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Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

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Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#111

Post by threeseed »

fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #9

Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate: They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. Keith Rabois (top VC), mentioned that FB has always prioritized optimization over…

I don't know where to start with this comment.

a) Meta can be accused of so many things but failing to build new, ambitious products is not one of them. They are literally pivoting the company to AR/VR and betting the future of the company on it. Quest2 is a huge success and their demoed R&D work on new headsets looks genuinely exciting and innovative.

b) You are clearly ignorant of how product management works in a large company. Bookish engineers which you weirdly use as a slur are not solely responsible for inventing and releasing new products. And so if they hired people who had less understanding of how to write scalable code you wouldn't suddenly get better products.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#112

Post by alt227 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #31
samwillis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're companies, so they have to grow or die. This is a failing of modern corporate culture. There is nothing wrong in reaching a stable equilibrium, becoming profitable, and if you are a public company, paying dividends. It’s unfortunate that it’s become growth at all costs, there is something to be said about public companies just stabilising, and paying out profits to shareholders. Now, that’s not to say Faceb…

> a failing of modern corporate culture. There is nothing wrong in reaching a stable equilibrium, becoming profitable, and if you are a public company, paying dividends It’s the failing of a culture. Plenty of companies do this. (I cautiously venture that most American companies do this?)

Its not a failure of culture, it's Capitalism.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#113

Post by fluidcruft »

shmatt wrote: post #88
gdulli wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Twitter forced the algorithmic timeline on people, someone tweeted: "Is the algorithm based what everyone else likes, or what I like? Because I hate what everyone else likes, and I don't know what I like."

I don't have TikTok, but for 2 years this is what I've been hearing from people who love it. They figured out a way to show you exactly what you're interested in, without you giving them any specific input There have been many articles about the phenomenon of the "For You Page"[1][2]. But the funny part is Meta sees this and figures - people are looking at videos, we'll do videos. And not - people are seeing what the…

I think that's probably exactly it. I don't know whether the ad ratio is different, but you're just far more likely to see something new and interesting on TikTok vs scroll pass mountains of uninteresting or meh things until something comes along. I dunno in terms of where you'd see more ads and who knows you probably do see more ads in the low-reward boring app that you have to scroll forever on. But when your thumb is hovering between launching two apps, it's not rocket science where it's going to learn to land.

And I agree with the other commenter that TikTok is good at finding novelty in ways the other is not. Things like YouTube or whatever will just show you endless variations of the things you've already liked. TikTok will throw you things you like from way out of left field.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#114

Post by PragmaticPulp »

fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #9

Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate: They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. Keith Rabois (top VC), mentioned that FB has always prioritized optimization over…

> Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate:

> They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms.

These are mature Big Tech companies. While they do empower engineers to innovate, they still task Product Managers with managing product, just like every other big company.

The product direction isn’t very related to the LeetCode interviews given to dev candidates. I think you might be missing the context for the entire product side of a company and their interview processes and incentives.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#116

Post by _jal »

yashap wrote: post #53
fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #9

Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate: They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. Keith Rabois (top VC), mentioned that FB has always prioritized optimization over…

You really think Google have a failure to innovate? Obviously search was their first, core innovation, but over the years they’ve delivered so many other successful products (many acquired, true, but even those they’ve evolved really well). Off the top of my head: - Maps - AdWords - Gmail - YouTube - Analytics - Translate - Calendar - Sheets - Docs - Drive - Meet - Slides - Drawings - Forms - Trends - Alerts I’m sure…

Edited to add acquisitions, where appropriate:

- Maps (Keyhole, Where2, Endoxion)

- AdWords (Doubleclick)

- Gmail (reMail)

- YouTube (Youtube)

- Analytics (Urchin)

- Translate (Phonetic Arts)

- Calendar (Timeful)

- Docs (Upstartle)

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#117

Post by fdgsdfogijq »

cycomanic wrote: post #98
bognition wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree with you here. The other big thing is that Zuckerberg is really good at seeing the business value in other people's ideas. He chases financial value by copying what other companies do. Instead companies like Amazon and Apple are obsessed with generating real world value for the customers and let financial value follow. Without a doubt Zuck sets the business culture, people that think like him and solve…

> Instead companies like Amazon and Apple are obsessed with generating real world value for the customers and let financial value follow. While I would argue that even Apple is mostly about execution not innovation (many of Apple innovations had been around for a while, but apple took execution to a different level), but Amazon?! What are the big Amazon innovations? The one click checkout? Having pushed selling books…

Heard of AWS, Alexa, One click checkout, Amazon Prime?

They literally invented cloud computing

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#118

Post by rvz »

winternett wrote: post #2

It's interesting that they don't care, it's a Marie Antoinette-esque attitude to their lifeblood, and ultimately what will end their dominance. The truth is they converted a free service into a pay service (the gas-lights creators and businesses into paying for visibility). The visibility, even when paid for is not very fruitful for many as well... If you run a small business like a restaurant in the US, but get 40,0…

> I really don't think TikTok is much better now either, these apps all use the technique of phasing adds and slowly reducing (external) visibility for creators, and just judging from comments I see on Twitter, the economy is imploding as a result.

Exactly. Every single social media company with VC capital has thrown their small users and creators under the bus in favour of the ad driven corporations, mainstream media and boosters coming in and ruining the platform for everyone, hence why the small creators complain about the changes made to the platform, especially the very early adopters and the hyper-active users.

I expect this to never change.

> With the economy as bad as it is, this current creator economy is not sustainable, and not fruitful. We'll all see the quality on these platforms decline as creators quit and protest, while platforms will burn up cash reserves and disappoint investors as their overhead for hosting and operations increase.

That is the basic power law that is being applied here. The early and successful creators on their have already reaped most of the rewards and the attention on there and will need to escape to other platforms in the long term, or find other ways of getting income (partnerships, deals, guest appearances, etc) to continue to be relevant. TikTok is no different to this and it doesn't matter how many users it has.

The outcome is going to be exactly the same as it was for Facebook today and the company (TikTok) is driven in the interest of its shareholders and to make money. Not its users as they are not the priority, so no-one should be surprised to see how the company will screw over its users and throw them under the bus if they ever did a redesign.

Rinse and repeat for current hyped social network of the decade.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#119

Post by saos »

fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #9

Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate: They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. Keith Rabois (top VC), mentioned that FB has always prioritized optimization over…

Well don't these ideas come from PM's? They must be hella bookish
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