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Facebook would have leveraged its user base and clout to smother them in the crib. This is why they ought to be one of the first targets for anti-trust regulat

Facebook would have leveraged its user base and clout to smother them in the crib. This is why they ought to be one of the first targets for anti-trust regulation. Any company that can leverage its market size to kill competition, irrespective of the quality of their product, needs to be taken down a peg. Google and Amazon should be close behind. And Apple needs to be put on notice. It's not even that those 3 companies are bad actors in themselves (thought they are and aren't in various respects). It's that their investors need to know that lock-in and megalomania as business strategies aren't acceptable.

Apocryphon 8y ago
While you're not wrong from a regulatory standpoint, I think consumer product-wise both Instagram and Snapchat were among the strongest challengers to Facebook as far as insurgent social media networks went. If they had merged- well, the leadership would be dysfunctional, but it would have been very entertaining to see Facebook on the defensive.
- naravara 8y ago
  > I think consumer product-wise both Instagram and Snapchat were among the strongest challengers to Facebook as far as insurgent social media networks went. Maybe. I feel like one of the issues with a lot of start-ups is that the engineers who build them and happen on the ideas don't have the business instincts to outmaneuver bigger, well-funded challengers. And when they bring on VC funding or people into their companies who do have those skills, they inevitably push them to the same sorts of unfriendly monetization and invasive schemes that the big players have. Very few people have the political acumen to tell investors to STFU the way people like Jobs or Bezos were able to, so they're just open to predation by VCs.
landryraccoon 8y ago
If Facebook can't smother just Snapchat alone, why would they be able to smother Snapchat and Instagram together?

Apocryphon 8y ago

While you're not wrong from a regulatory standpoint, I think consumer product-wise both Instagram and Snapchat were among the strongest challengers to Facebook as far as insurgent social media networks went. If they had merged- well, the leadership would be dysfunctional, but it would have been very entertaining to see Facebook on the defensive.

naravara 8y ago
> I think consumer product-wise both Instagram and Snapchat were among the strongest challengers to Facebook as far as insurgent social media networks went. Maybe. I feel like one of the issues with a lot of start-ups is that the engineers who build them and happen on the ideas don't have the business instincts to outmaneuver bigger, well-funded challengers. And when they bring on VC funding or people into their companies who do have those skills, they inevitably push them to the same sorts of unfriendly monetization and invasive schemes that the big players have. Very few people have the political acumen to tell investors to STFU the way people like Jobs or Bezos were able to, so they're just open to predation by VCs.

landryraccoon 8y ago

If Facebook can't smother just Snapchat alone, why would they be able to smother Snapchat and Instagram together?