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Facebook buys Parse

techcrunch.com

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Re: Facebook buys Parse

#241

Post by skrebbel »

dweekly wrote: post #126
oneplusone wrote: post #4

Damn. I was going to use Parse for my app, but now I will not. What are some of the alternatives out there?

Bummer. Can I ask why this changed your mind? At FB, we're quite serious about finding ways to gift third party developers with APIs, tools, open source, platforms, whatever we can do to help. I think Parse is pretty awesome and is likely to become more so at Facebook. That's a useless opinion if it's not shared by the wider community, though. So: feedback taken seriously - we're listening. Fire away.

Users of apps based on Parse used to just be users, now they're Facebook users. Combine the fact that a core part of Parse is storing user data, and Facebook's track record of treating such data, I think you should be able to figure the rest out yourself.

If I'm going to pay a firm to store data for me, I need to completely trust that that firm is going to treat said data with silk gloves. I choose what's done with it, not my backend storage partner.

I'm going to be very surprised if the Facebook make-a-detailed-profile-of-every-person-on-the-planet department is going to keep their hands off of Parse data for the next 3 years.

Re: Facebook buys Parse

#242

Post by bgilroy26 »

luchak wrote: post #157
dweekly wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bummer. Can I ask why this changed your mind? At FB, we're quite serious about finding ways to gift third party developers with APIs, tools, open source, platforms, whatever we can do to help. I think Parse is pretty awesome and is likely to become more so at Facebook. That's a useless opinion if it's not shared by the wider community, though. So: feedback taken seriously - we're listening. Fire away.

What would worry me is that I don't understand what Facebook really wants out of this acquisition, and why this will motivate it to do right by Parse users. It looks to me like a number of other people in this thread don't understand either and are coming up with their own theories, few of which are good news for the developer.

Long story short is that Facebook needed a way to be a platform for other mobile app companies' products without building a new os.

Developer mindshare is a big deal for technology companies. It has been argued that Microsoft's dominance in the 90s was fueled by its ownership of the windows api. Because the windows api had the most users, Microsoft owned the main platform where software developers and consumers would meet. While there was often friction between MS and the rest of the software community, they had a beneficial relationship.

Microsoft got paid rent and could leverage other people's work in making their value proposition to customers (ie if you want to game seriously you'll need to run Windows). And all of those developers did not have to write their own operating system or deal with all of the different computer companies.

Because Facebook apps have turned out to be more attractive as a way to access their social media users (ie for dating services etc) than it is for general purpose software products, they need a new way to grab developer mindshare.

Amazon didn't care about making their own mobile operating system because they have AWS. That's why they just forked android. Facebook doesn't want to buy a whole new mobile operating system in 2013 because blackberry and windows phone have shown how expensive it is to try and convince customers that they are a viable competitor to android and iPhone.

Being a mobile backend as a service allows Facebook to take rents and work with developers and avoid that big marketing effort. On the other hand, they will take on similar risks to Netflix. They need to prove themselves to be as valuable to android and iPhone as Netflix is to Verizon and Comcast or they will get jerked around.

Re: Facebook buys Parse

#243

Post by jimbokun »

argonaut wrote: post #119
smrtinsert wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has a mindshare problem. I no longer consider it a driving force in my social interaction and I'm of the older generation. The younger generation seems to have abandoned it already. It's now a deposit for the occasional family photo and lately seems to be full of chain spam. When you think back to the history of social networks (AOL, Compuserv, Friendster, Myspace) these things don't have a great half-life.…

Totally disagree. I'm in college right now and Facebook+Instagram are still the social networks of choice. If anything Facebook has only lost it's novelty because it's assumed everyone has one. The only thing that sucks up more of my time is Hacker News :)

Maybe the Hacker News take on Facebook is similar to the Yogi Berra quote on Ruggeri's restaurant:

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

Re: Facebook buys Parse

#244

Post by swombat »

avichal wrote: post #227
swombat wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not addressing it, you're just making reassuring noises. Addressing it would involve explaining why Facebook actually bought Parse and how it fits in their overall strategy. There are many reasons, both honest and dishonest, why you may not be able to explain that, but until you do, you're not addressing the issue. Which is fine by me - I don't have any eggs in this basket - but the pedant in me needed to poin…

It's really not that hard to understand why Facebook "actually" bought Parse. Parse has a great product that developers like to use. Facebook has a platform and that requires making users and developers happy. Buying a product that makes developers happy and making it a part of Facebook's platform is a pretty straightforward strategy.

That's an incorrect explanation.

Facebook has a platform and that requires making users and developers happy.

No, Facebook has a platform that requires extracting as much personal data from people as possible in order to sell ads to advertisers. The developer platform, apps, etc, are all subordinate to this objective. There's no business model for Facebook to "make people happy". It is absolutely an advertising company, and Parse is/was not. So, the question remains, how does Parse fit into Facebook's advertising-driven business model?

Re: Facebook buys Parse

#245

Post by popee »

pullo wrote: post #202
fizzbar wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way, way too soon to declare G+ a miserable failure. It's the lynchpin to their long term strategy for maintaining their dominance and relevance in Search, which in turn is how their Golden Goose of ad revenue lays its eggs. Whether us schmuck users like or dislike it is irrelevant. At some point, G+ will be mandatory, as someone in Slate (i think, or maybe on quora somewhere) recently wrote...

I wondered that is what google would want, but I dont see how they can make G+ mandatory for their search customers. This would mean you would have to be signed into to google to search. And it is just not that G+ is not actively used , Facebook has been adding real users and is growing. Forget the fact I won't move to G+ until 50 of my 150 friends move to g+( which is a very low # among my friends, most of them have…

Why do you think they'll move away from social? Asking because, for me, this looks like they'r going "all in" here. They want all private data and social is missing in their chain. But, hmmm, looks like it's much harder to become Big Brothers right hand >:-)

Re: Facebook buys Parse

#247

Post by mcintyre1994 »

lmm wrote: post #222
anoncow wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't make business sense to ignore the scores using iOS.

If it drives users away from iOS then it does. Apple is the biggest threat to google.

I disagree. Google is probably the biggest threat to Apple, and Apple is probably the biggest threat to Android, but not to Google. Apple has essentially no web presence, companies that do are a much bigger existential threat to Google.

Re: Facebook buys Parse

#248

Post by voidlogic »

jacquesm wrote: post #97
Apocryphon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic that Google seems to have a social networking problem, while Facebook has a mobile problem.

If google keeps ramming their social network product down peoples throats it won't be very long before they have more than just a social networking problem.

As a user my G+ experience is so far superior to my Facebook one that I laugh every time I read something like this. I check my G+ every day because my streams are interesting and I enjoy it; I check my FB everyday because my entire extended family, pre-school friends and their dogs have accounts there.

People are crazy to think that Google should not just have one account that spans all their services, it makes business and technical sense; however, if you don't like G+ just don't use it- your Google account just might mean you have a blank place holder page there.

Re: Facebook buys Parse

#249

Post by eddieroger »

dweekly wrote: post #146
dudurocha wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he is worried, thinking facebook may kill Parse, and he will have no support.

[nod] But we did not buy Parse to kill it!

I'm sure not, and that's easy to say, but you never know how things go and you can't promise with absolution that nothing will change. To a lot of devs (me included), that's scary.

Re: Facebook buys Parse

#250

Post by mattyc »

oneplusone wrote: post #4

Damn. I was going to use Parse for my app, but now I will not. What are some of the alternatives out there?

If you're an enterprise developer, AnyPresence is a great option. Hands down the best MBaaS for enterprise, and the ONLY solution that won't lock you in (i.e., you own not just the data, but also the run-time components (code, server, etc). Check them out - http://www.anypresence.com.
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