5 ms·

Zuckerberg’s Jealousy Held Back Instagram and Drove Off Founders

127 points by yasyfm 7y ago

xiaolingxiao 7y ago
paywall
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  Bloomberg doesn't have a paywall if you disable Javascript.
  - gaogao 7y ago
    I usually just clear my cookies for this and NYT
    - jrockway 7y ago
      Last I checked they use a service worker or local storage, so you have to clear all data, not just cookies. I didn't investigate in detail though.
  - gameofcode 7y ago
    And if you don't want to disable JS, every time you reach the article limit, in Chrome you can go to the Application tab in DevTools and "Clear site data".
- ipsum2 7y ago
  I use https://github.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean https://github.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean
tick_tock_tick 7y ago
The article reads like a bad hit job it tries to paint facebooks position as bleak while ignore all its products have continued to experience amazing growth. It paints a picture of what the author want the world to be like rather than reality. One of the biggest examples is how they view regulation as a risk to Facebook while Facebooks views it as a guarantee of market dominance.
- dntbnmpls 7y ago
  > The article reads like a bad hit job it tries to paint facebooks position as bleak while ignore all its products have continued to experience amazing growth. Did you really expect anything better from bloomberg? Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. If zuckerburg "held it back", then he should "hold back" everything and become a trillionaire. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-net... 4 out of the top 6 social media platforms are owned by zuckerburg. Hate the guy for his greed and insatiable appetite for your data, but the idea that his "jealousy" held back instagram is laughable. The article reads like a silly gossipy teen manufacturing drama for attention. But that's the media for you.
- Barrin92 7y ago
  I can't speak to every point raised in the article, but at least the jealousy aspect doesn't seem so off-base if one looks at the recent re-branding of Whatsapp. Whatsapp now has a giant "whatsapp by facebook" advert right on the loading page of the application. There was a quite funny article a while back how it led to school children deleting whatsapp because they thought facebook was "uncool" but didn't even know it was a product of the company. I'd also caution about "arguments from growth", given that it's totally possible that given better decisions it might have grown even faster. Sort of like the medieval physician who argued that blood-letting worked because the patient recovered. It'd be better to address the substance of the article.
  - eclipsetheworld 7y ago
    More likely a decision made to strengthen Facebook's case to antitrust regulators. The "by facebook" branding suggests a deeper integration between different apps and therefore makes it seemingly harder to break up Facebook's app family.
  - dntbnmpls 7y ago
    > I'd also caution about "arguments from growth", given that it's totally possible that given better decisions it might have grown even faster. Anything is possible and that's conjecture. Not news. Argument from proven growth/data/etc is far better than "argument from hypotheticals/what ifs/etc". > There was a quite funny article a while back how it led to school children deleting whatsapp because they thought facebook was "uncool" but didn't even know it was a product of the company. Seems like another of these manufactured nonsense from the industry. How many children? How old were they? Care to share the link so we can all have a good laugh? > It'd be better to address the substance of the article. So why don't you? You didn't mention anything substantive from the article in your comment. Is it because there is no substance. What objective, factual, relevant information did you take away from an article which is mostly subjective, gossipy and pointless.
mentos 7y ago
What’s the best book to learn about Zuckerberg and Facebooks?
- Animats 7y ago
  "Zucked", by McNamee.
- elorant 7y ago
  "Chaos Monkeys" goes into detail on how Facebook operates internally.
- dchi 7y ago
  "Facebook: The Inside Story" by Steven Levy. The access he got to FB executives is beyond anything else.
- PieUser 7y ago
  Zucked
askafriend 7y ago
Reads like fan fiction rather than objective reporting.
Traster 7y ago
One thing I'm surprised not to hear mentioned in this article is regulation. I'm sure there's a level of trying to assert Facebook's dominance over the more successful acquired product. But one thing that wasn't mentioned is that there is a strong political movemeent saying we should break up big tech. Elizabeth Warren was called out specifically by Zuckerberg as the most effective and transformative politician of our time. I think one thing we need to consider about facebook is the classic middle manager wrangling. If you think that a priority you like is under the chopping block, you tie it inextridcably to something else and then go "Oh, well! Can't can this project because you'll be destroying our most important project". It is essential for Facebook to get to the point where it is so difficult to distinguish between Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp that you can make a coherent argument that you can't split that company into 3 separate parts. That's a great reason for a lot of what was going on at facebook, but the article doesn't seem to consider it.
jonplackett 7y ago
As John Gruber writes after every single link to Bloomberg: * Bloomberg, of course, is the publication that published “The Big Hack” in October 2018 — a sensational story alleging that data centers of Apple, Amazon, and dozens of other companies were compromised by China’s intelligence services. The story presented no confirmable evidence at all, was vehemently denied by all companies involved, has not been confirmed by a single other publication (despite much effort to do so), and has been largely discredited by one of Bloomberg’s own sources. By all appearances “The Big Hack” was complete bullshit. Yet Bloomberg has issued no correction or retraction, and seemingly hopes we’ll all just forget about it. I say we do not just forget about it. Bloomberg’s institutional credibility is severely damaged, and everything they publish should be treated with skepticism until they retract the story or provide evidence that it was true.
- knolax 7y ago
  Don't forget their "market moving bonuses" https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/12/the-bloomberg-market-moving-bonus-179407 https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/12/the-bloomberg-m...
  - btown 7y ago
    If a story is found to be false and moves Bloomberg stock down, does that still qualify for a bonus?
    - chewie123 7y ago
      Bloomberg is a private company.
- yumraj 7y ago
  Gruber can write what he wants, but is there any evidence that Bloomberg's institutional credibility was impacted in anyway. I see tons of articles from Bloomberg being posted on HN, where people care about that issue. Outside of this, no one cared and there are people on both camps as far as that story is concerned.
pbreit 7y ago
Founders rarely stay long after acquisition and Instagram seems to be doing quite OK.
hwestiii 7y ago
Wasn’t this common knowledge?

127 points by yasyfm 7y ago

xiaolingxiao 7y ago

paywall

thaumasiotes 7y ago
Bloomberg doesn't have a paywall if you disable Javascript.
- gaogao 7y ago
  I usually just clear my cookies for this and NYT
  - jrockway 7y ago
    Last I checked they use a service worker or local storage, so you have to clear all data, not just cookies. I didn't investigate in detail though.
- gameofcode 7y ago
  And if you don't want to disable JS, every time you reach the article limit, in Chrome you can go to the Application tab in DevTools and "Clear site data".
ipsum2 7y ago
I use https://github.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean https://github.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean

tick_tock_tick 7y ago

The article reads like a bad hit job it tries to paint facebooks position as bleak while ignore all its products have continued to experience amazing growth. It paints a picture of what the author want the world to be like rather than reality. One of the biggest examples is how they view regulation as a risk to Facebook while Facebooks views it as a guarantee of market dominance.

dntbnmpls 7y ago
> The article reads like a bad hit job it tries to paint facebooks position as bleak while ignore all its products have continued to experience amazing growth. Did you really expect anything better from bloomberg? Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. If zuckerburg "held it back", then he should "hold back" everything and become a trillionaire. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-net... 4 out of the top 6 social media platforms are owned by zuckerburg. Hate the guy for his greed and insatiable appetite for your data, but the idea that his "jealousy" held back instagram is laughable. The article reads like a silly gossipy teen manufacturing drama for attention. But that's the media for you.
Barrin92 7y ago
I can't speak to every point raised in the article, but at least the jealousy aspect doesn't seem so off-base if one looks at the recent re-branding of Whatsapp. Whatsapp now has a giant "whatsapp by facebook" advert right on the loading page of the application. There was a quite funny article a while back how it led to school children deleting whatsapp because they thought facebook was "uncool" but didn't even know it was a product of the company. I'd also caution about "arguments from growth", given that it's totally possible that given better decisions it might have grown even faster. Sort of like the medieval physician who argued that blood-letting worked because the patient recovered. It'd be better to address the substance of the article.
- eclipsetheworld 7y ago
  More likely a decision made to strengthen Facebook's case to antitrust regulators. The "by facebook" branding suggests a deeper integration between different apps and therefore makes it seemingly harder to break up Facebook's app family.
- dntbnmpls 7y ago
  > I'd also caution about "arguments from growth", given that it's totally possible that given better decisions it might have grown even faster. Anything is possible and that's conjecture. Not news. Argument from proven growth/data/etc is far better than "argument from hypotheticals/what ifs/etc". > There was a quite funny article a while back how it led to school children deleting whatsapp because they thought facebook was "uncool" but didn't even know it was a product of the company. Seems like another of these manufactured nonsense from the industry. How many children? How old were they? Care to share the link so we can all have a good laugh? > It'd be better to address the substance of the article. So why don't you? You didn't mention anything substantive from the article in your comment. Is it because there is no substance. What objective, factual, relevant information did you take away from an article which is mostly subjective, gossipy and pointless.

mentos 7y ago

What’s the best book to learn about Zuckerberg and Facebooks?

Animats 7y ago
"Zucked", by McNamee.
elorant 7y ago
"Chaos Monkeys" goes into detail on how Facebook operates internally.
dchi 7y ago
"Facebook: The Inside Story" by Steven Levy. The access he got to FB executives is beyond anything else.
PieUser 7y ago
Zucked

askafriend 7y ago

Reads like fan fiction rather than objective reporting.

Traster 7y ago

One thing I'm surprised not to hear mentioned in this article is regulation. I'm sure there's a level of trying to assert Facebook's dominance over the more successful acquired product. But one thing that wasn't mentioned is that there is a strong political movemeent saying we should break up big tech. Elizabeth Warren was called out specifically by Zuckerberg as the most effective and transformative politician of our time. I think one thing we need to consider about facebook is the classic middle manager wrangling. If you think that a priority you like is under the chopping block, you tie it inextridcably to something else and then go "Oh, well! Can't can this project because you'll be destroying our most important project". It is essential for Facebook to get to the point where it is so difficult to distinguish between Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp that you can make a coherent argument that you can't split that company into 3 separate parts. That's a great reason for a lot of what was going on at facebook, but the article doesn't seem to consider it.

jonplackett 7y ago

As John Gruber writes after every single link to Bloomberg: * Bloomberg, of course, is the publication that published “The Big Hack” in October 2018 — a sensational story alleging that data centers of Apple, Amazon, and dozens of other companies were compromised by China’s intelligence services. The story presented no confirmable evidence at all, was vehemently denied by all companies involved, has not been confirmed by a single other publication (despite much effort to do so), and has been largely discredited by one of Bloomberg’s own sources. By all appearances “The Big Hack” was complete bullshit. Yet Bloomberg has issued no correction or retraction, and seemingly hopes we’ll all just forget about it. I say we do not just forget about it. Bloomberg’s institutional credibility is severely damaged, and everything they publish should be treated with skepticism until they retract the story or provide evidence that it was true.

knolax 7y ago
Don't forget their "market moving bonuses" https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/12/the-bloomberg-market-moving-bonus-179407 https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/12/the-bloomberg-m...
- btown 7y ago
  If a story is found to be false and moves Bloomberg stock down, does that still qualify for a bonus?
  - chewie123 7y ago
    Bloomberg is a private company.
yumraj 7y ago
Gruber can write what he wants, but is there any evidence that Bloomberg's institutional credibility was impacted in anyway. I see tons of articles from Bloomberg being posted on HN, where people care about that issue. Outside of this, no one cared and there are people on both camps as far as that story is concerned.

pbreit 7y ago

Founders rarely stay long after acquisition and Instagram seems to be doing quite OK.

hwestiii 7y ago

Wasn’t this common knowledge?