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Facebook doesn't make any contribution to the end user experience, it's a middle man. A rent seeker. A gatekeeper. It is one hundred percent dependent on conte
by Fricken 9y ago
Facebook doesn't make any contribution to the end user experience, it's a middle man. A rent seeker. A gatekeeper. It is one hundred percent dependent on content produced by other people, and that content is distributed by the telecoms. Facebook's entire business model is contingent on it's ability to get between those two things and charge a toll.
- lmm 9y agoAs an end user, I disagree. A consistent, clean UI was a big selling point for Facebook right from the start (even back when it was competing with LiveJournal); it's much lower-friction to watch FunnyOrDie-like videos on Facebook than on their website when every website has its own UI and most of them are worse than Facebook's. And a unified recommendation system across all kinds of content is absolutely huge; following a single source like FunnyOrDie and manually guessing which stuff you'll like or won't is much less effective than getting automatic recommendations from thousands of content creators in one place. Facebook adds a lot of value, that's why people use it.
- Fricken 9y agoMaybe you aren't familiar with Hacker News, or Reddit, who both aggregate content and have implemented a recommendation system without putting the content providers out of business.
- lmm 9y agoI'd say both of them are putting the content providers out of business just as much as Facebook is. They just have less impact because they're less popular with end users.