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Facebook loses users for the first time

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#301

Its already frustrating enough having to use Facebook just to look up a restaurant's information, the set times for a concert, or whatever about a local business or event. If all that stuff starts to disappear behind a meta-verse wall, I might just leap off the nearest bridge instead.

I wonder what percentage of Facebook's users are only there because of 3 or fewer friends, bands, groups/clubs/interests, or businesses that still use Facebook as their primary means of communication.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#302

Its already frustrating enough having to use Facebook just to look up a restaurant's information, the set times for a concert, or whatever about a local business or event. If all that stuff starts to disappear behind a meta-verse wall, I might just leap off the nearest bridge instead.

Why have I never ever run into this problem in the ten years of not having Facebook? Admittedly I use Google for the answers. But I’ve never once needed FB. Is this a regional thing? Some areas exclusively use FB for a storefront?

My local ferry https://www.libertylandingcityferry.com/ only has its service updates on FB https://www.facebook.com/LibertyLandingFerry

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#303

Its already frustrating enough having to use Facebook just to look up a restaurant's information, the set times for a concert, or whatever about a local business or event. If all that stuff starts to disappear behind a meta-verse wall, I might just leap off the nearest bridge instead.

I wonder what percentage of Facebook's users are only there because of 3 or fewer friends, bands, groups/clubs/interests, or businesses that still use Facebook as their primary means of communication.

In there just for collectible items, in my country most of the second hand sellers use facebook.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#305

I think they lost users much much earlier. It's just that most users they lost went from "I use Facebook" to "I don't want to use Facebook, but kinds still have to" (because friends, family etc.). All people below 40y I know which have Facebook fall more or less in the second category...

There's even a metric for that: Daily Active Users. I bet Facebook does not publish that number (or the historical values for it). I bet that number has been going down lately, at least for North American users. There's a reason they changed their name.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has been primarily displaced by Tiktok, which is considerably more addictive than FB. It's like zonking out in front of cable TV in the olden days, if the cable TV had access to an essentially unlimited content library of short-form dopamine hits, was capable of determining exactly what you like, and showing you exactly that forever.

With that description, I can't help but think of "the entertainment" from infinite jest.

That's exactly what TikTok is. I've tried to use it several times, but it was just too dystopian for me to keep going. It was an intensely disquieting experience seeing the algorithm try to "addict" me to the product. I just don't see the appeal in being an utterly passive consumer of entertainment generated by an AI (yes, I know humans nominally generate the content, but the secret sauce is the AI playing conductor). It reminds me of Elsa-gate. Just surreal.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#307

I think they lost users much much earlier. It's just that most users they lost went from "I use Facebook" to "I don't want to use Facebook, but kinds still have to" (because friends, family etc.). All people below 40y I know which have Facebook fall more or less in the second category...

There's even a metric for that: Daily Active Users. I bet Facebook does not publish that number (or the historical values for it). I bet that number has been going down lately, at least for North American users. There's a reason they changed their name.

That also would be skewed imho. I use messenger to communicate with my family and I do click on facebook links they sends me but that's about it - am I an active user?

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#308

And thus begins their gamble. They’re going to have to bet the entire biz on virtual. Most public companies can’t do this, but FB has a unique control structure that gives Zuck the ability to bet the farm.

Does anyone else find this on the level of batshit crazy insane? Meta, are we really going to divest so far from the physical world that the a virtual reality is worth that much? I mean VR is realistically a video game. I just don't see it but I do see desperation from FB.

I'm pretty sure every tele-technology has had folks who found them just a bit too far beyond the pale. Why call when the people you want to talk to are a walk away? Why send a telegram when you can call? Why send email when you can send a telegram? etc. I also think even if XR does become a reality, it won't be _us_ that truly buys into it, but a younger generation that grows up in it and makes their own norms in it, the way much of my generation was on the early Internet, and the next generation was on the early Web.

For me the killer application is the ability to replace the office. There's already VR software that lets you have a virtual workspace with multiple monitors in VR. It would be so much more convenient to be able to have a large virtual office available to you in VR rather than building a large, physical office IRL.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#309

I think they lost users much much earlier. It's just that most users they lost went from "I use Facebook" to "I don't want to use Facebook, but kinds still have to" (because friends, family etc.). All people below 40y I know which have Facebook fall more or less in the second category...

There's even a metric for that: Daily Active Users. I bet Facebook does not publish that number (or the historical values for it). I bet that number has been going down lately, at least for North American users. There's a reason they changed their name.

This article is literally about their daily active users number dropping.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#310
post #271
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trillion dollar tech giants are expected to GROW to justify their valuations. Look at the numbers alphabet and apple posted the last few days. Huge growth. Facebook is not only growing but much worse, shrinking. I’ve been bullish on FB from the ipo date but this seems like the beginning of the end unless the meta verse is out of this world

I've never really understood this MBA mentality because growth must stop at some point. There are only so many humans on earth. The expectation that a company can grow forever is impossible, at least until we find an alien planet with a population willing to sign up for Facebook.

Right, of course. The claim wasn't "all companies must continue growing forever or they are bad companies / their stock will crash". It was rather "Facebook in particular's current valuation is based on investors predicting it will continue to grow".

When (not if) Facebook stops growing, it will be worth _something_. Owning its stock is a bet on what that number is, and the stock price reflects the market's collective estimate.

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