Thanks to our friend Bruce Stewart for pointing out this article in Slate Magazine which compares Ikea to Facebook — in that there is economic brilliance in getting your customers to do the work for you. From the article:

 [The] defining idea behind Wikipedia, Facebook, and blogging platforms such as WordPress is that if you give people the right tools, they’ll use them to create wonderful things in collaboration with each other or with the organization that provides the catalyst.

Facebook, like Ikea—and like Microsoft—has mobilized an army of independent suppliers. In Facebook’s case, they are developers who produce applications that can be plugged into the Facebook platform. In all these cases, the idea is the same: If Facebook (or Ikea) can woo the customers, independent suppliers will be queuing up to help, and if the independent suppliers are queuing up, Facebook (or Ikea) should be able to woo the customers.

Plus, the author, Tim Harford, reminds us of the urban legend that 1 in 10 Europeans were conceived in an IKEA bed. That is a fun stat.