4 ms·

> Otherwise we would see social networks and other free services replaced on the regular. Don't we? I can think of a dozen or more social networks of one sort

by paulgb 9y ago

> Otherwise we would see social networks and other free services replaced on the regular. Don't we? I can think of a dozen or more social networks of one sort or another that I've belonged to in the last decade or so.

chrisco255 9y ago
And how many of those have the market cap of Facebook?
- k_sh 9y ago
  From 2007: "Will MySpace Ever Lose Its Monopoly?"[1] Past performance does not beget future success. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/feb/08/business.comment https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/feb/08/business....
  - varjag 9y ago
    2007 was 11 years ago. That's glacial on tech timescale.
  - adventured 9y ago
    MySpace prospered for four years, that's it. And by prospered I mean, never made money, never became self-sustaining at all. Facebook is still expanding in its 15th year. MySpace never earned a profit pre Fox acquisition (the Google deal gave it a one time bump). In historical terms, MySpace is barely a bump in the road, about the size of an Ask.fm type service (ie trivial in today's hyper scale). It's like looking back and thinking Excite was a juggernaut and therefore a supporting piece of evidence that Google is going to die soon. Facebook will earn ~$20 billion in 2018 and will end the year with $50 billion in cash. That's 86 times what MySpace sold to Fox for. MySpace peaked in size at a mere 75 million monthly active users. Facebook is nearly 30 times larger. MySpace then is to Facebook now, what AltaVista at its peak is to Google today.
  - chrisco255 9y ago
    That doesn't mean that creating a new social network automatically besets the network effects of the most dominant platforms. I realize that platforms sometimes get replaced. It is early days for crypto, to be sure. It certainly hasn't reached maturity yet. However, there are examples of other monopolies (AT&T, Microsoft, GE, etc) that have lasted for many decades.
s73v3r_ 9y ago
How many of those do you still use on a regular basis?

by paulgb 9y ago

chrisco255 9y ago

And how many of those have the market cap of Facebook?

k_sh 9y ago
From 2007: "Will MySpace Ever Lose Its Monopoly?"[1] Past performance does not beget future success. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/feb/08/business.comment https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/feb/08/business....
- varjag 9y ago
  2007 was 11 years ago. That's glacial on tech timescale.
- adventured 9y ago
  MySpace prospered for four years, that's it. And by prospered I mean, never made money, never became self-sustaining at all. Facebook is still expanding in its 15th year. MySpace never earned a profit pre Fox acquisition (the Google deal gave it a one time bump). In historical terms, MySpace is barely a bump in the road, about the size of an Ask.fm type service (ie trivial in today's hyper scale). It's like looking back and thinking Excite was a juggernaut and therefore a supporting piece of evidence that Google is going to die soon. Facebook will earn ~$20 billion in 2018 and will end the year with $50 billion in cash. That's 86 times what MySpace sold to Fox for. MySpace peaked in size at a mere 75 million monthly active users. Facebook is nearly 30 times larger. MySpace then is to Facebook now, what AltaVista at its peak is to Google today.
- chrisco255 9y ago
  That doesn't mean that creating a new social network automatically besets the network effects of the most dominant platforms. I realize that platforms sometimes get replaced. It is early days for crypto, to be sure. It certainly hasn't reached maturity yet. However, there are examples of other monopolies (AT&T, Microsoft, GE, etc) that have lasted for many decades.

s73v3r_ 9y ago

How many of those do you still use on a regular basis?