9 ms·
Facebook to Add Its Name to Instagram, WhatsApp
- qrbLPHiKpiux 7y agoWhy? To make people distrust these apps even more?
- stuartd 7y agoOops, thanks for the followup corrections.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bena 7y agoFacebook does own them all, so this is just them disclosing that fact. If people were using Instagram or WhatsApp over Facebook branded alternatives because they didn't want Facebook to have their information, then all this does is demonstrate that that ship has sailed.
- dfcmt 7y agoHmm when I signed up for WhatsApp recently it clearly said that I would be accepting the terms of blabla Facebook companies, so...
- patmorgan23 7y agoYeah but public sentiment is one of the things driving policy maker to consider breaking up big tech. If Facebook make sits branding even more ubiquitous than it already is that's not going to work in their favor on this issue.
- stordoff 7y agoPublic perception maybe, but regulator perception may be different - "You are misleading the public, and building a monopoly in an underhand and obfuscated manner. This is a misuse of your position." Now that they are already looking at it, I suspect public sentiment may matter less.
- jamiek88 7y agoI guess the borging of those entities is in full swing now. Golden Handcuff periods ended.
- arkitaip 7y agoGood. The sooner both apps die the better. It is ridiculous how shallow and useless Instagram has become.
- jobigoud 7y agoI find useful in the niche I'm interested in, VR artworks. The alternative are Facebook groups. I think there are niches where the community isn't garbage. If you aggessively curate your feed you can get a decent experience.
- esrauch 7y agoAny links you can share?
- ubercow13 7y agoI like instagram still. My friends post pictures of things they are doing and I look at them. Sometimes I post pictures of things I am doing and my friends look at them. What changed?
- RickS 7y agoI'm glad. I'm tired of dragging my friends around various messaging platforms, but it needs to happen. This will help.
- cardamomo 7y ago> But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been frustrated that Facebook doesn’t get more credit for the growth of Instagram and WhatsApp. Associating those apps with Facebook could improve the overall companies’ brand with consumers. Something doesn't quite add up here in my mind. Facebook is the one brand of the three that stands to benefit from this. Are Instagram's and WhatsApp's brands strong enough to buoy Facebook's brand? > While studies show that Facebook’s brand has been tarnished by its many privacy scandals, and that users are increasingly becoming more aware of the firm’s data collection practices, Instagram and WhatsApp have largely remained unscathed. Two 2018 surveys conducted by the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo found that more than half of Americans didn’t know Facebook owned Instagram or WhatsApp. Once the word's out, prepare for their reputation to be scathed.
- annadane 7y agoThat's a fucking extraordinary statement. I'm almost willing to defend Zuckerberg where it counts - I do try - but "not given enough credit"? Facebook gets so many complaints about privacy and disrespect to the user, they buy up their competition, and Zuck has the gall to say "people don't give us enough credit!"? Insta and Whatsapp were ALREADY big before you fucking bought them up you snivelling idiot. Edit: Want to explain the downvotes?
- iaw 7y agoI think the issue is not in your sentiment but in your tone. I could argue your comment violates at least three guidelines[1] as it stands. No worries though, they're just internet points and there's always the next comment [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dnjdrbdhdbs 7y agoI think Zuckerberg is still too idealistic and thinks that Facebook should get “credit.” He needs to start thinking of Facebook more of a holding company like Philip Morris which does all the unethical stuff and takes the fall for it, allowing the consumer brands like Instagram and WhatsApp to remain unscathed.
- SimeVidas 7y agoI suggest Instaface and WhatsFace
- 2bitencryption 7y agowait... there's talk of breaking up tech companies, and a tech company immediately after decides to prominently brand itself on all its (nearly) monopolistic empires? that doesn't seem like smart business to me?
- finkin1 7y agoThe assumption is that they are attempting to get ahead of any potential criticism by regulators regarding it being unclear that Facebook owns these brands. It's probably not a consumer-driven decision.
- rifung 7y agoRight but I think the issue would then be that if more people became aware FB owns all these brands, there might be an even larger voter push to get them to be broken up, whereas right now people don't know and this care.
- KUcxrAVrtI 7y agoShame I can't short Instagram and WhatsApp.
- addicted 7y agoYou can buy SNAP. That would be the best play to short IG. But SNAP is already heavily overpriced because it showed modest growth after many quarters of declines, thanks to the Baby lens. It’s still continuing to lose increasing sums of money, so I wouldn’t advise this play at all.
- daybreak 7y agoI like these changes. Some of my friends hate Facebook for various reasons, and making Facebook's ownership very clear (as opposed to buried in some terms and conditions) may encourage them to choose alternative chat software.
- clay_the_ripper 7y agoThis seems like a smart move. Facebook is getting ahead of potential criticism by regulators that it’s unclear that Facebook owns these properties. Of course we all know that but your average joe probably doesn’t. It also strengthens its hold on those properties and makes it more part of one company. Harder to “break up” a company that is deeply intertwined. And its more clear to users that when they are using Instagram, they are really using Facebook. All in all, I don’t get the negativity around this announcement. Makes perfect sense.
- eganist 7y ago> I don’t get the negativity around this announcement. Makes perfect sense. The negativity is largely out of fear that the existing communities etc. around Instagram and WhatsApp might take a hit when people who might not have been conscious of Facebook's ownership of either of them might now be more aware of it -- and thus see Facebook's influence on both. Public perception right now is more in agreement with the belief that Facebook largely left Instagram and WhatsApp alone, and with the founders of both having left Facebook in the last year or two, Facebook's now free to exert more influence around the direction both of these properties take.
- EForEndeavour 7y ago> people who might not have been conscious of Facebook's ownership of either of them might now be more aware of it -- and thus see Facebook's influence on both This sounds like a great outcome to me. Who wouldn't want more transparency in what products are owned by which companies? I would expect this to drive users away from Instagram and WhatsApp.
- eganist 7y ago> Who wouldn't want more transparency in what products are owned by which companies? The people who "fear that the existing communities etc. around Instagram and WhatsApp might take a hit" > I would expect this to drive users away from Instagram and WhatsApp. Right, and this particular population probably doesn't care about transparency in this specific regard all that much. It may sound like a great outcome to you. It does sound like a great outcome to me. But there are many, many millions of people who don't share our perspective who feel like they'd be losing a community rather than gaining freedom by leaving.
- DevKoala 7y agoIs this move ego driven? Instagram and WhatsApp are thriving because they are disassociated from Facebook. I think this can potentially hurt the other two apps.
- quocble 7y agoI think is bad for instagram and whatsapp credibility. Facebook has the lowest credibility among the 3 brands. Makes no sense. People literally say i hate fb, thats why i use instagram. And people say, I hate fb messenger, which spies on them.
- andrerm 7y agoI agree but I think it's good for users
- SapporoChris 7y agoThis is good. I am surprised it wasn't done sooner. I think all products should have appropriate warning labels.
- mattsfrey 7y agoLol this is truly an excellent comment
- youeseh 7y ago> But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been frustrated that Facebook doesn’t get more credit for the growth of Instagram and WhatsApp. Associating those apps with Facebook could improve the overall companies’ brand with consumers. It is difficult to see how this could improve Instagram and WhatsApp's image though.
- evanriley 7y agoYea, this comment from Zuckerburg seems strange to me or maybe I completely misread how people are currently viewing Facebook as a company? Generally speaking, it seems like the majority of the people are talk to only have bad things to say about Facebook (the product), and positive things to say about Facebook's (the company) other products such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Seems like they would want to keep these brands are separated as possible.
- amelius 7y agoPerhaps they should do it the other way around then. "Facebook, from the makers of Whatsapp".
- Causality1 7y agoAt least we have warning. Time for me to disable automatic updates for Whatsapp.
- daveFNbuck 7y agoYou're ok with Facebook owning Whatsapp, but not with the branding change?
- Causality1 7y agoWell I can't change that, and I can't avoid using it since too many people I know use it exclusively. I can, however, keep from having that filthy Facebook name on my phone.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- cameronbrown 7y agoAlthough I think this is an overreaction to a branding change, it just goes to show how toxic the Facebook brand has become.
- Causality1 7y agoI mean the same scientists built the V-2 rocket and the Saturn V but I'm glad they swapped the swastika out for an American flag. Looking at the Facebook name every time I open Whatsapp would be like looking at Donald Trump's face every time I select "English" on a website.
- tantalor 7y agoWhat about Oculus?
- trevyn 7y agoThey should probably just rename the whole company Instagram instead.
- blueboo 7y agoKevin wept.
- beilabs 7y agoNoticed last night that images for on Instagram are being served from Facebook's CDN, including the Facebook favicon. I would have thought the smart thing would be to keep a lot of distance from the three brands.
- jobigoud 7y agoOculus switched to this pattern early on and the content is delivered from facebook cdn. It must be cost effective to tap into the mothership vast resources.
- belezera 7y agoI believe that's old stuff. Fun story: I used to work in the mobile telecom industry and people were complaining how FB/IG sharing URLs/services broke their attempts to profile customer app usage. That was 2015. That said, using Google I could find references from IG using FB's CDN in 2013.