I ultimately would like to create a facebook alternative. I understand that a lot of people also share my desire. My question is, should I go for it, or look for a MUCH smaller niche?
Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
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Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#2The answer is within you.
But without a great idea, excellent execution, a lot of technical talent and a pile of money, I'd choose the much smaller niche.
Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#3If you were Mark Zuckerberg asking HN "Compete with MySpace?" a few years ago, you'd likely get the same advice you'll get now: they're way out in front of you and you'll have a much better shot at success if you pick a different niche.
The Bad News: You'll almost certainly fail if you try to take on Facebook.
The Good News: If you succeed, you'll almost certainly be a billionaire.
If you wanted to do this, I'd recommend reading up on what the Diaspora guys are doing and beat them at their game rather than attacking Facebook head-on.
Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#4The question I'd be asking myself is, what do you have besides the desire? Do you have some other advantages (contacts, technology, funding) that makes this even slightly plausible?
If all you have is the desire, you might as well take on General Motors.
Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#5You have to come at them obliquely. If you set out to build a better social networking site for everybody you'll fail, because they have more resources and more expertise.
Instead, try to figure out a niche that they're failing at - either an activity or a population of users - and that can be expanded into a full social networking site as it grows. Twitter's attempting to do this with status messages, Zynga with casual games. There've got to be a bunch of other sub-activities that people do on FaceBook that aren't well supported...tie into one of those, then gradually expand your usage base until you're better than FaceBook at everything.
Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#6[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#7If you were Mark Zuckerberg asking HN "Compete with MySpace?" a few years ago, you'd likely get the same advice you'll get now: they're way out in front of you and you'll have a much better shot at success if you pick a different niche. The Bad News: You'll almost certainly fail if you try to take on Facebook. The Good News: If you succeed, you'll almost certainly be a billionaire. If you wanted to do this, I'd recom…
Bad advice.
If your goal is money, just spend your money on powerball tickets since your chances are much, much greater.
If you do what you love because you're passionate about it, and you're exceptionally talented at what you're doing, rich is a natural byproduct.
Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#8The question I'd be asking myself is, what do you have besides the desire? Do you have some other advantages (contacts, technology, funding) that makes this even slightly plausible? If all you have is the desire, you might as well take on General Motors.
Well...I'm already in a better capital position than them ;)
Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#9This is an incredibly hard and most likely frustrating thing to do. Social networks require momentum to work. In other words, I won't join your social network unless most of my friends are there. Facebook was able to gain traction on MySpace because it started with a niche (colleges), LinkedIn also has a niche (business). Perhaps you can start with some sort of niche (furries?) and if the user experience is good, that community may extend it to their friends.
Re: Ask HN: Compete with Facebook?
#10If you were Mark Zuckerberg asking HN "Compete with MySpace?" a few years ago, you'd likely get the same advice you'll get now: they're way out in front of you and you'll have a much better shot at success if you pick a different niche. The Bad News: You'll almost certainly fail if you try to take on Facebook. The Good News: If you succeed, you'll almost certainly be a billionaire. If you wanted to do this, I'd recom…
Bad advice. If your goal is money, just spend your money on powerball tickets since your chances are much, much greater. If you do what you love because you're passionate about it, and you're exceptionally talented at what you're doing, rich is a natural byproduct.
Bad advice? The only advice I gave was that if he decided to take on Facebook, to attack them from an angle similar to Diaspora's.
I agree that his odds of winning the Powerball are probably higher.