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The author of the original post was saying that Facebook was failing to do exactly that. Using the McDonald's example, it could be akin to McDonald's making al
by alttab 16y ago
The author of the original post was saying that Facebook was failing to do exactly that.
Using the McDonald's example, it could be akin to McDonald's making all of their burgers out of ground turkey because they got a huge deal with a turkey meat distributor, the customers saying "no, give us hamburger!" and McDonald's saying "fuck you."
What happens to those customers wanting hamburgers? They go to Burger King.
- joe_the_user 16y agoYes, The problem is: suppose they weren't making a profit on the hamburger and so serving the turkey was the only way they knew how to make profits. But also suppose that it would be quite hard for customers to switch to Burger King. Then you have characterized something of the paradoxical condition of the Facebook. Making money while accumulating ill-will.
- whopa 16y agoWell, to make the analogy a little more accurate, suppose they weren't making as much profit on the hamburger as they are by serving the turkey... Facebook and Twitter both have the problem that they have to justify the amount of investment they raised, and both are doing things that are unpopular with their community (users for Facebook, developers for Twitter) to make a bigger business than the original things that got them popular can sustain.
- julius_geezer 16y agoThirty-five or forty years ago, McDonalds got caught out serving kangaroo in their hamburgers. Much more recently it was found flavoring the french-fry oil with a bit of tallow, to the great offense of vegetarians and I think a few Hindus. However, it has always been much smoother at the apology business than Facebook now seems to be.
- whopa 16y agoThe kangaroo thing is an urban legend. Think about it, why would shipping kangaroo all the way from Australia be cheaper than locally sourcing beef? Hell, kangaroo in Australia costs more than Australian beef.
- megablast 16y agoAnd, kangaroo is actually a very lean meat, much better for you than beef. Plus kangaroos are much better for the environment, the don't fart methane, like cows do.
- DenisM 16y agoI appreciate your point, but you are confusing users with customers. For Facebook users are a product, advertisers are customers. Same is true for Google.
- pmiller2 16y agoThe real question is: in this metaphor, who is Burger King to Facebook's McDonalds?