4 ms·

I'm not so sure that FB's place will be so fleeting. I think they will lose their place at the same rate that Microsoft lost theirs. They will still be around i

I'm not so sure that FB's place will be so fleeting. I think they will lose their place at the same rate that Microsoft lost theirs. They will still be around in 15 years later, just not quite as relevant.

dexterdog 9y ago
But a social media site that is what they are can't live with 33% market penetration. They need to be at 90+.
rb808 9y ago
todays market cap: MSFT: 688.28B FB: 444.55B
treis 9y ago
FB is different because they buy competitors. Between WhatsApp and Instagram they've managed to insulate themselves against game changing competitors. So even if traditional FB dies Facebook the company will live on.
- gfo 9y ago
  "Embrace, extend, extinguish" -Microsoft's old motto. This is exactly how they previously did business and still do, frankly. Facebook's core business functions purely on user data though and that's how they use the rest of their businesses to make money. If traditional Facebook dies their other businesses won't be far behind without significant change that doesn't disrupt revenue.
gfo 9y ago
Microsoft is coming back in a big way though. Sure, it may not have the dominance it used to have but they've learned from the problems of the Ballmer era. Satya Nadella seems to be a huge proponent of meeting customers where they are and it's paying off in a huge way. If Facebook learns to listen to their customers the way Microsoft has (as opposed to trying to tell them what they want) then they could recover. But with Facebook, users are starting to have large issues with its core business model, and to listen to customers and adopt the changes they want, it would cost them too much and would eventually disappear as so many others have before them.
- isostatic 9y ago
  > Microsoft is coming back in a big way though. Really? They still have corporate desktops and cheap skanky laptops (for some reason), but azure is not a challange to AWS, they aren't in the media business, the home market is being chipped away, where are they doing better now then they were 12 months ago?
  - spiralx 9y ago
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/07/20/microsoft-fourth-quarter-earnings-cloud-azure/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/07/20/micros... Since 12 months ago profits have doubled, shares are up 19%, revenue is up 13%, cloud revenue is up 11%, cash reserves are up, oh, and PC-related revenue is down a whopping 2%. Actually the latest quarter shows cloud revenue up 98% (I assume year-on-year), so Azure is doing pretty well. https://www.computerworlduk.com/it-vendors/is-microsoft-azure-really-making-up-ground-on-aws-3671566/ https://www.computerworlduk.com/it-vendors/is-microsoft-azur...

dexterdog 9y ago

But a social media site that is what they are can't live with 33% market penetration. They need to be at 90+.

rb808 9y ago

todays market cap: MSFT: 688.28B FB: 444.55B

treis 9y ago

FB is different because they buy competitors. Between WhatsApp and Instagram they've managed to insulate themselves against game changing competitors. So even if traditional FB dies Facebook the company will live on.

gfo 9y ago
"Embrace, extend, extinguish" -Microsoft's old motto. This is exactly how they previously did business and still do, frankly. Facebook's core business functions purely on user data though and that's how they use the rest of their businesses to make money. If traditional Facebook dies their other businesses won't be far behind without significant change that doesn't disrupt revenue.

gfo 9y ago

Microsoft is coming back in a big way though. Sure, it may not have the dominance it used to have but they've learned from the problems of the Ballmer era. Satya Nadella seems to be a huge proponent of meeting customers where they are and it's paying off in a huge way. If Facebook learns to listen to their customers the way Microsoft has (as opposed to trying to tell them what they want) then they could recover. But with Facebook, users are starting to have large issues with its core business model, and to listen to customers and adopt the changes they want, it would cost them too much and would eventually disappear as so many others have before them.

isostatic 9y ago
> Microsoft is coming back in a big way though. Really? They still have corporate desktops and cheap skanky laptops (for some reason), but azure is not a challange to AWS, they aren't in the media business, the home market is being chipped away, where are they doing better now then they were 12 months ago?
- spiralx 9y ago
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/07/20/microsoft-fourth-quarter-earnings-cloud-azure/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/07/20/micros... Since 12 months ago profits have doubled, shares are up 19%, revenue is up 13%, cloud revenue is up 11%, cash reserves are up, oh, and PC-related revenue is down a whopping 2%. Actually the latest quarter shows cloud revenue up 98% (I assume year-on-year), so Azure is doing pretty well. https://www.computerworlduk.com/it-vendors/is-microsoft-azure-really-making-up-ground-on-aws-3671566/ https://www.computerworlduk.com/it-vendors/is-microsoft-azur...