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Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

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Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#111

Post by m0zg »

trophycase wrote: post #108
m0zg wrote: post #60

I hope this will pierce the HN anti-FB bubble somewhat. It's dangerous to believe one's own BS. FB is here to stay, although I do believe it will wither in the long term (5+ years).

It's really not a HN bubble. Facebook the site/app has peaked for the most part, both people I know who are currently in high school do not use it and have never made a "Facebook" page. Now Instagram is a completely different story of course.

I happen to have a son who is currently is high school. While it is true that he (and likely his peers) is not a heavy user of FB, he does use it to coordinate events, and he does use Instagram and WhatsApp a lot. "FB" is not just "FB the site". If you listen to their earnings calls, a lot of time is devoted to Instagram in particular at the moment.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#112

Post by trophycase »

eanzenberg wrote: post #70
pavlov wrote: post #44

Facebook is a weird mass-market product because the average American tech industry pundit has very little visibility into how it’s actually used around the world. Take Facebook Watch. Ask a journalist or HN commenter, and they’ll tell you that it’s a content wasteland, a flop, a waste of investment. Here’s what Zuckerberg said about Watch on the earnings call: "There are now 400 million people who use it every month,…

I was super impressed on the recommendations from FB watch where I just kept it auto-playing the next and the next video. Their tech isn't as good, their videos are choppier than youtube and netflix, but their recommendations were insanely good.

What kind of video content is there?

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#113

Post by jseliger »

pavlov wrote: post #44

Facebook is a weird mass-market product because the average American tech industry pundit has very little visibility into how it’s actually used around the world. Take Facebook Watch. Ask a journalist or HN commenter, and they’ll tell you that it’s a content wasteland, a flop, a waste of investment. Here’s what Zuckerberg said about Watch on the earnings call: "There are now 400 million people who use it every month,…

In reality, it appears that there is a media scapegoating crisis, not an actual crisis, at or with Facebook: https://jakeseliger.com/2018/11/14/is-there-an-actual-facebo...

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#114

Post by danso »

eanzenberg wrote: post #70
pavlov wrote: post #44

Facebook is a weird mass-market product because the average American tech industry pundit has very little visibility into how it’s actually used around the world. Take Facebook Watch. Ask a journalist or HN commenter, and they’ll tell you that it’s a content wasteland, a flop, a waste of investment. Here’s what Zuckerberg said about Watch on the earnings call: "There are now 400 million people who use it every month,…

I was super impressed on the recommendations from FB watch where I just kept it auto-playing the next and the next video. Their tech isn't as good, their videos are choppier than youtube and netflix, but their recommendations were insanely good.

I wonder how much of that has to do with how much FB knows about you and your interests, and your friends and their interests? With YouTube, I honestly don't get any sense that it uses what Google surely knows of me via Search and GMail, e.g. anything related to Chicago, or germane to my political inclinations or personality. Instead, it seems wholly based on my viewing history. Which has some benefits, of course (I get what I click on), except when it makes inferences on outlier activity. e.g. if I click-through to a flat earth conspiracy video for a few curious laughs, it naively thinks I must have an appetite for more.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#115

Post by mastazi »

yesenadam wrote: post #98
mastazi wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, it depends on GP's level of English language proficiency. If it is at least average, then he did make the claim. AFAIK "... or B" is a common idiomatic expression used to convey, in a sarcastic tone, the fact that the speaker disagrees with A, and considers B to be true.

Sure, but saying (or sarcastically hinting) that you believe B (that you 'consider B to be true') is still a different thing from saying ('claiming') that actually B.

Oh OK I see what you mean, yes I agree with you then.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#116

Post by yumraj »

nzbahz wrote: post #43
yumraj wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that is why you need regulation to drive change.

So your point is that people must care about it, and if they don't it doesn't matter because we'll take away Facebook anyway?

If we went by majority and popular opinion all the time there would still be slavery, segregation would still be a thing, same-sex marriages would be illegal, there would be no abortion rights and so and so forth.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#117

Post by [deleted] »

pavlov wrote: post #44

Facebook is a weird mass-market product because the average American tech industry pundit has very little visibility into how it’s actually used around the world. Take Facebook Watch. Ask a journalist or HN commenter, and they’ll tell you that it’s a content wasteland, a flop, a waste of investment. Here’s what Zuckerberg said about Watch on the earnings call: "There are now 400 million people who use it every month,…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#118

Post by felix_nagaand »

mevile wrote: post #41
Barrin92 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is research being done on targeted advertisement, and apart from the obvious effect of altering your behaviour and your attention, there has been research shown that it can go as far as changing self-perception.[1] So to claim that there is no downside to targeted marketing is simply false. We have very little understanding what sort of effects it has on consumers, and as far as we know they're not all good. Th…

Fair enough, but it's up to each individual to learn about these details and then make a decision if they still want to use Facebook. The media is doing their job reporting on this, and everyone else can learn from this and decide that hey, maybe using Facebook products are not worth the harm. Or maybe they are fine with it and like the relevant ads and continue to use Facebook. If social media makes you unhappy just…

Just like how it's up to each individual to decide whether they want to be a heroin a addict.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#119

Post by chillacy »

zepearl wrote: post #49
cm2012 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things tend to smooth out at high volumes.

Well, even if the volume is very high, the scandals had planetary coverage, therefore I would still expect to see some kind of impact? Or would it still be too little to show a variance in the trend? Dumping here links of DAU/MAU charts of other apps (no specific selection - it's all what I was able to find): MAU - WeChat: https://www.statista.com/statistics/255778/number-of-active-... - Twitter: https://www.statista…

> the scandals had planetary coverage, therefore I would still expect to see some kind of impact

That would assume that news is accurately reporting reality. News is a business as well, you create issues, pile on, and gather ad impressions. There's definitely built-in pressure to exaggerate as a result.

Some of the most egregious is attributing short-term market trends with specific political issues (as opposed to noise or changes market fundamentals).

The darker side is when how news companies can shape public perception. In this case, the business models of the news are under attack by content aggregators like facebook and google.

Re: Facebook shares shoot up after strong Q4 earnings despite data breach

#120

Post by chillacy »

randomsearch wrote: post #82
yoz-y wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people do love it. Not the company, of course, but many find the service it provides invaluable. Same goes to WeChat for example, I know quite some people who can't give it enough praise and it is arguably a worse offender than Facebook in all conceivable aspects.

What kind of things do they love about Facebook? I’d be interested to hear.

Again, not the company, but the service it provides. Like, I hate flying United but if they offer a cheaper price I'll do it.
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