4 ms·

Building a business on top of Facebook (or Twitter or any other company) brings a lot of benefits, shortcuts to success, but it also makes you 100% dependent on

by dendory 16y ago

Building a business on top of Facebook (or Twitter or any other company) brings a lot of benefits, shortcuts to success, but it also makes you 100% dependent on them. Your business isn't totally yours anymore, they have veto on anything you do and can shut down your access for any reason. Anyone who doesn't realize that needs to wake up honestly. If you aren't ready to be Facebook's b..ch then don't build your service on their system.

yannickmahe 16y ago
Isn't it the same thing for any platform? Once you use a platform, you're at risk from the owners of the platform. Apple's App Store is another example, it seems like your app can be blocked on a whim.
- chris_j 16y ago
  Very true. It's getting worse as well. Back in the 90s, if someone wrote a Windows app that Microsoft didn't much like then Microsoft couldn't just shut it down. They had to go to the trouble of writing a competitor to that app and bundling it with Windows. Today, if someone writes an app for Facebook or the iPhone/iPad then the platform owner can shut it down on a whim. That's incredibly frightening.
- wladimir 16y ago
  Right. A good reason not to make your company dependent on a single platform and make sure you bring your stuff to multiple platforms.
- zaidf 16y ago
  Yeah, but on many platforms, you have a negotiated contract that is not one-sided. With facebook, you basically have a generic agreement that hundreds of millions of people click YES to that says they can shut down your account for pretty much any reason. If your merchant account did that or the yellow pages removed your listing for a non-specific reason, you could take them to court. It isn't so much that you would take them to court, but it is the fear that you could which keeps these companies from being more careful. Notice I say "careful"...I don't think facebook and all are necessarily intentionally trying to screw anyone. I doubt they have time or interest really to try and screw people. But that also means they may make business decisions that may have side effects that can impact a bunch of people without warning or notice.

by dendory 16y ago

yannickmahe 16y ago

Isn't it the same thing for any platform? Once you use a platform, you're at risk from the owners of the platform. Apple's App Store is another example, it seems like your app can be blocked on a whim.

chris_j 16y ago
Very true. It's getting worse as well. Back in the 90s, if someone wrote a Windows app that Microsoft didn't much like then Microsoft couldn't just shut it down. They had to go to the trouble of writing a competitor to that app and bundling it with Windows. Today, if someone writes an app for Facebook or the iPhone/iPad then the platform owner can shut it down on a whim. That's incredibly frightening.
wladimir 16y ago
Right. A good reason not to make your company dependent on a single platform and make sure you bring your stuff to multiple platforms.
zaidf 16y ago
Yeah, but on many platforms, you have a negotiated contract that is not one-sided. With facebook, you basically have a generic agreement that hundreds of millions of people click YES to that says they can shut down your account for pretty much any reason. If your merchant account did that or the yellow pages removed your listing for a non-specific reason, you could take them to court. It isn't so much that you would take them to court, but it is the fear that you could which keeps these companies from being more careful. Notice I say "careful"...I don't think facebook and all are necessarily intentionally trying to screw anyone. I doubt they have time or interest really to try and screw people. But that also means they may make business decisions that may have side effects that can impact a bunch of people without warning or notice.