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For Facebook to truly die someone needs to come up with a bare bones social network that has all the basics - friends lists, photos, address book, messaging, gr

For Facebook to truly die someone needs to come up with a bare bones social network that has all the basics - friends lists, photos, address book, messaging, groups. Charge $1 a month. No sleazy tracking you everywhere on the internet, no ads, no newsfeed filled with garbage clickbait ads and conspiracy theories. This would be insanely profitable assuming it reaches some critical mass.

d4l3k 9y ago
Except it probably won't ever happen. Charging anything turns off the vast majority of users.
- jliptzin 9y ago
  There may be enough people out there now who wouldn’t mind paying for a social network with the assurance that their personal data isn’t going to be mined and sold to the highest bidder. Definitely wouldn’t happen 15 years ago though, but a lot has changed. These people are probably more valuable to advertisers and if they disappear from Facebook it might cause advertising revenue to seriously dry up.
- steaknsteak 9y ago
  Definitely. People are reluctant to buy $1 or $2 mobile apps that would be really useful, even though they would never notice the money was gone. Just because most apps are free. Also, most people lose more than they gain by deleting their facebook or anything else. Tech people tend to care about privacy because of all of the terrible implications and possibilities that come with all your personal info being freely bought and sold, but the vast majority of people will never (at least consciously) suffer any ill effects of government tracking or targeted ads.
  - globuous 9y ago
    I remember reading this a few years back a feeling a little guilty while having such a good laugh: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/apps http://theoatmeal.com/blog/apps
  - seanwilson 9y ago
    WhatsApp is free for the first year then a small amount each year to continue. Maybe that works.
    - narsil 9y ago
      I believe this is no longer the case and WhatsApp is free to use now. Regardless, the free trial -> paid version is a popular model, even if 1 year is a long "trial"
      - seanwilson 9y ago
        I'm curious how the "first year for free" business model works out. I'm guessing smaller companies couldn't survive on that as it's too long to wait until you start getting revenue? I paid a few dollars for WhatsApp once or twice to keep it working after the first year. It was such a small amount I didn't care. I remember some of my friends freaking out about it though, like they were being tricked.
- jliptzin 9y ago
  Could set it up as a foundation, like Wikipedia. Might be able to run on donations only.
  - burkaman 9y ago
    I'm not sure that model would work for a social network, the costs are an order of magnitude higher. People expect to be able to upload photos and videos with no practical limit, and you need a ton of full-time moderation staff when you get to Facebook's scale.
- bootlooped 9y ago
  It may be possible to get users to use it by doing what WhatsApp did: make a very long free period, then charge them a low yearly rate. I agree for the most part though. Some uses just flat out refuse to pay money for apps, even $1.
tibu 9y ago
Let's do this in a distributed way. No company should host our life events/photos/thoughts.
- brandall10 9y ago
  This already exists, it was a big story back in the day (for the time a highly backed Kickstarter campaign): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(social_network) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(social_network)
Klover 9y ago
The idea is that everyone is on it, that's what makes it a viable platform. An all encompassing social network requires an all encompassing social network. Your idea would be similar to healthy meals that take 4 minutes to prepare to combat fast food chains: a big reason why McDonald's is as large as it is, is because of the speed of it. And of course to the last point: anything would be insanely profitable if a billion people pay a dollar per month for it.
- galdosdi 9y ago
  Big friggin whoop. Systems that already meet the "everyone is on it" requirement better than Facebook include: Plain old phone calls SMS Email
  - Klover 9y ago
    I don't know what you are trying to say. They're not social media in the Facebook sense; they're communication methods. But you are correct in that everyone is on it.
    - galdosdi 9y ago
      Name a use case I can accomplish with FB I cannot accomplish otherwise then.
      - detritus 9y ago
        Critical mass? . I haven't had an FB account in over 8 years, but I rue to this day the fact that 'most' people 'mostly' rely upon it for their communication. Doesn't matter what i believe or what I use, it matters what everyone else 'mostly' uses.
        galdosdi 9y ago
        I don't understand. I asked for a use case. You gave me a glittering generality. What concrete task that i might desire to achieve in life can be done with Facebook but not the other tools? Pretty much everyone who has a facebook has a phone, so I can communicate just fine with Facebook users
lcnmrn 9y ago
Well, there's Sublevel owned and developed from scratch by me. But it doesn't have all those features for privacy reasons.
fyfy18 9y ago
I’m hopeful that this will push more interest into decentralised and open services. Sure not everybody will want to host their own data, but for those who have the know how, why should I trust someone else to hold on to my data?
slantyyz 9y ago
>> friends lists, photos, address book, messaging, groups. What you're listing sounds very similar to... email or one of the many instant messaging platforms.
- jliptzin 9y ago
  True
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Email lacks an inherent Follow dynamic. Blog + RSS / Atom will give that. You can use mailing lists, though those impose a bit of additional friction in several dynamics. There's also the matter of format conventions and client rendering, which can be quite significant particularly across various schools / application models: Usenet / Unix style top quoting, ccmail, LotusMail, or Exchange quote & reply styles.
shpx 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App.net https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App.net
austincheney 9y ago
> friends lists, photos, address book, messaging, groups. Sound astonishingly similar to my phone.
- harigov 9y ago
  As I keep saying, your phone's notification center is what eventually kills Facebook News Feed and potentially Facebook itself.
- igornadj 9y ago
  Messaging over SMS is outdated, it's just not possible for a lot of cases, including international messaging. Unless Android and iOS solve this, you will need a separate app or social network to accomplish this.

d4l3k 9y ago

Except it probably won't ever happen. Charging anything turns off the vast majority of users.

jliptzin 9y ago
There may be enough people out there now who wouldn’t mind paying for a social network with the assurance that their personal data isn’t going to be mined and sold to the highest bidder. Definitely wouldn’t happen 15 years ago though, but a lot has changed. These people are probably more valuable to advertisers and if they disappear from Facebook it might cause advertising revenue to seriously dry up.
steaknsteak 9y ago
Definitely. People are reluctant to buy $1 or $2 mobile apps that would be really useful, even though they would never notice the money was gone. Just because most apps are free. Also, most people lose more than they gain by deleting their facebook or anything else. Tech people tend to care about privacy because of all of the terrible implications and possibilities that come with all your personal info being freely bought and sold, but the vast majority of people will never (at least consciously) suffer any ill effects of government tracking or targeted ads.
- globuous 9y ago
  I remember reading this a few years back a feeling a little guilty while having such a good laugh: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/apps http://theoatmeal.com/blog/apps
- seanwilson 9y ago
  WhatsApp is free for the first year then a small amount each year to continue. Maybe that works.
  - narsil 9y ago
    I believe this is no longer the case and WhatsApp is free to use now. Regardless, the free trial -> paid version is a popular model, even if 1 year is a long "trial"
    - seanwilson 9y ago
      I'm curious how the "first year for free" business model works out. I'm guessing smaller companies couldn't survive on that as it's too long to wait until you start getting revenue? I paid a few dollars for WhatsApp once or twice to keep it working after the first year. It was such a small amount I didn't care. I remember some of my friends freaking out about it though, like they were being tricked.
jliptzin 9y ago
Could set it up as a foundation, like Wikipedia. Might be able to run on donations only.
- burkaman 9y ago
  I'm not sure that model would work for a social network, the costs are an order of magnitude higher. People expect to be able to upload photos and videos with no practical limit, and you need a ton of full-time moderation staff when you get to Facebook's scale.
bootlooped 9y ago
It may be possible to get users to use it by doing what WhatsApp did: make a very long free period, then charge them a low yearly rate. I agree for the most part though. Some uses just flat out refuse to pay money for apps, even $1.

tibu 9y ago

Let's do this in a distributed way. No company should host our life events/photos/thoughts.

brandall10 9y ago
This already exists, it was a big story back in the day (for the time a highly backed Kickstarter campaign): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(social_network) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(social_network)

Klover 9y ago

The idea is that everyone is on it, that's what makes it a viable platform. An all encompassing social network requires an all encompassing social network. Your idea would be similar to healthy meals that take 4 minutes to prepare to combat fast food chains: a big reason why McDonald's is as large as it is, is because of the speed of it. And of course to the last point: anything would be insanely profitable if a billion people pay a dollar per month for it.

galdosdi 9y ago
Big friggin whoop. Systems that already meet the "everyone is on it" requirement better than Facebook include: Plain old phone calls SMS Email
- Klover 9y ago
  I don't know what you are trying to say. They're not social media in the Facebook sense; they're communication methods. But you are correct in that everyone is on it.
  - galdosdi 9y ago
    Name a use case I can accomplish with FB I cannot accomplish otherwise then.
    - detritus 9y ago
      Critical mass? . I haven't had an FB account in over 8 years, but I rue to this day the fact that 'most' people 'mostly' rely upon it for their communication. Doesn't matter what i believe or what I use, it matters what everyone else 'mostly' uses.
      - galdosdi 9y ago
        I don't understand. I asked for a use case. You gave me a glittering generality. What concrete task that i might desire to achieve in life can be done with Facebook but not the other tools? Pretty much everyone who has a facebook has a phone, so I can communicate just fine with Facebook users

lcnmrn 9y ago

Well, there's Sublevel owned and developed from scratch by me. But it doesn't have all those features for privacy reasons.

fyfy18 9y ago

I’m hopeful that this will push more interest into decentralised and open services. Sure not everybody will want to host their own data, but for those who have the know how, why should I trust someone else to hold on to my data?

slantyyz 9y ago

>> friends lists, photos, address book, messaging, groups. What you're listing sounds very similar to... email or one of the many instant messaging platforms.

jliptzin 9y ago
True
dredmorbius 9y ago
Email lacks an inherent Follow dynamic. Blog + RSS / Atom will give that. You can use mailing lists, though those impose a bit of additional friction in several dynamics. There's also the matter of format conventions and client rendering, which can be quite significant particularly across various schools / application models: Usenet / Unix style top quoting, ccmail, LotusMail, or Exchange quote & reply styles.

shpx 9y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App.net https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App.net

austincheney 9y ago

> friends lists, photos, address book, messaging, groups. Sound astonishingly similar to my phone.

harigov 9y ago
As I keep saying, your phone's notification center is what eventually kills Facebook News Feed and potentially Facebook itself.
igornadj 9y ago
Messaging over SMS is outdated, it's just not possible for a lot of cases, including international messaging. Unless Android and iOS solve this, you will need a separate app or social network to accomplish this.