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Apple social media platform vs. Facebook?

S

satchmo

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 6, 2008
5,232
6,113
Canada
With Apple touting it's stance on privacy and Facebook continually failing to deliver on security, should Apple launch it's own social media platform?

Apple could with it's billion iPhone users create a compelling alternative to Facebook. It would be free of ads and would be exclusively for iPhone/Mac users. It may not directly generate revenue, but would/could drive iPhone sales, not unlike iMessage.

It would not be easy to topple Facebook (Google+ failed), but it really doesn't have to. It would simply be a safe platform, families could use...knowing their personal information is never sold or shared.
 
I appreciate the sentiments, but care to elaborate?
I'm not a huge social media person myself, but I'm thinking from a business perspective, it could be a differentiator.
As phone hardware becomes more of commodity, unique services will be key to keeping users from switching to Android.
 
We need less social media, not more.

Furthermore, if the service is exclusive to macOS, iOS, tvOS, etc. it will not drive the sale of those platforms; It'll drive people away from the service. What good is a social service on which you can't be social with everyone?

Facebook dominates because everything is on Facebook. If someone from my university class wants to set up an event or make an announcement, it'll happen on Facebook. That wouldn't work if the platform was exclusive.

I can't really describe it, but I'd also feel a bit betrayed if Apple decided to go down that route. Not because of privacy concerns, but it just wouldn't sit right with me. It's not what Apple is about. Brining people closer together, sure; But that's not really what social media tends to do.
 
I think you get to the point "when something stands out and shows everyone else how its done with products" we can;t just stop there... I could see a day when user would want Apple to "everything under the sun" ?

There was a reason why Ping failed.. But i don't think Apple could do a social site, because they would be against the one ting they care about the most 'privacy"

You can't have freedom and privacy. Because advertisers will want in on it too. Slowly, but surly Apple's "privacy model" will show signs of cracks..
 
Ping was mostly about getting people to buy more iTunes content. You were supposed to see what your friends were listening to and be able to buy it then and there. I don't blame them for trying, a lot of people liked the iTunes sidebar and there was still a lot of traffic in the store then, and you had Spotify just around the corner. Had it worked, we'd probably have it for TV shows/Movies/Books/Apps by now.

People are going to end up cross-posting to Facebook if a majority of their family/friends aren't on it, so I don't think any of the privacy benefits would actually work. But the other thing is do people feel comfortable giving their Apple ID to their extended family and friends considering all the services (Find My Friends, FaceTime, iMessage, audio calls, Apple Pay Cash) connected to it? Do they want to have to manage these settings for every person?
 
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