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The social network industry is pretty new so who knows how it'll evolve. But for both of the market leaders that have failed, the reasons are pretty obvious

1. Friendster failed for tech reasons - they grew faster than their servers could support. Half the time you'd try to log in and your page wouldn't load. Eventually everyone got fed up and moved to Myspace

2. Myspace failed because they didn't control the user experience. People would log in and find a ton of spam. They'd go to other peoples pages, which were flooded with javascript, and their web browser would crash. Eventually everyone got fed up and moved to Facebook

Facebook doesn't have these issues. On top of that, it looks like it's paying attention to what their competitors are doing and making sure they offer the same thing. When Foursquare's geolocation got popular, Facebook ripped it off with Facebook Places. The timeline concept and cover picture are ripped off directly from Path. When Google+ came out and advertised itself as having better privacy controls, Facebook tweaked its own privacy controls, made groups easier to use, ripped off Circles, etc. Instagram has a social network based entirely off pictures, Facebook realizes in 2012 pictures are a primary function of social networks so they buy it and integrate it.

Pinterest is probably the next big competitor so I'm guessing FB will probably rip off and integrate how people are linked through activities. If they're smart, FB will integrate blogging somewhere down the line, seeing how microblogs and traditional blogs like Xanga also function as social networks.

Facebook looks like they're trying to become the behemoth of social networks, adding every feature its competitors innovate. Most of its competitors are essentially barebones social networks distinguished by 1 or 2 original ideas. So Facebook rips off those ideas and removes the threat. Since nobody is suing anybody for ripping off features in this industry, their strategy seems to be working.

Your assumption is that Facebook fills an actual void and isn't anything more than a time sink.

The real question is when will people realize that 99% of your "friends" don't care that you went to a baseball game or your puppy got a new toy?

Facebook is growing because people get the illusion that they are the center of attention and that other people care. 99% of the stuff posted on Facebook simply goes into the "void".

I find it ironic that social networks are creating a generation of anti-social human beings that know how to communicate online but lack the social skills necessary for face-to-face contact. You know, what society used to do. :)

Exactly. This upcoming generation is screwed in so many ways.

Facebook offers absolutely nothing that text messaging and email doesn't except for the "look at me, look at me, I need attention" angle.
 
Has anyone noticed that if you don't allow Facebook Camera access to location services it tells you that it cannot access your camera roll because of that? Which pretty much makes the app worthless. But the kicker is that with the normal Facebook app you can block access to location services but still access the camera roll ...

Seems like they are trying to trick people into sharing their location.
 
Except for that whole stock IPO thing :rolleyes:

Their botched IPO has nothing to do with what I said :rolleyes:

But since you brought it up, Oh no! Morgan Stanley overpriced the IPO and shareprice went down instead of up. That MUST mean Facebook is doomed

Your assumption is that Facebook fills an actual void and isn't anything more than a time sink.

You know what else is a time sink? Television. Magazines. Sports. All of these bring in significant revenue off advertising.

Advertisers pay networks and publishers and stadiums tons of dollars to get the word out about their brands, products and services. It's the fact people spend their time doing these things which makes the advertising effective and creates a market for it. Well in 2012, how else do people spend their time? On the internet, primarily social networks.

The real question is when will people realize that 99% of your "friends" don't care that you went to a baseball game or your puppy got a new toy?

Facebook is growing because people get the illusion that they are the center of attention and that other people care. 99% of the stuff posted on Facebook simply goes into the "void".

Your assumption is since you personally don't see any value in social networks, monetary value MUST not exist. Which makes no sense logically and makes you guilty of the same center of universe mentality you accuse FB posters of having

I personally don't give a s*** about 90% of the stuff I see posted on FB. But does my personal opinion about user generated content mean FB isn't making money? No.

It's a legit market. Even if you don't see the point in it.
 
Facebook offers absolutely nothing that text messaging and email doesn't except for the "look at me, look at me, I need attention" angle.

I agree with the general gist of where you're going, but this is 100% wrong. I don't know any of my friends' email addresses. I've lost a ton of numbers yet can still get in contact with friends. Just last week I set up a trip and it turns out one of the guys had changed numbers - I'd have been texting a stranger if I went that route.

For those of us who actually get out, Facebook is unparalleled for event and group organization. Take for example the internship where I'm starting, a FB group evolved where a bunch of people were able to share apartment information, travel information, application process advice, etc. You don't get that in reply all email chains.

But is the company worth $100b or the second coming? Heck no.
 
I personally don't give a s*** about 90% of the stuff I see posted on FB. But does my personal opinion about user generated content mean FB isn't making money? No.

It's a legit market. Even if you don't see the point in it.

Sort of, yes. There's a market for almost anything. The real question is how much of a market.
I don't care for 99% of the FB crap. There's no market there for me - yet I have a page because it helps me connect via other venues with people I do care about.
Before that there were BBS's, AOL and myspace. FB really does suck, but currently it doesn't suck quite enough to go the way of AOL and myspace.

It will.

Hope you don't have your 401k all wrapped up in it when it does...
 
Sort of, yes. There's a market for almost anything. The real question is how much of a market.

If there wasn't much of a market for internet ads, Google wouldn't be around right now

I don't care for 99% of the FB crap. There's no market there for me - yet I have a page because it helps me connect via other venues with people I do care about.
Before that there were BBS's, AOL and myspace. FB really does suck, but currently it doesn't suck quite enough to go the way of AOL and myspace.

It doesn't matter if there's no market for you. All that matters is that you've made a FB page, which gives advertisers a reason to pay FB to put ads on your page that one of your friends might click on
 
Awful bloatware and poorly made. As previously stated, there should just be one decent app, done properly.

Y'know, I just hope Tim Cook will green light Facebook functionality throughout iOS. I could care less about Twitter functionality. No one I know is on Twitter. Everyone is I know is on Facebook.

Oh, I recommend this link.
 
Their botched IPO has nothing to do with what I said :rolleyes:

But since you brought it up, Oh no! Morgan Stanley overpriced the IPO and shareprice went down instead of up. That MUST mean Facebook is doomed

That was way harsh Tai!
 

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No, it's not a better addition (for me, at least) because like I said, no one I know is on Twitter.

If I was Kim Kardashian then I would totally agree with you.

Kim Kardashian or not, you get the same useless status updates on Facebook as well. Since Twitter is really just quick status updates.

The social network industry is pretty new so who knows how it'll evolve. But for both of the market leaders that have failed, the reasons are pretty obvious

Facebook doesn't have these issues. On top of that, it looks like it's paying attention to what their competitors are doing and making sure they offer the same thing. When Foursquare's geolocation got popular, Facebook ripped it off with Facebook Places. The timeline concept and cover picture are ripped off directly from Path. When Google+ came out and advertised itself as having better privacy controls, Facebook tweaked its own privacy controls, made groups easier to use, ripped off Circles, etc. Instagram has a social network based entirely off pictures, Facebook realizes in 2012 pictures are a primary function of social networks so they buy it and integrate it.

Pinterest is probably the next big competitor so I'm guessing FB will probably rip off and integrate how people are linked through activities. If they're smart, FB will integrate blogging somewhere down the line, seeing how microblogs and traditional blogs like Xanga also function as social networks.

Facebook looks like they're trying to become the behemoth of social networks, adding every feature its competitors innovate. Most of its competitors are essentially barebones social networks distinguished by 1 or 2 original ideas. So Facebook rips off those ideas and removes the threat. Since nobody is suing anybody for ripping off features in this industry, their strategy seems to be working.

The social networking industry isn't really new, it's been around since MySpace and Friendster times (unless you count that as recent), it was just recently labelled as social media/network, which didn't happen before.

Facebook definitely will last longer than MySpace and Friendster for the reasons you stated.
However, user engagement has already started decreasing. North America and UK which were the primary markets are dropping big time, and Brazil, India and Indonesia are were majority of growth is coming from. So from the looks of the business cycle, Facebook has already passed peak in North America and UK, while it has just started growing in the non-developed countries.
At the end of the day, how many people in Brazil, India and Indonesia who have Facebook can afford the things they see in Facebook ads? What purchasing power do they have?
Because Facebook is a company, they need to generate revenue, which is through ads for them. How long will it be until advertisers like GM realize that paying Facebook millions for Facebook ads are useless when they can just open free company group or fan pages, and attract people's attentions there?
How many people actually click on the ads? Also, how many of the 900M users are doubles, triples etc. due to cheating on games like Farmville?

The whole IPO fiasco also showed us that Facebook and it's underwriters hid a lot of negative information from the general public, such as decreasing revenue. They've yet to monetize from mobile. While Facebook has more users, it's engagement in North America and UK are decline big time, and it's advertisers are clearly not giving Facebook as much money as they previously did.

You're right, Facebook is trying to be the only place people go to connect with everyone, and that is a stupid move imo. When someone tries to do too many things, they become really crappy at it. Maybe a niche like LinkedIn and Twitter will last longer because of that.
Just how many more people want a more "open and connected" world, when your private information is being sold in the market already?

I've noticed a significant drop of usage from my 500+ "friends", and i'm sure i'm not the only one.
 
So iPhone users are now up to speed with what we've had on Android for over a year! ... well done Facebook.

By the way, I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro AND a nano as a watch, so I am a fanboy in the extreme, but although fragmentation may be a prob to some, you don't realise how locked down the iPhone is until you get an android which I had to with work.. Samsung Galaxy S2
 
Facebook is on the right path here. They're going with Apple's strategy for apps: each app performs a function. You don't have a single "Outlook-like" in iOS. You have separate Address Book, Calendar and Mail apps.

Having the Camera app one touch away from my home screen competes directly with Apple's own camera app. Having a dedicated lightweight Messenger app creates an all-platform messenger app that gives people little reason to use SMS. There's also a Pages app that allows companies to fully manage their Pages on their smartphones.

I guess the next step will be for a re-write of the Facebook app itself but we could be seeing a Timeline app that shows your profile and your newsfeed exclusively.
 
Kim Kardashian or not, you get the same useless status updates on Facebook as well. Since Twitter is really just quick status updates.



The social networking industry isn't really new, it's been around since MySpace and Friendster times (unless you count that as recent), it was just recently labelled as social media/network, which didn't happen before.

Facebook definitely will last longer than MySpace and Friendster for the reasons you stated.
However, user engagement has already started decreasing. North America and UK which were the primary markets are dropping big time, and Brazil, India and Indonesia are were majority of growth is coming from. So from the looks of the business cycle, Facebook has already passed peak in North America and UK, while it has just started growing in the non-developed countries.
At the end of the day, how many people in Brazil, India and Indonesia who have Facebook can afford the things they see in Facebook ads? What purchasing power do they have?
Because Facebook is a company, they need to generate revenue, which is through ads for them. How long will it be until advertisers like GM realize that paying Facebook millions for Facebook ads are useless when they can just open free company group or fan pages, and attract people's attentions there?
How many people actually click on the ads? Also, how many of the 900M users are doubles, triples etc. due to cheating on games like Farmville?

The whole IPO fiasco also showed us that Facebook and it's underwriters hid a lot of negative information from the general public, such as decreasing revenue. They've yet to monetize from mobile. While Facebook has more users, it's engagement in North America and UK are decline big time, and it's advertisers are clearly not giving Facebook as much money as they previously did.

You're right, Facebook is trying to be the only place people go to connect with everyone, and that is a stupid move imo. When someone tries to do too many things, they become really crappy at it. Maybe a niche like LinkedIn and Twitter will last longer because of that.
Just how many more people want a more "open and connected" world, when your private information is being sold in the market already?

I've noticed a significant drop of usage from my 500+ "friends", and i'm sure i'm not the only one.

Just for your information, don't you think the ads which are displayed in Facebook in those countries are custom made for those countries?
I am an expat living in Indonesia and there are lots of opportunities for companies to sell their stuff.
Just a few examples.

People (or "poor" people) here tend to believe that illness can be solved by cheap over the counter "medicine"
But then again, "poor" people don't use Facebook do they?

In Manaco Facebook might show a Ferrari Add since there are many rich people, yet here it might be an add for potable drinking water.

Mobile phones are big in Developing countries, adds for them seem to work quite well.


Overall I do agree with your posts though.
 
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Just a guess: at Fb they knew their own app wouldn't be top of the bill, but now, when someone points to Instagram they can say 'whatever, that's ours too'.

And maybe Fb will build a screen full of apps, for different things to share and for different circles, communities where not everyone needs to be befriended. With Instagram being one of those. And with settings to control your profile per app and circle, even with different profile pictures.

Fb for all things social, like Google for all things search, and Apple for all things right and beautiful. And like Google and Apple are not the only ones within their area of interest, so Fb will not the only social connector. Yet one that will survive - that is, if Fb get mobile friendly. I just love twitter and Instagram.
 
Take for example the internship where I'm starting, a FB group evolved where a bunch of people were able to share apartment information, travel information, application process advice, etc. You don't get that in reply all email chains..

Yahoo Groups :D Used them to do exactly as you describe 12 years ago! when starting my current job.

Thats said I do agree. Its also about making contact with those you loose contact. There are many reasons this happens, not just "I don't want to see them any more" and facebook can work really well in that scenario.

I think facebook has a long way to go to justify their valuation. 100 billion on a curren1 billion revenue/0.25 billion profit. To put that in perspective. Apple made 25 billion profit and is worth 500 billion i.e. Profit = 100 times as much but value is only 5 and that with a fairly rock solid proven business model
 
Your assumption is that Facebook fills an actual void and isn't anything more than a time sink.

The real question is when will people realize that 99% of your "friends" don't care that you went to a baseball game or your puppy got a new toy?

Facebook is growing because people get the illusion that they are the center of attention and that other people care. 99% of the stuff posted on Facebook simply goes into the "void".



Exactly. This upcoming generation is screwed in so many ways.

Facebook offers absolutely nothing that text messaging and email doesn't except for the "look at me, look at me, I need attention" angle.


When are you people going to get out of this narrow-minded view of the world? If you see how Egyptians use Facebook (and what for) then may be you will learn something. Rarely is it used for "texting" or "what you ate today?". Political figures and many activists use Facebook exclusively to communicate with Egyptians. Heck, the whole revolution started from a single Facebook event. And to this date, every single Egyptian I have on my friend list, 99.9% of their posts are of political nature. Whether is a comment, photo, video, or sharing of a post on some page.

A friend of mine had cancer and he was keeping all his friends (me included) up to date from time to time with how it was going. It is practically impossible to know anything otherwise because HE decides when he can tell people.

Others use Facebook to ask for blood donations or helping find the mum of a lost child or what not. There are thousands and thousands of diverse posts in my news feed that are a 180 degrees opposite to the image you paint of what Facebook is.

I am not saying every single post on Facebook is for a cause, there are funny videos, articles, and photos of lolcats too. But Facebook is used differently by different people. And, to me and million others it is actually pretty damn useful.

The world doesn't revolve around you. And so doesn't Facebook.
 
Installed. Launched. "Camera needs Location Services enabled in order to access your camera roll." Deleted.

Facebook truly are terrible at iPhone apps.
 
What a useless, badly designed piece of crap. You can only post to your own page, not pages you admin - that's LESS functionality than the standard Facebook app. Plus, that feed of photos other people post is redundant to the FB app. Deleted it in two minutes - a new record.

It's like the people at Facebook don't ever use Facebook.
 
What a useless, badly designed piece of crap. You can only post to your own page, not pages you admin - that's LESS functionality than the standard Facebook app. Plus, that feed of photos other people post is redundant to the FB app. Deleted it in two minutes - a new record.

It's like the people at Facebook don't ever use Facebook.

This is version 1, I'm sure added functionality will come.
 
Has anyone noticed that if you don't allow Facebook Camera access to location services it tells you that it cannot access your camera roll because of that? Which pretty much makes the app worthless. But the kicker is that with the normal Facebook app you can block access to location services but still access the camera roll ...

Seems like they are trying to trick people into sharing their location.

THANKS!!!

I do NOT allow Facebook to know my location. If I want my location known, I will post it. I had thought about trying this out but won't now.

I was almost thinking it would be great to have all the FB apps in one place...but then maybe not, people complain about iTunes bloated nature...though then hate the multi-nature app of FB.
 
Lets just hope Apple has no plans on integrating Facebook any kind of way into the system like they did with Twitter.
 
Eula

has anyone read it? I wonder who owns the pictures you take with Fbooks camera app. I know we should...but you never know.
 
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