Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#21

Post by meowface » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:31 AM UTC

nolok wrote: post #15

meowface wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same feature is now also on YouTube, for some reason. I guess short video clips are just what the youth are into these days (Vine, TikTok, stories). I wonder if they're regretting not taking the 30 billion Google was offering. Ephemeral image/video/message sharing has become a pretty oversaturated market since their popularization of it, and there isn't really that much more innovation that can be done in that ar…

> I wonder if they're regretting not taking the 30 billion Google was offering. I know this was Google's "we need to turn into a social thing, G+ all the way" era and everything but good god, 30 billion, that figure was insane. Even if you go with "but major social app are worth a lot" just comparing it with how much was paid for whatsapp and instagram makes it even crazier.

I think the only thing even more insane than that is the creator of an app that lets you set a timeout when you send images and videos thinking $30 billion was a lowball insult and that they're clearly worth far more.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#22

Post by Retric » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:32 AM UTC

mic47 wrote: post #2

Is it just me, or do "secret" have negative connotation? Because for me it does, and I am really sad from journalist when they use "secret" or "secretly" in headlines, when it just mean internal, or just not disclosed. What is interesting that the article does not contain word secret, and they always use the word internal.

I don’t think of secret as having a negative connotation.

Secret Santa, secret key exchange, etc it’s just descriptive.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#23

Post by ian0 » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:34 AM UTC

I think FB caught onto this a long, long time ago. Back when they saw the adoption & activity rates of the then competing WA & Instagram. The only difference being at the time of this analysis FB owns most of the apps people are migrating to.

Its not that threatening - as they already proved they know how to counter through acquisition or competition and have a good track record of being able to monetise new properties.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#24

Post by madeofpalk » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:35 AM UTC

salsadip wrote: post #20

nolok wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he meant app that was a competitor on features but ALSO with a significant user base amongst the non-tech non-domain-specific population. I think Line, WeChat and a few others like that could qualify too, although they all seem very regional.

Right. I just don’t really use telegram that’s why I didn’t mention it, although of course it is a good app! It is just doing exactly what WhatsApp is doing (feature wise) minus the big user base, which is it‘s downfall

The thing about these sorts of apps is that if your network doesn't use it, then its _not_ good.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#25

Post by salsadip » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:48 AM UTC

meowface wrote: post #21

nolok wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder if they're regretting not taking the 30 billion Google was offering. I know this was Google's "we need to turn into a social thing, G+ all the way" era and everything but good god, 30 billion, that figure was insane. Even if you go with "but major social app are worth a lot" just comparing it with how much was paid for whatsapp and instagram makes it even crazier.

I think the only thing even more insane than that is the creator of an app that lets you set a timeout when you send images and videos thinking $30 billion was a lowball insult and that they're clearly worth far more.

Quote? From what I read it wasn’t about the money for the founders but they thought they had something unique going for them which they wanted to have control over instead of selling. At least that’s what they said when Facebook made multiple offers

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#26

Post by bertil » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:49 AM UTC

0x006A wrote: post #3

mic47 wrote: post #2

Is it just me, or do "secret" have negative connotation? Because for me it does, and I am really sad from journalist when they use "secret" or "secretly" in headlines, when it just mean internal, or just not disclosed. What is interesting that the article does not contain word secret, and they always use the word internal.

Is "secret" not one of the classifications for internal documents? "top secret", "secret", "confidential", "restricted". While this classification is usually used to classify access to documents of the state, it could also apply to internal documents in large organizations.

It can be but I’d be surprised if that document had anything like it. Very few things are confidential internally at Facebook. Compensation, seniority level and review are the most common “Confidential” category but they are typically marked as “personal and confidential”. A few things are permission-access-controlled (think things involving the Police where rules of evidence apply) but I don’t remember if they had a name; “Talk to legal” was the short-hand.

Source: I used to work at Facebook & I know Tom C. personally. I’ve written similar documents four years ago. There were publicly visible internally. Few people really cared outside of senior Product people.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#27

Post by cobookman » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:53 AM UTC

nexuist wrote: post #10

salsadip wrote: post #8

I am happy that we have Snapchat and iMessage as competitors to the Facebook Apps. I very much dislike their business practices of sucking up all the data they can get their hands on e.g. during the acquisition of WhatsApp where they had to promise to European [1] regulators to not combine the user data with facebook‘s and then did it anyway. Also sad that they were so successful in copying Snapchat’s story feature -…

Snapchat is not any better. Given their financials I am sure they are selling my data to anyone who is willing to pay for it.

Source to back that up? From my understanding Snap's entire spiel is user privacy

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#28

Post by stakhanov » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 10:57 AM UTC

doyoulikeworms wrote: post #5

mic47 wrote: post #2

Is it just me, or do "secret" have negative connotation? Because for me it does, and I am really sad from journalist when they use "secret" or "secretly" in headlines, when it just mean internal, or just not disclosed. What is interesting that the article does not contain word secret, and they always use the word internal.

It's the headline, and "secret research" sounds sexier than "internal research," at least to me.

I was just going to say the same thing: It's clickbait-phraseology.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#29

Post by crikli » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 11:04 AM UTC

Retric wrote: post #22

mic47 wrote: post #2

Is it just me, or do "secret" have negative connotation? Because for me it does, and I am really sad from journalist when they use "secret" or "secretly" in headlines, when it just mean internal, or just not disclosed. What is interesting that the article does not contain word secret, and they always use the word internal.

I don’t think of secret as having a negative connotation. Secret Santa, secret key exchange, etc it’s just descriptive.

Context is everything. The things you're talking about are innocuous with no negative loading or reputation.

Facebook isn't innocuous and has a high negative load and reputation. Tack the word "secret" in front of some internal research they did and it puts a darker shade on something every company does (internal research).

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#30

Post by noragami » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 11:18 AM UTC

salsadip wrote: post #20

nolok wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he meant app that was a competitor on features but ALSO with a significant user base amongst the non-tech non-domain-specific population. I think Line, WeChat and a few others like that could qualify too, although they all seem very regional.

Right. I just don’t really use telegram that’s why I didn’t mention it, although of course it is a good app! It is just doing exactly what WhatsApp is doing (feature wise) minus the big user base, which is it‘s downfall

It's miles ahead of WhatsApp feature wise, except for properly implemented end-to-end encryption, of course. WhatsApp is a joke, I still don't understand why it became so popular.