like those guys who said that the dotcom bubble would never pop because it was a "new" economy and the boom and bust cycle was over. Then I googled him and read his wikipedia page and realized that he was almost certainly not just "like" those guys but actually one of them. He sounds like somebody who is always talking about how technology has made everything different. That the old rules about the economy aren't true anymore. Every now and again, you come across someone who manages to make money despite being consistently wrong about just about everything. Ken Rutkowski appears to be one of those guys.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
People who don't have a Facebook account should get one or risk having a financial profile created for them says founder and president of Metal International, Ken Rutkowski.
I don't think I'm alone here when I say, "Go fuck yourself, Ken."
Idiot.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
The thing is, you have to acknowledge the value that marketers find in lists of said people.
You know, those late night infomercials that present ludicrous offers of health cures and financial 'fixes' that could never really exist? The purpose of them is for building lists of gullible suckers. Once a shyster has a good long list of the people who actually believe they need to 'phone within the next 30 minutes to get this incredible deal' they have a goldmine of suckers to rip off.
The Facebook demographic is a goldmine for the kind of rip-off artists who are it's customers (the rip-off operators who advertise and sell on it.)
My phone number: none of them.
My bank information
My credit card numbers
My email passwords
My online shopping information: i.e. Amazon/itunes/whatever
My SSN
My home address
*anything haven't listed, that they happen to ask for in the future.*
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
Looks like they forgot to add that to the end of the story.
That guy looks and sounds like the biggest douche in the world. He claims credit for the term Web 3.0.
Well, I would like to officially coin the following terms:
- Web 4.0 ©
- Web 5.0 ©
- Web 6.0 ©
- Web n.0 ©
* Copyright 2011 - Douchebag International
I'm sure there is. But it doesn't matter. It's 2011 - banks don't care about old-fashioned criteria like 'credit-worthiness' or 'proper identification'.
Excellent. I would like one billion dollars, please.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Basically self-promotion by a huckster. And poorly written. Stuff like (FTA):
"Rutkowski runs the Founder Institute in Los Angeles which launches about 1000 companies year and prides himself as being the fist person to coin the term 'Web 3.0' during a press conference with Google CEO Eric Schmidt."
Etc., etc.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
I think I've metamodded a handful of posts ever and I still get modpoints regularly.
and I rarely actually use them. I mostly keep them for comments I spot which are genuinely informative or interesting which aren't already at 5 so most of them expire.
"People who don't have a Facebook account should get one or risk having a financial profile created for them"
Aka if you don't join Facebook we'll make sure you join.
Hey, Ken Rutkowski. You leave my financial ANYTHING alone, or I'll fucking shoot you and anyone like you.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I never metamod and I keep getting these 15 point packs. It's kind of annoying as I stop posting so I can mod. And posting anon is usually ignored, so meh. Just stick around, make your posts meaningful, and don't be a crazy douchebag.
I guess the rate of your posts also matter. If you just post 1/week or so, you are a lurker. Try to participate more and you'll be allowed to participate more.
If you find yourself not being modded up, take a breather, and only post when you have something important to say.
If you can't manage a regular rate of insightful posts, then maybe you don't have the mental capacity, worldly experience, or common sense to be trusted with modpoints.
Does anyone really think Facebook wants to subject its operations to the scrutiny of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and any state regulators in any location where Facebook has facilities? California, where Facebook maintains its corporate headquarters, has extensive banking regulations as well.
American Express used to issue only credit-cards that carried no interest charges and required full and immediate payment of all outstanding balances. That's because AMEX didn't want to be regulated as a bank.
There are 35 banks in just the United States with more assets than Facebook's stock valuation (50 billion). The three largest US banks have assets of around 2 trillion each. Total *revenue* for Facebook is estimated at $2 billion. Since banks have to hold around 12% capital (their own money, not deposits), at most FB could host $16B per year, even if all revenue were profits (which it's not). They have a long way to go to even be noticed in the banking industry. Hell, I don't even leave money in Paypal longer than a few hours. It goes to my real bank where there is some oversight and regulations. I would trust Facebook with my money even less.
Facebook and twitter.
Deleted
Seems to be the only plausible explanation for this. But if not a very late April Fools joke, then the author is a total moron. His entire life's chance at 15 minutes of fame -- gone in one big whoosh of stupidity. Nice work, genius.
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
That's not entirely true. I have gotten mod points 15 at a time a couple times a week when there have been no stories I've been interested in commenting on for a month or more.
Rutkowski runs the Founder Institute in Los Angeles which launches about 1000 companies year and prides himself as being the fist person to coin the term “Web 3.0” during a press conference with Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Rutkowski asked Schmidt what Google was doing with “Web 3.0” and Schmidt replied Web 2.0 was just a marketing term and that he was “the inventor” of Web 3.0.
The fact that someone, sometime, would eventually use the term "Web 3.0" means that the person who "claims" it is nothing more than an opportunistic douchebag. He didn't invent shit.
While I don't agree with the original article, I don't think you quite grasp the new reality of the banking world. Sure the old banks need to follow all those rules, but the precedent has been set that new banks that operate purely on the internet don't. For the biggest example see paypal, it would be really hard to argue that they don't provide banking services, yet they follow none of your original 3 points. As an asside, this is something government really needs to work to correct. Saying you aren't a bank while acting like you are shouldn't give you carte blanche to screw people over. (and no, I'm not asking for increased regulation, I'm asking to enforce existing regulations on all players in the same market)
Hold on, let me just check with the federal government to see if they will back up this loan... Yes, based on your trustworthy credentials as a random internet user and the total lack of banking regulation, we will be happy to make this transaction!
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power. -- Mussolini
"I never metamod and I keep getting these 15 point packs. It's kind of annoying as I stop posting so I can mod."
Almost same here.
I rarely metamod. Especially since the redesign made it so you don't directly moderate the moderation - now you re-moderate the comment and moderate the original moderation depending on whether your moderation agrees or disagrees with the original moderation. Is that as clear as mud?
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
In which country will a financial profile be created for those who don't establish their own Facebook bank account? In which country will people be able to establish a Facebook bank account for themselves?
U.S. law prohibits a bank from establishing a new account for anyone without positive identification and a Social Security number. Facebook, however, requires no such identification; and I certainly would not give Facebook my Social Security number.
By the way, for those of you who do not like being nickled and dimed by your current bank, consider either a credit union or a small, community-based bank. Credit unions still provide free checking accounts and no-fee credit cards. Through their Co-Op Network of ATMs, you can use ATMs from one credit union while having your account at another -- without any ATM fee for at least three transactions per month. Through their Service Center Network, you can do a teller transaction for your account at one credit union while at a competing credit union. (Picture trying to make a deposit to your Bank of America account while at a Wells Fargo Bank.) While these features might not be available at small, community-based banks, they often have free checking accounts and no-fee credit cards; they also seem to charge less than large banks for safe-deposit boxes.
Editor made a mistake, article title should read, "Facebook to be worlds biggest wank by 2015"