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It's remarkable that "Facebook owns the four most downloaded apps of [2010-19]" [0] 1. Facebook 2. Messenger 3. WhatsApp 4. Instagram The rest of the T10 h

It's remarkable that "Facebook owns the four most downloaded apps of [2010-19]" [0] 1. Facebook 2. Messenger 3. WhatsApp 4. Instagram The rest of the T10 have "one owner": Snapchat, Skype, TikTok, UC Browser (Alibaba), Youtube, and Twitter. [0]https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50838013 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50838013

FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
I'm convinced that WhatsApp is Facebook's most valuable property, not Facebook itself. It's ubiquitous in the developing world, whereas I think (overoptimistically?) that Facebook itself is dying. > The rest of the T10 have "one owner": Snapchat, Skype, TikTok, UC Browser (Alibaba), Youtube, and Twitter. I think you mean that each of those apps has a different owner? Or do you actually mean that there is a single entity that owns all of them, e.g. a common investor?
smt88 5y ago
It's a lot worse than it seems. The top 4 apps are 100% controlled by one person, Mark Zuckerberg. There is no board or committee that can overrule him. If rumors are true, he cut a deal with the previous White House to avoid regulation, so even government (until recently) couldn't stop him. There is one, semi-educated, ruthless, unscrupulous person running an unprecedented experiment on billions of under-informed people. He has access to a substantial percentage of all messages sent between people every day. No one person (even an elected person) should have that much power.
- wutbrodo 5y ago
  > semi-educated This is an interesting take, but what a weird modifier to add in here. IMO education level is more or less irrelevant here, but if one had to force it into the equation, it seems to me that his Harvard pedigree, even if he didn't graduate, makes your picture of an out-of-touch unelected puppetmaster _more_ sinister.
  - smt88 5y ago
    In college, many of us learn the ethics around experimentation, including the ugly history of experiments performed in secret without ethics boards and without concern for the subjects. I included that qualifier only to suggest that Zuckerberg likely didn't have the training in ethical experimentation that many of us got in college. I tend to agree that a Harvard education makes someone more suspect, but only (in my opinion) if the degree is an MBA. Their undergrads, on average, have always seemed to me to be as sincere and compassionate as any other school's.
    - wutbrodo 5y ago
      >In college, many of us learn the ethics around experimentation, including the ugly history of experiments performed in secret without ethics boards and without concern for the subjects. You have more faith than I do that this lesson is actually absorbed. And it's leaving aside the fact that the kind of elitist detachment from the masses that underpins your framing is going to be correlated with getting education, not lacking it. Though again, I don't think any of these effects would be strong enough to be worth mentioning.
amelius 5y ago
Just wait for one of the AANG companies to buy the other T10 apps.
- InitialLastName 5y ago
  By my count, 4 of the other 6 are owned by companies that are either in the FAANG acronym or would be if the FAANG grouping were internally coherent (or considered foreign companies): - Youtube (Google) - Skype (Microsoft) - UC Browser (Alibaba) - TikTok (Bytedance) Now all we need is for Amazon to buy Snapchat (or anyone to want Twitter).

FooBarBizBazz 5y ago

I'm convinced that WhatsApp is Facebook's most valuable property, not Facebook itself. It's ubiquitous in the developing world, whereas I think (overoptimistically?) that Facebook itself is dying. > The rest of the T10 have "one owner": Snapchat, Skype, TikTok, UC Browser (Alibaba), Youtube, and Twitter. I think you mean that each of those apps has a different owner? Or do you actually mean that there is a single entity that owns all of them, e.g. a common investor?

smt88 5y ago

It's a lot worse than it seems. The top 4 apps are 100% controlled by one person, Mark Zuckerberg. There is no board or committee that can overrule him. If rumors are true, he cut a deal with the previous White House to avoid regulation, so even government (until recently) couldn't stop him. There is one, semi-educated, ruthless, unscrupulous person running an unprecedented experiment on billions of under-informed people. He has access to a substantial percentage of all messages sent between people every day. No one person (even an elected person) should have that much power.

wutbrodo 5y ago
> semi-educated This is an interesting take, but what a weird modifier to add in here. IMO education level is more or less irrelevant here, but if one had to force it into the equation, it seems to me that his Harvard pedigree, even if he didn't graduate, makes your picture of an out-of-touch unelected puppetmaster _more_ sinister.
- smt88 5y ago
  In college, many of us learn the ethics around experimentation, including the ugly history of experiments performed in secret without ethics boards and without concern for the subjects. I included that qualifier only to suggest that Zuckerberg likely didn't have the training in ethical experimentation that many of us got in college. I tend to agree that a Harvard education makes someone more suspect, but only (in my opinion) if the degree is an MBA. Their undergrads, on average, have always seemed to me to be as sincere and compassionate as any other school's.
  - wutbrodo 5y ago
    >In college, many of us learn the ethics around experimentation, including the ugly history of experiments performed in secret without ethics boards and without concern for the subjects. You have more faith than I do that this lesson is actually absorbed. And it's leaving aside the fact that the kind of elitist detachment from the masses that underpins your framing is going to be correlated with getting education, not lacking it. Though again, I don't think any of these effects would be strong enough to be worth mentioning.

amelius 5y ago

Just wait for one of the AANG companies to buy the other T10 apps.

InitialLastName 5y ago
By my count, 4 of the other 6 are owned by companies that are either in the FAANG acronym or would be if the FAANG grouping were internally coherent (or considered foreign companies): - Youtube (Google) - Skype (Microsoft) - UC Browser (Alibaba) - TikTok (Bytedance) Now all we need is for Amazon to buy Snapchat (or anyone to want Twitter).