Quote: (11-29-2017 05:57 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:
Quote: (11-28-2017 11:37 PM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:
But anyone claiming that people should just create their own platforms is only demonstrating their naievity on matters of market strangulation and crony capitalism.
A couple of other points to bring this home.
Facebook paid around 19 billion for Whatsapp. I doubt it was simply because the liked the name. They did it because of Whatsapp's growth. Surely Facebook could have built their own app to push Whatsapp out of the market. Nope and I believe they did try to build their own but I could be mistaken.
It's called Messenger and it's doing tremendously well. You need a FB account to use it and on the Android store it has over a billion downloads.
It's become as popular as Whatsapp:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/14/facebook...tsapp.html
I'm not a business strategy genius nor can I say what went through Zuckerberg's head when buying WhatsApp. But my guess: FB saw Whatsapp growth, realized they couldn't create a competitor in time. Bought Whatsapp, killed its development (anyone else noticed Whatsapp hasn't improved at all in the past few years) and let Messenger get better and better.
I see functions on Messenger that I don't see on WhatsApp. For example when you text with friends on Messenger and set plans, it asks if you want to add it to your calendar (a bit of AI there).
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Snapchat is also another platform that grew quite big. Facebook even tried to buy them out without success.
Snapchat is struggling. Both Messenger and Instagram (bought by FB) have similar features now that are slowly killing SC. Market strangulation at play right now.
Zuckerberg isn't an idiot. I'm sure he knows how to play the long game.
But to recap:
Instagram: bought out and completely integrated into FB
Whatsapp: bought out and being made obsolete
Snapchat: users are bled out through Messenger and Instagram
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Facebook shouldn't exists since the Google behemoth built their own social platform to compete with Facebook. That didn't work.
FB recruits from the same pool as Google - highly sharp kids from top tier schools. Zuckerberg, had he not started FB, would've almost guaranteed ended up at Google or another massive SV company. You can't crush your competition if they're just as talented as you are.
And that's maybe the crux of the problem: the few people that could actually upend the Googles and Facebooks of the world have the exact same political inclinations. And that goes for the vast majority of programmers that work in SV.
What do you need to create a multi-billion dollar software company: entrepreneurial spirit, which is really openness on the big 5 personality traits. What's the best predictor of liberalism - openness...
You can see this in the blockchain sphere. Ethereum for example is a really hot tech right now. The main guy, Vitalik...yeah open border supporter, donates to the SENS foundation (those SV weirdos who want to keep people alive for centuries) and clearly swings to the left hard. You can't separate the two. He had a bit of an awkward moment recently - Gab decided to do an ICO on Ethereum. One of the guys associated with Ethereum - Vinay Gupta - said he didn't want Nazis on Ethereum. Then Vitalik had to step in and say he doesn't want to censor Gab as it beats the point of a blockchain technology. But from his wording, you could tell he wasn't exactly excited about Gab running in Ethereum.
That's actually the big issue: anyone who could potentially take down FB or Google with superior products would swing liberal anyways. We're not going to win against SV with more tech.
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I've seen Microsoft try to copy other products with huge failures.
I'm not sure Microsoft should be counted towards the SV crowd. For starters they're not in the Bay area, but in general they've stayed pretty neutral about politics and haven't exactly censored people as far as I know.
As for MS and products - they were a bit lost for a while, though they're doing well again now. Their Surface line competes quite well with Apple products, something most people couldn't have imagined a few years ago.
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Regardless of how much money these companies have, time and time again has shown that throwing a lot of money to copy others does not work. I dare say most of the time.
I strongly disagree based on what I wrote above about Whatsapp and Instagram (being bought out with money) and Snapchat (getting slowly destroyed).
Facebook should terrify you. If it doesn't, read this:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/...oogle-plus