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The end of Facebook

blogs.forbes.com

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Re: The end of Facebook

#71

Post by phillijw »

I love Facebook for keeping in touch with friends I don't frequently communicate with. It's fun to see pictures and status updates occasionally. I have no intentions of ever leaving it (why would I?). I check it daily and it provides useful updates. The events are very useful as an RSVP service that nobody has to sign up for.

With that said, Facebook is not going to die any time soon. MySpace didn't last because it was childish and annoying. Facebook has many fixes in place that allow it to be a more grown up setting. You can ignore apps, ignore people, and the color schemes are not hideous. It just has too much to offer for it to simply die.

These claims are outrageous.

Re: The end of Facebook

#72

Post by andypants »

pixpax wrote: post #35

This recent spurt of articles about how Facebook is supposedly declining is based entirely on the Facebook self service ad tool as far as I can tell. An initial study of the numbers that the tool was reporting back was compared more recently and the differences supposedly indicate drop off in numbers. None of the subsequent articles that I've read seem to mention how the data was gathered, just that Facebook has lost…

They also fail to mention if it's a net loss. Sure, 6 million accounts were closed, but if 60 million new accounts were opened in that same time period, then there's not much point in worrying.

Re: The end of Facebook

#73

Post by johnx123 »

wccrawford wrote: post #2

I don't buy it. There's no Facebook-killer at the moment to drive these people away, and they aren't going to just give up on social networks... So instead, I think it's something else. Facebook closing invalid accounts, or something.

It may not need another killer. You get iPhone and after that you're bored and want to try another one.. same analogy..

Re: The end of Facebook

#74

Post by Ixiaus »

JonnieCache wrote: post #49
codeup wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but it's interesting that Google is doing so much more than just search today and they're not inviting the same response. Is it because the main search service has stayed the same without suffering from feature bloat?

Google makes separate products. They're well integrated, but you can use gmail without ever seeing maps, and vice-versa. Facebook on the other hand is monolithic, and that gives it a much greater appearance of omnipresent intrusiveness.

I wonder if this is true of each company's management style too - I don't know anyone in Google or Facebook personally but it does seem to me that Google values engineer autonomy more than any other company (and that is one reason for its huge success, trusting its engineers).

Re: The end of Facebook

#75

Post by skrebbel »

TL;DR: Author had a deadline to meet so he wrote about how nobody, himself included, knows whether or not Facebook will be big and awesome forever. Attached a catchy title for the pageviews that his performance will be judged by.

Re: The end of Facebook

#76

Post by wunderfool »

it will be disastrous for facebook to go public if their network is seen as being in decline or even flat. investors care more about losing users in the US than they do gaining users in developing markets.

facebook needs to IPO yesterday. facebook fatigue is real and won't go away, and if it picks up momentum things could get ugly for a group of investors that have banked on massive potential gains

Re: The end of Facebook

#77

Post by ditojim »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #14
JonnieCache wrote: post #3

This is borne out by my experience. A slowly increasing number of my friends are cutting down their use, and eventually leaving. This might just be due to my cohort of friends getting older, but the article claims it is a general trend. What is definitely true, is that nobody I know feels anything positive about facebook, at all. It is seen simply as a sinister, addictive[1] necessary evil. This is the case regardles…

Facebook needs to take a lesson from what has happened to Microsoft. Microsoft is making its best products ever but the reputation of Windows is so soured that it doesn't matter. People associate Windows with viruses and crashes. Now people use Windows because they have to, not because they want to . Facebook is in danger of suffering the same thing. Like you, I have a lot of non-technical friends who feel uneasy abo…

some people want to use windows. i'm not one of those people, but you see them around the intewebs.

Re: The end of Facebook

#78

Post by rsuttongee »

jordan0day wrote: post #57
hvs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree, but one point that he briefly mentions that I think is even more interesting is the idea of a Facebook IPO. Consider that Facebook isn't going anywhere (most likely) and will be a major company for a long time. That still doesn't change the fact that if they've already done all of the their major growing (user-wise, I'm assuming that they will continue to look for new revenue sources), their IPO c…

Yeah, at this point why would they IPO (except to get rich[er], of course)? Obviously they could grow in some unforeseen way, but if they don't have an ace up their sleeve, what business reason would they have for needing additional capital?

Well, there may or may not be a pressing business need for capital, but I'm sure a lot of the current shareholders would see an IPO as a good exit.

I suppose it's possible that facebook could still be acquired, but given how large they are, and the huge amount of cash/stock it would require to buy them, that seems unlikely to me.

Re: The end of Facebook

#79

Post by wunderfool »

makeramen wrote: post #8

This was a rather pointless article. Yes, every company will reach a point where growth slows. Yes, every company will have users who quit. Yes, valuations are high right now. Yes, many companies will get replaced by better ones that come along. And yes, it is implied that Facebook is a company. How does any of this lead to "the end of facebook"?? The author even states "Facebook is still growing very fast in terms o…

no, this is major fail from all the financial people involved. you want your company going public when there are expectations of substantial growth. instead facebook is flattening...just what i'm looking for in an IPO, low growth

facebook should have been trading for a year already. and now the market is entering what could be a protracted decline. this reminds me of companies that went public in february of 2000. so obvious the train had already left the station...

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