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Why does the advertising platform need to be the same service as the tool for finding old friends? Why do either of those things need to be bundled with an even
by dangerlibrary 5y ago
Why does the advertising platform need to be the same service as the tool for finding old friends? Why do either of those things need to be bundled with an event planning tool? Why is that combined service serving the vast majority of the populations of both Indonesia and Canada (for example)? My point is simply that I, and the vast majority of businesses, would get the exact same value from Facebook if it operated at the scale of a single country or even more locally. Or if it were one of many competing platforms that each had a far smaller market share.
To be clear: I know the answer, in economic terms - economies of scale, network effects, etc. But also I don't care about that, because none of that matters to me. And the downsides (and externalities) of having a single giant service functioning at this scale are massive.
The costs are large, and the benefit to me is small. That's why "we just need to accept it" is an absurd argument to me - I don't personally benefit from Facebook being as large as it is, and I would experience no great personal or professional loss if Facebook were far, far smaller.
- jimmaswell 5y agoThe internet is supposed to bring us together. I shouldn't be walled off from friends in other countries because they're on Canadian Facebook and I'm on Eastern American Facebook. I really don't see how a tiny fraction of bad ads slipping through and immediately being caught and making the news for being so rare means we should throw the whole thing out. Those things need to be bundled because something has to pay for it and poor people shouldn't have to decide between groceries and being connected to others online.
- dangerlibrary 5y agoCompetition (as opposed to a monopolist) is not the dystopian nightmare you make it out to be. Some people even think it's a good thing.