In 2010, TechCrunch broke the news that Facebook was going to release a “Like” button for the whole darn Internet. Now, TechCrunch has learned Facebook is considering a “Hate” button as well.
According to Facebook’s S-1 filing, users are now generating 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day. With the Hate button, Facebook expects to at least double that. The S-1 noted “popular Pages on Facebook include Lady Gaga, Disney, and Manchester United, each of which has more than 20 million Likes.” Many inside the company think the Hates could easily top that.
When the original Like button was announced, Mark Zuckerberg made a bold prediction there would be over 1 billion Likes across the web in just the first 24 hours. Sources at Facebook say Mark is estimating 2 billion Hates on the first day. Facebook studies have shown the sad fact that people hate things on the Internet more than they like things. There’s also an internal debate on whether the new button should be called “Hate” or “Dislike.”
Since the tiny Like button makes up such a huge part of Facebook’s revenue, the introduction of the Hate button could raise Facebook’s valuation further ahead of the IPO.
Facebook has already shown they are open to changing the Like button. Earlier this month, Facebook Mobile changed the 2-Click Like button with a 1-Click Like bar.
The company has also experimented with the “Fax” button, as TechCrunch was also the first to notice.
Other buttons under consideration are the “Meh”, “Love”, “Who Cares”, and “+11″ but there is also a fear this could lead to a button explosion.
Our sources say the Hate button is not a sure thing. It’s being heavily debated inside the social networking company. This new feature would fit with Facebook’s mission to “build tools to help people connect with the people they want and share what they want” whether that’s love or hate.
While the product and sales teams favor the idea, many inside Facebook oppose it. That view is best summed up by Robert Scoble who wrote “I really hope we never see a hate button that gets wide adoption. The world has enough hate as it is.”
Since Facebook is in their quiet period ahead of their IPO, Facebook had no official comment on this report.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original...
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
San Francisco
