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Hacker news thread when Facebook acquired Instagram https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3817840 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3817840

taeric 10y ago
Notable that the number one comment in that thread references Google/YouTube. And that it worked for being "mostly left alone." Surprising that Google has never repeated that trick, that I'm aware of. Seems they mostly acquire and let die. (Curious if they tried that with YouTube, but it had already passed a threshold?)
- bnjms 10y ago
  Google already had the failed Google Video to know that there usual approach would fail. I'd say it was natural to let YouTube run itself while providing additional help with the infrastructure and adverts. Also notice they did eventually replace the old social network with G+ which is otherwise so thoroughly dead as to be mostly forgotten.
  - taeric 10y ago
    I don't think they had acknowledged Video failed, at that point. YouTube was more of a hedge. A very good one. Similar could be said for Facebook. Though, I think they just segmented their market better. Bezos, I believe, is best at this. How many things has he acquired and left completely alone? It is almost baffling how good Zappos is for buying shoes, while Amazon is pretty awful.
    - soperj 10y ago
      I think Warren Buffett is better.
      - taeric 10y ago
        I never viewed him as a CEO. :( Likely my view is just off. Though, I'm now curious how much of this Bezos learned from him. Weren't they close? It makes sense to view these acquisitions as investments, instead of takeovers. And for everyone that has given examples of Google doing this. Apologies for not responding individually. I am glad to hear it is more that they just get a lot of press for the mistakes. I'd love to see more press dedicated to what appear as successes. I guess they have to be ballpark hits to get press?
    - replicatorblog 10y ago
      The other impressive bit about Bezos is his knack for bargain hunting. I don't think he's paid more than a billion dollars for any of his acquisitions. Twitch, Zappos, and Kiva were all just under a billion. Wildly impressive given the advantages that each provide!
    - bnjms 10y ago
      If I understand your comparison, I see what you are saying and we are not quite in disagreement. Google took their hedge after seeing the video service they created fail to gather the momentum and use YouTube had. At the time it did not even compare to Vimeo and maybe even Dailymotion. So they took a hedge as things were looking like they would not get that market segment. And outside of YouTube dying that's likely what would have happened. Facebook saw a trend in IG they couldn't compete with without fundamentally changing their product. Where IG could have created alternate complementary products and began eating onto FB market. There really isn't room for two networks like FB anymore and the adolescents I know won't touch FB. Its all snapchat and IG. (Which offer much better incentives.) Both were moves to absorb a niche where each company would have difficulty compering. My claim is FB's was more forward thinking and less reactionary.
      - taeric 10y ago
        Fair. I was commenting that Google seemed to think they could still beat YouTube. That is, Facebook seems geared to live beside insta gram. Video seemed clear to either beat or die to YouTube. So yeah, I was trying to add to your comment. Not necessarily contradict it.
    - electricEmu 10y ago
      Amazon doesn't leave everything alone. Zappos is one of the few Amazon acquisitions that included a culture clause. Everything else is rewritten as soon as it's on the Bezos radar.
  - agumonkey 10y ago
    I lost access somehow to my original account because my pseudonym was a pseudonym. Alas.
    - angry-hacker 10y ago
      Same, after hours of Googling I believe there is no way to restore it.
      - agumonkey 10y ago
        Mine is still there, something went wrong in a verification process and password was reset.
    - bnjms 10y ago
      Lost my original HN account for similar reasons. Alas there will be no recovery.
- mdwrigh2 10y ago
  Android was also mostly left alone for a number of years.
- aberkowitz 10y ago
  > Surprising that Google has never repeated that trick What about Waze?
- tehwebguy 10y ago
  Yeah, the failed Google Plus integration with / takeover of YT was so awful to users that they stopped the transition entirely. Somehow YouTube survived!
admstockdale 10y ago
Can we now mock all those who prognosticated poorly in regards to Instagram's success? I see a lot of smug in the previous thread that needs to be called out.
- bigfoig 10y ago
  if the only reason you're right and they're wrong is because you enjoyed the benefit of hindsight, then i would say that's not much to brag about...
- Retra 10y ago
  No need to mock anyone. Just take your awesome market prediction skills and make an easy billion dollars or two for yourself.
bigfoig 10y ago
made an account to post this b/c I don't normally post on hackernews but does anyone else get a sense of schadenfreude when reading these comments There are people doubting that Facebook could monetize or become a blue chip stock There's a comment of a guy being sure that Instagram would fail and literally says "Bookmark this comment, see you in 2022" (Five years to go boys) This is why I'm convinced that people should honestly share like 1% of what they are really thinking in comments. Yeah, there might be a 1% chance that Instagram would succeed, but do you really want to look like the idiot doubting it could ever happen, with your comment immortalized on the world wide web five years later when you're proven wrong?
- macspoofing 10y ago
  In hindsight everything looks obvious. At the time the failure of MySpace was still fresh, Facebook had not monitized its service and it wasn't obvious that chat clients like WhatsApp and SnapChat would (or could) get these insane multi-billion valuations.
  - argonaut 10y ago
    I think it was obvious. I remember being in college during the acquisition and thinking it was obviously a smart deal. And Instagram was pursued hotly, so many tech insiders thought it was a good deal too. People on Hacker News are only now just coming around to Snapchat, but I thought Snapchat was obviously going to succeed 4 years ago when I was still in college - 70% of the people I knew in college were using it. You might object to this and claim that other apps (which are not guaranteed successes now) like Yik Yak should have been similarly "obvious" to me at the time - but that's just not true. I didn't know anyone who used other social media apps (like Yik Yak, etc.) at the time as much as Snapchat (if they did, they kept it to themselves). But when it comes to social apps, there's just something about Hacker News being particularly closed-minded. Even in the face of overwhelming usage, I still see a solid plurality of cynical HN comments about any given social app.
    - b2600 10y ago
      I don't object to the veracity of your claims but I would note that "it's what everyone around me is using" doesn't scale very well. For example, if you're from the U.S. you might not know anyone who uses WhatsApp nevertheless it has over a billion users and is the default messenger app in many countries.
fullshark 10y ago
Seems like most people got it. I remember being much more taken aback by the WhatsApp acquisition. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618 Which I think has not yet proven itself to be a savvy one monetarily (but the usage numbers remain incredible)

taeric 10y ago

Notable that the number one comment in that thread references Google/YouTube. And that it worked for being "mostly left alone." Surprising that Google has never repeated that trick, that I'm aware of. Seems they mostly acquire and let die. (Curious if they tried that with YouTube, but it had already passed a threshold?)

bnjms 10y ago
Google already had the failed Google Video to know that there usual approach would fail. I'd say it was natural to let YouTube run itself while providing additional help with the infrastructure and adverts. Also notice they did eventually replace the old social network with G+ which is otherwise so thoroughly dead as to be mostly forgotten.
- taeric 10y ago
  I don't think they had acknowledged Video failed, at that point. YouTube was more of a hedge. A very good one. Similar could be said for Facebook. Though, I think they just segmented their market better. Bezos, I believe, is best at this. How many things has he acquired and left completely alone? It is almost baffling how good Zappos is for buying shoes, while Amazon is pretty awful.
  - soperj 10y ago
    I think Warren Buffett is better.
    - taeric 10y ago
      I never viewed him as a CEO. :( Likely my view is just off. Though, I'm now curious how much of this Bezos learned from him. Weren't they close? It makes sense to view these acquisitions as investments, instead of takeovers. And for everyone that has given examples of Google doing this. Apologies for not responding individually. I am glad to hear it is more that they just get a lot of press for the mistakes. I'd love to see more press dedicated to what appear as successes. I guess they have to be ballpark hits to get press?
  - replicatorblog 10y ago
    The other impressive bit about Bezos is his knack for bargain hunting. I don't think he's paid more than a billion dollars for any of his acquisitions. Twitch, Zappos, and Kiva were all just under a billion. Wildly impressive given the advantages that each provide!
  - bnjms 10y ago
    If I understand your comparison, I see what you are saying and we are not quite in disagreement. Google took their hedge after seeing the video service they created fail to gather the momentum and use YouTube had. At the time it did not even compare to Vimeo and maybe even Dailymotion. So they took a hedge as things were looking like they would not get that market segment. And outside of YouTube dying that's likely what would have happened. Facebook saw a trend in IG they couldn't compete with without fundamentally changing their product. Where IG could have created alternate complementary products and began eating onto FB market. There really isn't room for two networks like FB anymore and the adolescents I know won't touch FB. Its all snapchat and IG. (Which offer much better incentives.) Both were moves to absorb a niche where each company would have difficulty compering. My claim is FB's was more forward thinking and less reactionary.
    - taeric 10y ago
      Fair. I was commenting that Google seemed to think they could still beat YouTube. That is, Facebook seems geared to live beside insta gram. Video seemed clear to either beat or die to YouTube. So yeah, I was trying to add to your comment. Not necessarily contradict it.
  - electricEmu 10y ago
    Amazon doesn't leave everything alone. Zappos is one of the few Amazon acquisitions that included a culture clause. Everything else is rewritten as soon as it's on the Bezos radar.
- agumonkey 10y ago
  I lost access somehow to my original account because my pseudonym was a pseudonym. Alas.
  - angry-hacker 10y ago
    Same, after hours of Googling I believe there is no way to restore it.
    - agumonkey 10y ago
      Mine is still there, something went wrong in a verification process and password was reset.
  - bnjms 10y ago
    Lost my original HN account for similar reasons. Alas there will be no recovery.
mdwrigh2 10y ago
Android was also mostly left alone for a number of years.
aberkowitz 10y ago
> Surprising that Google has never repeated that trick What about Waze?
tehwebguy 10y ago
Yeah, the failed Google Plus integration with / takeover of YT was so awful to users that they stopped the transition entirely. Somehow YouTube survived!

admstockdale 10y ago

Can we now mock all those who prognosticated poorly in regards to Instagram's success? I see a lot of smug in the previous thread that needs to be called out.

bigfoig 10y ago
if the only reason you're right and they're wrong is because you enjoyed the benefit of hindsight, then i would say that's not much to brag about...
Retra 10y ago
No need to mock anyone. Just take your awesome market prediction skills and make an easy billion dollars or two for yourself.

bigfoig 10y ago

made an account to post this b/c I don't normally post on hackernews but does anyone else get a sense of schadenfreude when reading these comments There are people doubting that Facebook could monetize or become a blue chip stock There's a comment of a guy being sure that Instagram would fail and literally says "Bookmark this comment, see you in 2022" (Five years to go boys) This is why I'm convinced that people should honestly share like 1% of what they are really thinking in comments. Yeah, there might be a 1% chance that Instagram would succeed, but do you really want to look like the idiot doubting it could ever happen, with your comment immortalized on the world wide web five years later when you're proven wrong?

macspoofing 10y ago
In hindsight everything looks obvious. At the time the failure of MySpace was still fresh, Facebook had not monitized its service and it wasn't obvious that chat clients like WhatsApp and SnapChat would (or could) get these insane multi-billion valuations.
- argonaut 10y ago
  I think it was obvious. I remember being in college during the acquisition and thinking it was obviously a smart deal. And Instagram was pursued hotly, so many tech insiders thought it was a good deal too. People on Hacker News are only now just coming around to Snapchat, but I thought Snapchat was obviously going to succeed 4 years ago when I was still in college - 70% of the people I knew in college were using it. You might object to this and claim that other apps (which are not guaranteed successes now) like Yik Yak should have been similarly "obvious" to me at the time - but that's just not true. I didn't know anyone who used other social media apps (like Yik Yak, etc.) at the time as much as Snapchat (if they did, they kept it to themselves). But when it comes to social apps, there's just something about Hacker News being particularly closed-minded. Even in the face of overwhelming usage, I still see a solid plurality of cynical HN comments about any given social app.
  - b2600 10y ago
    I don't object to the veracity of your claims but I would note that "it's what everyone around me is using" doesn't scale very well. For example, if you're from the U.S. you might not know anyone who uses WhatsApp nevertheless it has over a billion users and is the default messenger app in many countries.

fullshark 10y ago

Seems like most people got it. I remember being much more taken aback by the WhatsApp acquisition. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618 Which I think has not yet proven itself to be a savvy one monetarily (but the usage numbers remain incredible)