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Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

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Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#41
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that many companies come back from scandal but it really depends on the impact to the bottom line. Chipotle had tremendous negative press years ago from food poisoning issues and hasn't recovered since. Even though the number of instances are in the single digits compared to millions of burritos served on a monthly basis. With social media boycott campaigns it's hard to separate the noise from impact on the…

The question always is - Does the Average person own the problem(or care) to actually do something about it? Most of the examples from above - Intel, UA, Wells Fargo etc had serious issues. But the average person didn't own the problem. Today if you talk to an average person about Intel's issues they will respond - Is my laptop/pc working without issues? If yes. Then I don't care, let Intel come up with a patch. Chip…

You're quite possibly right, but don't underestimate the huge difference between 'some friend telling them about risks' and 'media hysteria'.

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#42
post #14
post #8

Facebook isn't going to disappear, but the company's valuation has fast growth baked in the cake. We're already seeing dramatic deterioration in DAUs and minutes per user. This episode will cause a few users to leave Facebook completely, but many more will use it less. And that deceleration in the growth rate will need to be offset with an acceleration in earnings and cash flow for the stock price to increase from he…

Most people i've seen move away from facebook ended up in instagram and whatsapp. So i'm not worried for the stock in the long term. They do however need to prepare for the post-instragram era. Not sure what it's going to be.

I've been curious about what the effects are of people moving to Instagram and WhatsApp.

I'm not too familiar with the former, but am I correct in assuming it's less useful, compared to FB proper, for both ads and information gathering?

And with WhatsApp, if everything is indeed end-to-end encrypted, would this not be even more the case? Instead of a steady supply of chats, photos, location data, FB would 'only' have metadata to work with. And ads are probably not really a realistic option at all.

Unless I'm wrong about all that, I imagine the value of these two platforms is significantly lower than the original value of Facebook (to them, anyways)

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#43
post #11

The stock will come back, just as Wells Fargo, United Airlines, and Intel stock came back after their scandals. Facebook in particular will come back because there is no alternative social network with nearly as many people on it. The fundamentals of the business aren't really at risk -- most of the users will stay. The impact of potential privacy-related regulation is already priced in to a large extent because ever…

It's true that many companies come back from scandal but it really depends on the impact to the bottom line. Chipotle had tremendous negative press years ago from food poisoning issues and hasn't recovered since. Even though the number of instances are in the single digits compared to millions of burritos served on a monthly basis. With social media boycott campaigns it's hard to separate the noise from impact on the…

>With Facebook it will really be about how many people truly delete Facebook

Its also about action seeding, for later events. With each strike like this some people leave and its likely they are early(ish) adopters, and also likely that they are opinionated ones (just my theory). So their leaving reduces the quality of the network, for the bulk of passive users. And I know (anecdotally) few passive users. People who just read and never do any comments or likes. So the value of the network goes down for them. And they may then spend lesser time. Or may have lesser satisfaction. So network effects brought it to where it is, and they also work very well in the other direction.

On the other thread on HN today, on WhatsApp founder, I wonder if they wouldn't have sold to Facebook (of all the players), what would have been the social media landscape be like today?

I am just hoping, like I am sure many others on HN, that this event finally seeds an open social network, which works like emails do.

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#44
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Disclosure: I bought more FB today May be you can consider the moral side of what you are doing, if you care. This makes me really sad. People say, they care about privacy - theirs and others'. But they are okay making money investing for the same.

How does investing in Facebook stock help Facebook? It's not like Facebook gets the money. The guy you buy the stock from gets the money. You know what would do good in the world? Invest in evil companies and use the profits to fund advocacy against what they are doing. Turn their success against them. But if you refuse to invest in companies you don't like, it makes no difference to them at all.

> How does investing in Facebook stock help Facebook?

Buying stock increases demand, thus increasing the price of a stock unit. That, in turn, benefits those who own it (which I'm guessing is primarily the CEO and the shareholders)

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#45
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people i've seen move away from facebook ended up in instagram and whatsapp. So i'm not worried for the stock in the long term. They do however need to prepare for the post-instragram era. Not sure what it's going to be.

I've been curious about what the effects are of people moving to Instagram and WhatsApp. I'm not too familiar with the former, but am I correct in assuming it's less useful, compared to FB proper, for both ads and information gathering? And with WhatsApp, if everything is indeed end-to-end encrypted, would this not be even more the case? Instead of a steady supply of chats, photos, location data, FB would 'only' have…

The WhatsApp client could still learn your interests from your conversations and request ads related to them from the server.

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#46
post #38
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like Facebook to keep up with friends who I don't get to see very often...For example, I literally haven't seen some of my high school friends since we graduated 22 years ago, but I know all about their kids and families and their recent successes at their jobs. Why is that so useful though? If they were really important to you personally, you'd have kept in (active) touch with them. If you don't live in the same…

I can't really describe it, other than to say it makes me happy to know that the people I grew up with are thriving. That all that time we spent together in our youth was building a strong foundation for ... something.

Also to add to that, when I travel for my job, or just travel in general, I sometimes have one-off meetups with people I haven't seen in ages.

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#47

A lot of commentary here (not all) seems to miss one critical point: what is the inherent value of Facebook to its users, and has THAT been recently degraded? Controversy aside, this will be the big factor behind an exodus from Facebook, and I would argue that for months if not a year or more, Facebook has ceased to provide value to an enormous portion of its user base.

If by users you mean the people with Facebook profiles, then the value to them doesn't matter, only engagement matters, being addictive and depressing is a winning strategy here, at least short-term. What matters is the value of Facebook to its customers. If users lose touch with the platform, consume less ads, and yield less data, then that will matter to Facebook.

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been curious about what the effects are of people moving to Instagram and WhatsApp. I'm not too familiar with the former, but am I correct in assuming it's less useful, compared to FB proper, for both ads and information gathering? And with WhatsApp, if everything is indeed end-to-end encrypted, would this not be even more the case? Instead of a steady supply of chats, photos, location data, FB would 'only' have…

The WhatsApp client could still learn your interests from your conversations and request ads related to them from the server.

Isn't all that end-to-end encrypted?

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#49
post #9
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is a social network needed. Maybe because I am mostly a loner so I don't get it. I was on Facebook for few years as more people that I knew got on it just made get off it.

I'm not a loner, but I did find that it wasn't that hard to adjust to not having FB. One imagines all the things you'll miss out on by not having it, but honestly, you don't need to see what the deepest crevices of your social network are up to. People you're actually close to matter 100x more, and you're going to stay in touch with those people regardless.

I also find that (at least in my social network) many friends don't broadcast their lives (and rightly so), so you need to talk to people anyway to get the real picture. What you see in a social network is limited to content that people want to broadcast.

Re: Facebook lost more than Tesla's market cap

#50
post #22
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like Facebook to keep up with friends who I don't get to see very often. One on one communication with everyone would be untenable. The broadcast nature of Facebook (and Instagram) makes it perfect for keeping up with what my friends are doing. For example, I literally haven't seen some of my high school friends since we graduated 22 years ago, but I know all about their kids and families and their recent successes…

I've also gone 20+ years not seeing friends from high school and college. I suppose I could be more informed about their lives, and they about mine, if I were sharing that stuff on Facebook. But I also think that if any of us really cared, we'd take the time to make a call or send an email every once in a while. A few of us do, but mostly we don't. If that effort is too much, how important is the friendship? Facebook…

But I also think that if any of us really cared, we'd take the time to make a call or send an email every once in a while

The secondary role Facebook fills for me is as an address book with up to date contact info for all these people.

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