4 ms·

Mark Zuckerberg on the Three Keys to Facebook’s Success [video]

24 points by g0atbutt 16y ago

mikeyp 16y ago
Facebook succeeded because MySpace failed.
- g0atbutt 16y ago
  I disagree. Both Facebook and MySpace tried to solve the problem of connecting people digitally, but that's where their likeness ends. They tried to solve that problem in fundamentally different ways.
  - spitfire 16y ago
    Both were(are) homepages that list your likes/dislikes/memberships and have a stream of comments. It was friendster et al that tried to do the real hard CS graph theory stuff. Facebook /still/ doesn't do those things - though they talk about "the graph" constantly. Just try searching for everyone within X miles in your network.
- OstiaAntica 16y ago
  MySpace failed because Facebook succeeded.
- hackscribe 16y ago
  I had a MySpace account before I had a Facebook account. When I first joined MySpace a lot of my friends were on the site but soon after a lot of them started to leave and move over to Facebook. MySpace allowed users too much freedom to design and customize their pages which resulted in a horrible user experience for most users, while Facebook offered users a more clean design and professional experience.
- famousactress 16y ago
  Hardly worth belaboring the point, but no way. If anything MySpace was 'Too Big To Fail™' and Facebook exploited their shortcomings rather expertly. I don't use either site much, frankly.. but to suggest that Facebook somehow fell into owning the market seems patently false.
TimothyBurgess 16y ago
I watched it twice because I didn't really pick up on 3 separate ideas. I guess they conflate into one and that's why it works. Plus, it's a bit naive of The Business Insider to think success in innovation can be attributed to only 3 main ideas. But correct me if I'm wrong, these are the 3 key points I picked up: 1) Don't be afraid to try new things (be bold). 2) Execute quickly while keeping future quickness of execution in mind. 3) If/when keys 1 & 2 work out and "explode" your userbase, giving you massive leverage... use it.
- jonpaul 16y ago
  I gathered it was Culture, Developer Platform, and Leverage/Impact
jonpaul 16y ago
I didn't think the video was all that informative. I was hoping it was three keys to the initial success of Facebook. Not, three keys that keeps Facebook successful which are: 1) Culture 2) Developer's platform. 3) Leverage with hiring. e.g. Mentioning the impact that engineers will have.
- guynamedloren 16y ago
  +1. I wanted some deep answers, not a bunch of fluff. That stuff is pretty self-explanatory and not all that surprising. Oh well.
- pedalpete 16y ago
  agreed,though the leverage is an interesting way to look at hiring. If that is one of the key things that Zuckerberg points at when talking about the success of Facebook, I have to wonder if when he sits down with a potential new hire, he asks him self 'does this person have the capabilities and initiative to lead 1 million people'.
  - spitfire 16y ago
    I've seen it mentioned somewhere that facebook has been having a problem finding self-directed developers. They want the good ones to be mini-ceo's, and they're having problems finding that. Instead they're getting lots of hotshot coders who flounder around. I think they'll have a difficult time finding those mini-ceo's without changing the culture quite a bit. This is what happens when you hire straight out of school.
YooLi 16y ago
Why is luck not listed?
- Joakal 16y ago
  He already 'won' the social media lottery, now he's talking about investing his 'prize' to ensure it returns a good investment.
georgieporgie 16y ago
The real keys to Facebook's success: 1) Prior campus projects made him locally famous. 2) An upper-crust seed population. 3) Exclusivity during expansion. 4) A clean interface which appealed to something other than the rebellious, "express myself" teen (i.e. not MySpace). 5) Timing. He hit the right audience at the right time. 6) Luck. I don't doubt that there is a lot of skill at Facebook these days to keep it riding high on the social wave, but if you want to talk about what made Facebook successful, it's mostly the above.
- cabalamat 16y ago
  > 3) Exclusivity during expansion. I'm not sure this helped. A social networking site is only as useful as the number of people on it. I expect Facebook would have grown faster without exclusivity. > 4) A clean interface Definitely. The worse thing about MySpace, and one reason I never considered getting a MySpace account, is that users can customise their page to make it hard or even impossible to read. If I made a site like MySpace, I'd allow users to customise their page, but I'd also give users an option to use their own customisations when viewing someone else's page. That way, people can read the damn thing!
  - jcfrei 16y ago
    > 3) Exclusivity during expansion. I'm not sure this helped. A social networking site is only as useful as the number of people on it. I expect Facebook would have grown faster without exclusivity. I think exclusivity was key - and probably facebook's main difference from other networks (in it's early days). A social network isn't only about aggregating as many people as possible - this can also have a contradictory effect. What is much more important is the relevance of the community to you. Would you rather join a network with ~500 weak contacts or one with your 4 most important? The current popularity of facebook is also inherently causing a lot of people to stop sharing their personal lives on facebook. But lastly let's not forget, that many elder social networks simply screwed up - both friendster and myspace got big troubles to scale their systems (database integrity etc.) - whereas facebook has a culture strongly driven by engineers (however that's gonna turn out... but facebook definitely has got fantastic uptime). One last thing: build a social network that effectively and nicely solves the problem of the different social communities a person belongs too - and you might just as well build the next fb.

24 points by g0atbutt 16y ago

mikeyp 16y ago

Facebook succeeded because MySpace failed.

g0atbutt 16y ago
I disagree. Both Facebook and MySpace tried to solve the problem of connecting people digitally, but that's where their likeness ends. They tried to solve that problem in fundamentally different ways.
- spitfire 16y ago
  Both were(are) homepages that list your likes/dislikes/memberships and have a stream of comments. It was friendster et al that tried to do the real hard CS graph theory stuff. Facebook /still/ doesn't do those things - though they talk about "the graph" constantly. Just try searching for everyone within X miles in your network.
OstiaAntica 16y ago
MySpace failed because Facebook succeeded.
hackscribe 16y ago
I had a MySpace account before I had a Facebook account. When I first joined MySpace a lot of my friends were on the site but soon after a lot of them started to leave and move over to Facebook. MySpace allowed users too much freedom to design and customize their pages which resulted in a horrible user experience for most users, while Facebook offered users a more clean design and professional experience.
famousactress 16y ago
Hardly worth belaboring the point, but no way. If anything MySpace was 'Too Big To Fail™' and Facebook exploited their shortcomings rather expertly. I don't use either site much, frankly.. but to suggest that Facebook somehow fell into owning the market seems patently false.

TimothyBurgess 16y ago

I watched it twice because I didn't really pick up on 3 separate ideas. I guess they conflate into one and that's why it works. Plus, it's a bit naive of The Business Insider to think success in innovation can be attributed to only 3 main ideas. But correct me if I'm wrong, these are the 3 key points I picked up: 1) Don't be afraid to try new things (be bold). 2) Execute quickly while keeping future quickness of execution in mind. 3) If/when keys 1 & 2 work out and "explode" your userbase, giving you massive leverage... use it.

jonpaul 16y ago
I gathered it was Culture, Developer Platform, and Leverage/Impact

jonpaul 16y ago

I didn't think the video was all that informative. I was hoping it was three keys to the initial success of Facebook. Not, three keys that keeps Facebook successful which are: 1) Culture 2) Developer's platform. 3) Leverage with hiring. e.g. Mentioning the impact that engineers will have.

guynamedloren 16y ago
+1. I wanted some deep answers, not a bunch of fluff. That stuff is pretty self-explanatory and not all that surprising. Oh well.
pedalpete 16y ago
agreed,though the leverage is an interesting way to look at hiring. If that is one of the key things that Zuckerberg points at when talking about the success of Facebook, I have to wonder if when he sits down with a potential new hire, he asks him self 'does this person have the capabilities and initiative to lead 1 million people'.
- spitfire 16y ago
  I've seen it mentioned somewhere that facebook has been having a problem finding self-directed developers. They want the good ones to be mini-ceo's, and they're having problems finding that. Instead they're getting lots of hotshot coders who flounder around. I think they'll have a difficult time finding those mini-ceo's without changing the culture quite a bit. This is what happens when you hire straight out of school.

YooLi 16y ago

Why is luck not listed?

Joakal 16y ago
He already 'won' the social media lottery, now he's talking about investing his 'prize' to ensure it returns a good investment.

georgieporgie 16y ago

The real keys to Facebook's success: 1) Prior campus projects made him locally famous. 2) An upper-crust seed population. 3) Exclusivity during expansion. 4) A clean interface which appealed to something other than the rebellious, "express myself" teen (i.e. not MySpace). 5) Timing. He hit the right audience at the right time. 6) Luck. I don't doubt that there is a lot of skill at Facebook these days to keep it riding high on the social wave, but if you want to talk about what made Facebook successful, it's mostly the above.

cabalamat 16y ago
> 3) Exclusivity during expansion. I'm not sure this helped. A social networking site is only as useful as the number of people on it. I expect Facebook would have grown faster without exclusivity. > 4) A clean interface Definitely. The worse thing about MySpace, and one reason I never considered getting a MySpace account, is that users can customise their page to make it hard or even impossible to read. If I made a site like MySpace, I'd allow users to customise their page, but I'd also give users an option to use their own customisations when viewing someone else's page. That way, people can read the damn thing!
- jcfrei 16y ago
  > 3) Exclusivity during expansion. I'm not sure this helped. A social networking site is only as useful as the number of people on it. I expect Facebook would have grown faster without exclusivity. I think exclusivity was key - and probably facebook's main difference from other networks (in it's early days). A social network isn't only about aggregating as many people as possible - this can also have a contradictory effect. What is much more important is the relevance of the community to you. Would you rather join a network with ~500 weak contacts or one with your 4 most important? The current popularity of facebook is also inherently causing a lot of people to stop sharing their personal lives on facebook. But lastly let's not forget, that many elder social networks simply screwed up - both friendster and myspace got big troubles to scale their systems (database integrity etc.) - whereas facebook has a culture strongly driven by engineers (however that's gonna turn out... but facebook definitely has got fantastic uptime). One last thing: build a social network that effectively and nicely solves the problem of the different social communities a person belongs too - and you might just as well build the next fb.