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Facebook is the most anti-competitive of them all IMO. "Monopolist" and "anti-competitive" are overlapping yet distinct legal concepts in antitrust law. Faceboo

Facebook is the most anti-competitive of them all IMO. "Monopolist" and "anti-competitive" are overlapping yet distinct legal concepts in antitrust law. Facebook had a well known "buy or bury" strategy where they would either buy their competitors or try to destroy them. What is interesting is that IMO FB has had antitrust pressure before google/apple/amazon and this basically froze FB's M&A teams for the past ~4 years. In this time we have seen 4 new promising independent social media networks arise (tiktok, dispo, clubhouse, substack). IMO without the antitrust pressure against FB the current state of social media would be more consolidated, less likely that these 4 new networks would be independent/growing quickly at this stage.

mimikatz 6y ago
Amazon told diapers.com sell to us or we will sell diapers at below cost until you run out of money. Maybe I am just old and the "real" world seems much more legit than the social media world. Sure Facebook bought a lot of companies, but there isn't a ton they do to smoosh them together. They seem pretty independent. Facebook's ability to kill seems weak. TikTok is still doing well and Reels didn't eat into them. Clubhouse is new and up and coming. Much more competitors than new search engines (which isn't even what Google really is anymore). Apple does have more a variety and mix of competition as well as less market share than the other Tech giants.
- bostonsre 6y ago
  What are facebook acquisitions where the acquired companies have remained independent? Whatsapp, Instagram, and oculus seem like they have been assimilated a good amount. re: tiktok and clubhouse I think the op made a good point about the Facebook m&a spree being put on hold due to their legal troubles a few years back and now can only try to clone/crush competitors now. They cloned tiktok and wouldn't be surprised to hear they have a clubhouse clone in the works.
roenxi 6y ago
> Facebook had a well known "buy or bury" strategy where they would either buy their competitors or try to destroy them. That doesn't make a company monopolistic. Having a strategy that considers competitors and the whole market is just savvy thinking. Monopoly is about the detail of how such a strategy succeeds. It isn't obvious that Facebook has a monopoly.

mimikatz 6y ago

Amazon told diapers.com sell to us or we will sell diapers at below cost until you run out of money. Maybe I am just old and the "real" world seems much more legit than the social media world. Sure Facebook bought a lot of companies, but there isn't a ton they do to smoosh them together. They seem pretty independent. Facebook's ability to kill seems weak. TikTok is still doing well and Reels didn't eat into them. Clubhouse is new and up and coming. Much more competitors than new search engines (which isn't even what Google really is anymore). Apple does have more a variety and mix of competition as well as less market share than the other Tech giants.

bostonsre 6y ago
What are facebook acquisitions where the acquired companies have remained independent? Whatsapp, Instagram, and oculus seem like they have been assimilated a good amount. re: tiktok and clubhouse I think the op made a good point about the Facebook m&a spree being put on hold due to their legal troubles a few years back and now can only try to clone/crush competitors now. They cloned tiktok and wouldn't be surprised to hear they have a clubhouse clone in the works.

roenxi 6y ago

> Facebook had a well known "buy or bury" strategy where they would either buy their competitors or try to destroy them. That doesn't make a company monopolistic. Having a strategy that considers competitors and the whole market is just savvy thinking. Monopoly is about the detail of how such a strategy succeeds. It isn't obvious that Facebook has a monopoly.