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It's worth remembering how Facebook got to the userbase that it currently has -- they didn't start out targeting "everyone on the planet", which is an almost im
by Kadin 9y ago
It's worth remembering how Facebook got to the userbase that it currently has -- they didn't start out targeting "everyone on the planet", which is an almost impossibly hard challenge because of the network effects you note.
Instead, they started off providing closed social networks for existing groups of users -- colleges, starting with a small number of elite colleges and slowly broadening out from there -- until eventually it became a public social network and the de facto standard at least within the US.
The networks that have attempted from the start to get everyone to sign up have mostly failed. E.g. Google Plus, which had some feature advantages over FB at the time, started out much too ambitiously in my opinion and suffered from a "Potemkin village" issue where (unless you had a circle of friends who all joined it) it felt empty, and I suspect many users never used it more than a few times.
The only recent network I've seen to go the Facebook route is Nextdoor, which at least in my anecdotal experience seems to be becoming a thing. By providing a semi-closed social network based on physical proximity (neighborhoods), it provides immediate value to a new user. I'm not sure of the details of their rollout strategy, but at least at one point they insisted on mailing you a physical postcard in order to verify your address (much like FB's original validation on specific .edu email domains).
Anyway, if anyone out there is thinking of challenging Facebook on the social-network front, I would put some significant thought into the rollout strategy and aim not to compete with Facebook circa 2017, but instead to compete with Facebook circa 2004. As other networks have opened themselves up, there's a constant vacuum at the lower, more-specific, more-exclusive, closed end of the spectrum which provides a lower barrier to entry.
- SimbaOnSteroids 9y agoI think discord has better potential to be the next social media juggernaut, I know most of my social media interaction goes through discord. As our lives move more and more online discord seems to be the digital equivalent of the roman forums and I appreciate the ability to jump into a conversation with my friends in the same way I would IRL. Mostly I appreciate the ability to be parts of different groups, the ease with which you can join groups, and the fact that you can host your own friend group. I realize this isn't Discord's mission statement or intent but it is a position they find themselves in.
- lordCarbonFiber 9y agoI love how, in a thread about the uncertainty of internet privacy, you're here slinging praises to a walled garden service that owns all of your chats. Another walled garden interested in collecting information and slinging adds to pay back VC funds is the last thing the internet needs and the fact that it's so successful is a better indicator than anything else that the consumer doesn't care a lick about privacy.
- SimbaOnSteroids 9y agoYou can't unopen Pandora's Box, and trying to close it is a bit of a sisphyian task. Might as well enjoy the terrors of the box.
- lordCarbonFiber 9y agoBut there are better chat solutions out there. Discord is pretty awful, terrible audio quality, limited room sizes, the aforementioned privacy concerns stemming from no self hosting and lack of interoperability with other chat protocols. When technologies like Matrix [matrix.org] exist and we've had superior dedicated voip programs (mumble et al) for decades there's nothing appealing about discord is the AoL mail of chat clients; great for people with 0 interest in technology, but, why.
- SimbaOnSteroids 9y agoFree, browser based, integrated well with games, widespread.
- Nydhal 9y agoMaybe someone should start a new social network just for college students again as facebook seems to have shifted focus from that specific demographic. The twist could be on allowing a hybrid approach where you can have the choice of anonymous posting and the exclusivity of verified accounts.