Facebook Inc. (FB): ‘Collections’ Test Didn’t Last Long

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has been working as many different angles as possible to bring in more revenue, and in some ways it helped in the most recent earnings report. However, one of the newest revenue ideas was removed after less than a month. 

Facebook Inc. (FB)

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) channeled its inner Pinterest earlier this month when it launched “Collections,” a service that allowed users to “collect” items and products they “want” and they can share those ideas with their friends and use Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) to purchase those items off-site, and the advertisers pay Facebook for the opportunity to be in the “Collections” service. However, after less than a month, some have noticed that “Collections” has been removed from the social-network site.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) sent a statement, saying that it was merely testing the “Collections” feature, and now that the the firm received an adequate amount of data from the test, it was shutting it down externally before building it out as a full-time feature of the site. “Product development on Collections has not stopped. Instead we have completed our initial test of Collections and are now analyzing the data to inform product development. For many of the product tests we do, we periodically pause the test to assess how to best progress with the product’s rollout,” Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) stated in its statement.

Several retailers were part of Collections in the early going, like Neiman Marcus, Pottery Barn and Victoria’s Secret. People at a tech Web site first noticed that “Collections” was missing, and after asking Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) about it, a spokesperson said, “The test is now complete.” The question now seems to be, were there enough Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) users who were aware of “Collections”? Was “Collections” successful enough to bring back full-time and with more retailers? Or were users turned off by Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) trying to mimic Pinterest?

Who knows when we’ll know, you know?

If there is any good news coming out of this, it might be what was posted in the Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) quarterly earnings report, which said that revenue for the quarter was up to $1.26 billion, a 32-percent increase over the same period a year ago. Of that total, about $1.1 billion (about 85 percent) came from advertising. At least those numbers might be pretty encouraging for investors in Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) stock, like billionaire fund manager George Soros of Soros Fund Management.