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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

#141

Post by paulie_a »

gnahckire wrote: post #110
eanzenberg wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ooh that's interesting. I'm not surprised by how great their recommendations are; Facebook's AI research team is pretty top notch. I wonder what they're doing for recommendations.

Then why is basically every recommended post on the news feed completely uninteresting garbage. I figured they just used a random function.

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

#142

Post by ImprovedSilence »

saberience wrote: post #137
czardoz wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've never used FB Watch > Conclusion: FB watch is total shit. Did you expect it to just magically know your preferences?

Are you kidding? Are you somehow suggesting Facebook shouldn't be able to know anything about me given the amount of data they've sucked up over the last decade? Given I first opened my Facebook account 10 years ago and I've been posting status update and liking various bands and TV shows, I would expect it to be able to have a fair guess of things I might like. It's recommending videos that aren't even in ENGLISH! I…

Wait, are we complaining that Facebook has too much information, or not enough? Seems like they're damned if they do, damned if they don't.

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

#143

Post by m0zg »

product50 wrote: post #129
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).

Thank you for calling this out. The best way to think about Facebook is that it is a time filler. I don't know where I read it but an average FB session lasts around 75-90 seconds. People use it when they are in a line or when they are in an elevator. It is a great way to stay in touch with what your friends are doing or communicate with them. I find it very difficult to understand what is to hate about that. Sure th…

There are negative aspects to it, to be sure. Some people get addicted. Some believe everything they read online. Some post embarrassing stuff that undoes their lives, etc. There's also a lot of tracking and data mining by FB done outside FB (I have no problem if they track everything in their own products).

But my point is orthogonal to that. My point is FB is alive and well, and the recent scandals, as damaging as they seemed PR-wise, have done basically nothing to it.

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

#144

Post by [deleted] »

adpirz wrote: post #12

It’s hard not to look at this performance and take away from it that most people really don’t care about privacy. As upsetting as the thought may be to some, Mark’s hypothesis that privacy is no longer a social norm we value seems to be proven more and more right. Despite all the scandals and hearings, their DAU are more than the population of the largest countries on Earth. Short of serious legislation, what slows t…

[deleted]

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

#145

Post by seventhtiger »

danso wrote: post #114
eanzenberg wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's crazy to me how Google almost telepathically guesses what I will search for in all of the web, but it doesn't know what videos I will watch.

YouTube's recommendation algorithm is one of the worst I use. I have to actively manage my subscriptions and many people I know mass click "not interested" on videos to try to improve it. Spotify, Amazon, Netflix, and pretty much every other recommendation works like magic by now.

There's something really wrong with it.

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

#146

Post by tossaccount123 »

ham_sandwich wrote: post #10
chollida1 wrote: post #5

Pre: - still 30% off highs Numbers: - 4Q EPS $2.38, Est. $2.18 - 4Q Rev. $16.91B, Est. $16.39B - 4Q Mobile Ad Rev. as % Ad Rev. 93% - Mobile represents 93% of ad revenue. Mark doesn't get enough credit for his big switch to mobile, - Cost of revenue up 74 percent year over year - Operating costs went up by 60%, Note this is more than their growth rate, really the only concerning thing from a good quarter - Annual cap…

Always mind boggling to see those margins on that sort of volume. It’s no question FB is one of the greatest money-printing machines ever built. Where does the growth come next though? Do they need to diversify their revenue streams away from advertising? Do they just start paying out dividends or can they really reinvest earnings at a sufficient return to satisfy shareholders?

>Where does the growth come next though

I'm amazed they haven't taken a crack at Google with a search engine in their app. Imagine how valuable combining Facebook's data with the user intent of search? A lot of users would never leave the facebook app on their phone if they could get a search engine that's halfway decent. It seems like they are leaving a ton of money on the table as it stands

If its too much to develop their own maybe they could team up with Bing or something?

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

#147

Post by djohnston »

ilovecaching wrote: post #133
jseliger wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I’ve been saying it forever. The media hates new forms of advertising because that was their missed opportunity. The media had gotten out of control regardless. They are about as factual and unbiased as a state run news organization at this point. Hopefully it will be possible to have reasonable discourse on HN again instead of the constant flaming.

you're being downvoted but i think it's crazy that people ignore the obvious economic incentives that a publicly traded company like the new york times has to wage war against a company that has siphoned their main source of revenue

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

#148

Post by why_only_15 »

chollida1 wrote: post #5

Pre: - still 30% off highs Numbers: - 4Q EPS $2.38, Est. $2.18 - 4Q Rev. $16.91B, Est. $16.39B - 4Q Mobile Ad Rev. as % Ad Rev. 93% - Mobile represents 93% of ad revenue. Mark doesn't get enough credit for his big switch to mobile, - Cost of revenue up 74 percent year over year - Operating costs went up by 60%, Note this is more than their growth rate, really the only concerning thing from a good quarter - Annual cap…

On page 9 of the PDF it shows expenses, and it lists marketing and sales as taking as much money as Research and Development, which sounds crazy to me. Facebook seems to spend an outrageous amount of money on programmers, I assume all of which goes to R&D. Do they also have this massive sales org I wasn't aware of? Where is this cost coming from?

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

#149

Post by beezischillin »

ilovecaching wrote: post #133
jseliger wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I’ve been saying it forever. The media hates new forms of advertising because that was their missed opportunity. The media had gotten out of control regardless. They are about as factual and unbiased as a state run news organization at this point. Hopefully it will be possible to have reasonable discourse on HN again instead of the constant flaming.

There's proof of the media conglomerates not liking Facebook and doing everything in their power to stop them and similar companies, one just needs to look at the whole situation surrounding the EU copyright directive, Art. 11 and 13. The main reason it almost passed and threatened to screw with the state of the internet as we know it is because major German media conglomerates lobbied for it heavily to use it as a weapon against companies like Facebook and Google. The whole directive being inspired by a similar legal solution that's been tried in the past by Spain, under similar consequences by similar actors towards the same targets -- it failed spectacularly. Regardless, media conglomerates were willing to use money to force a legal win against online entities they fear are in control of some of their revenue and future.

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

#150

Post by tozeur »

ilovecaching wrote: post #133
jseliger wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I’ve been saying it forever. The media hates new forms of advertising because that was their missed opportunity. The media had gotten out of control regardless. They are about as factual and unbiased as a state run news organization at this point. Hopefully it will be possible to have reasonable discourse on HN again instead of the constant flaming.

That’s an interesting perspective.
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