Question: would the world be better or worse if Facebook vanished tomorrow?
Facebook’s Platform Opportunity
11–13 of 13 posts
Re: Facebook’s Platform Opportunity
#12I have a feeling that technology companies that have as their primary source of income advertising (aka Google & FB) are going to encounter major problems in the next decade for a couple of reasons. 1. The growth period for distribution for digital ads is basically over. We're firmly in the consolidation period and Google and FB have taken the majority of the digital ad market. There's basically no room to grow into,…
I basically agree with you, disagreeing on just point: I think (and hope!) that VR hardware like Oculus Quest and the accompanying media store might get big. I rarely use FB (mostly for shamelessly plugging new books I write) but the Oculus device pulled me back in a little. Currently, Oculus entertainment like Lucas Arts’ Vader Immortal trilogy is such fine entertainment that it blows me away. Other Oculus activitie…
> I can imagine a future Oculus Quest as being a primary way to interact with the Internet, streaming entertainment, immersive 3D games, etc. I think FB has a lot of headroom for how big this business could get.
100%. if they get it right.
Facebook as a company was entirely doomed long-term until they bought Oculus (should that have been allowed?). VR is going to explode in the next ten years, and if Facebook plays its cards right it will become a VR platform company instead of an ad company. And that VR will be far more stable than faddish social networking or ad spam. For most people I know Facebook is dead, and Instagram's demise is just one gimmicky app launch away (TikTok++).
I'm gutted about Facebook's purchase of Oculus personally, because (unlike the article) I think Facebook's behaviour has been absolutely reprehensible, including its refused to remove outright, hugely damaging, political propaganda from its platform for the sake of profit. I really don't want a company with that culture owning the VR space. I pray it won't.
Re: Facebook’s Platform Opportunity
#13I strongly believe Facebook is missing out on becoming a cloud platform. I drew up my thoughts with Stratechery-like pictures. https://telegra.ph/Facebook-Social-Services-FbSS-a-missed-op...
My impression is that Facebook's engineers are unlikely to be able to compete with Google's and Amazon's in that space. If so many of them are writing PHP, how does that translate to building cloud infrastructure services, for example?