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What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

nytimes.com

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Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#31

Post by libdjml »

chvid wrote: post #7

This article reads like something between a hit-piece and a I-don't-like-Facebook-opinion-piece. A similarly article could be written about Google but it is not. I think the interesting question is why not?

There are a load of criticisms you could call out about google, but suggesting that their “one primary platform and single focus (social media)” is about to collapse is not valid; they’re far too broadly invested (from mobile phones to search to email) to claim they’re about to become irrelevant.

Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#32

Post by giancarlostoro »

buboard wrote: post #24
maeln wrote: post #10

Facebook as a website can go the way of MySpace. But Facebook as a company will probably not. The subject is touched a bit toward the end of the article but the reality is this: Facebook has reached a critical mass, as a company, that MySpace never did. As such, they can just continue to buy all the other new social network that pop-up and make sure that they have a dominant position in the social network market. Unl…

It doesnt even need to continue as a social network. They have a strong foothold in AI and are leading strong with their own DL framework.

Serious question but what are examples of this? I can usually think of all the AI things Google (and Microsoft, Apple and Amazon) is (/are) working on, I'm not all that familiar with Facebook and AI.

Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#33

Post by kgraves »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #32
buboard wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesnt even need to continue as a social network. They have a strong foothold in AI and are leading strong with their own DL framework.

Serious question but what are examples of this? I can usually think of all the AI things Google (and Microsoft, Apple and Amazon) is (/are) working on, I'm not all that familiar with Facebook and AI.

https://research.fb.com/category/facebook-ai-research/

Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#34

Post by glogla »

jasode wrote: post #13
maeln wrote: post #10

Facebook as a website can go the way of MySpace. But Facebook as a company will probably not. The subject is touched a bit toward the end of the article but the reality is this: Facebook has reached a critical mass, as a company, that MySpace never did. As such, they can just continue to buy all the other new social network that pop-up and make sure that they have a dominant position in the social network market. Unl…

>, they can just continue to buy all the other new social network that pop-up Yes, many people have this fatalistic perspective about FB but they shouldn't because Zuckerberg can't buy all the competition. Buying a company requires a willing seller [0]. Consider that Facebook itself rejected offers from Viacom (~$1.5 billion), Yahoo (~$1 billion), Microsoft ($24 billion), etc.[1][2] The bigger companies such as Micro…

> Yes, many people have this fatalistic perspective about FB but they shouldn't because Zuckerberg can't buy all the competition.

But the competition will have to get money somewhere. Either from VCs (who will sell) or somewhere else, like from the users - but then Facebook can just copy the product and make it free, and take over that way.

Software is eating the world. In real world, there's a place for second best woodcutter, and for third best and for millions more. There's not place for second best Twitter or second best Facebook, or "the second best new thing", and people will always rather pay with their data than with money.

Facebook Google and Microsoft and Amazon and other megacorps are here to stay. They are humanity's future. We are in a pit and will never climb out.

...

You know, maybe nuclear war isn't such a bad thing after all.

Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#35

Post by kazen44 »

mr_toad wrote: post #22
pavlov wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook today is in the same place as Microsoft in 2003-2007. Bad old API decisions made in pursuit of quick marketshare have come back to haunt. The main product is seen as lackluster and stagnated. Entries into new markets are seen as "me too" and out of sync with the brand image (Portal and Lasso might be Facebook's Zune). Microsoft survived all that and is now the world's most valuable corporation again. Faceboo…

Microsoft lives on enterprise sales; AD domain servers, CALs, Exchange, SQL server. I’m not sure Facebook has an equivalent product.

Also, mosts of microsofts enterprise products are of quite good quality. especially active directory.

Not to mention the insane, massive momentum microsoft has in terms of MSP's/Partners..

Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#36

Post by user5994461 »

rapsey wrote: post #21
user5994461 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These offers were a joke. Try adding one zero. Pretty sure VC would give a billion with little strings attached to any company that's threatening Facebook. Every seller has a price. WhatsApp went for $16B.

They were not a joke. They were at an earlier stage of growth and all those prices were fair for what it was at the time.

Don't be surprised when a company in early stages of growth (tens of millions of users with great potential for more) prefers to continue than take an early exit.

The Microsoft deal looks incredibly one sided: https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-ballmer-microsoft-trie...

Anyway, prices are up. There is more cash available now than there was 10 years ago, not to mention than being acquired by Google/Facebook/Microsoft is a better brand name than Viacom. With funding rounds in over a hundred millions, the founders might not even get a good cut out of a (single) billion dollar sale.

Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#37

Post by buboard »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #32
buboard wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesnt even need to continue as a social network. They have a strong foothold in AI and are leading strong with their own DL framework.

Serious question but what are examples of this? I can usually think of all the AI things Google (and Microsoft, Apple and Amazon) is (/are) working on, I'm not all that familiar with Facebook and AI.

Pytorch

Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#38

Post by kazen44 »

AstralStorm wrote: post #19
grecy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are plenty of examples of companies facing a saturated market Globally though? Are there companies that have saturated the entire planet. Facebook use is BOOMING in the developing world. I've been moving around Africa though 30 countries for 2.5 yeas now - it's rare to meet someone that doesn't have Facebook and whatsapp.

At a certain point, Facebook might face being either broken up or outright nationalized in some places...

the seperation of whatsapp and facebook has recently been up to debate. Mainly for apperently breaching terms of the acquisition.

Whatsapp is so universal it should really be either a federated system or a public utility.

Re: What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?

#40

Post by deanmoriarty »

FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #29
hnauz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm starting to suspect they are trying to extort better ad prices from Facebook. This won't stop until they cave. I hope they don't cave. The press already has enough power as it is.

Good. The press should have more power than corporations. Especially corporations with the moral standing of Facebook.

In what sense is NYT not a corporation like FB, looking after the interest of their shareholders? They are public and listed on NYSE with a market cap of $4B, and their stock has still to recover from the 2002 prices, which probably makes all the main shareholders pretty mad considering the large market bull run of the past decade.

Mind you, I'm not defending FB in any capacity, I just find it odd to not treat NYT articles like what they are: just another biased piece put out by a biased giant media corporation.

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