8 ms·

It’s not that easy. This is life and death for Facebook. TikTok is really taking over and is a force. It’s also a Chinese company and so they can’t buy it. They

It’s not that easy. This is life and death for Facebook. TikTok is really taking over and is a force. It’s also a Chinese company and so they can’t buy it. They are forced to compete, either they do this or become fully irrelevant

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
Facebook is a sinking ship. It's hard to turn that around. It seems like it would've been easier to go after TikTok with Instagram - which is basically the same product, growing, and still has some brand value.
- mysterydip 4y ago
  Maybe other people's feeds are different (admittedly I don't do much on it), but almost all I see on instagram are screenshots of twitter, tumblr, reddit, and tiktok videos. Very little content original to the platform.
  - tayo42 4y ago
    If you don't much on it that seems right. That seems like generic content. I used to get a lot of that, now mine is the stuff I follow. Mostly art and people I know in real life
- holler 4y ago
  They are, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32233415 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32233415
- rvz 4y ago
  Meta already knew Facebook would sink someday. As they have Instagram, they don't care and Meta will be around for another 10 years to extract more from Instagram and their other unused platforms. I'd expect the hype and growth around TikTok to peak once their parent company IPOs, as more corporations, advertisers, mainstream media accounts, move in to the platform to ruin it just like they did with the rest of the other social networking platforms, especially for YouTube and Instagram. If they don't IPO soon, TikTok will get much worse for their users. Either way, the users will eventually get annoyed by TikTok's changes, pushed and boosted by the company.
  - citizenkeen 4y ago
    Why would ByteDance IPO?
    - tmccrary55 4y ago
      Specifically to cash out at peak hype.
    - Drew_ 4y ago
      To make even more money
    - Kye 4y ago
      You don't raise almost $10 billion dollars for a steady, stable lifestyle business. You raise almost $10 billion dollars to reach a liquidity event that pays it back to the investors with a huge profit.
  - HWR_14 4y ago
    > once their parent company IPOs, as more corporations, advertisers, mainstream media accounts, move in to the platform to ruin it j > If they don't IPO soon, TikTok will get much worse for their users So, if they IPO TikTok gets worse and if they don't TikTok gets worse? I don't see why bringing up an IPO matters. Meanwhile, it seems unlikely they'll IPO soon if ever. They apparently raised a 2 billion round in December 2020, and they won't want to IPO in a recession. And IPOing is going to be a political act, and if I were them I would hesitate to incur the CCP's wrath.
  - Banana699 4y ago
    >Facebook would sink someday That day is very far into the future (in tech terms). 1.96 billion users are a whole fucking lot of a base to bleed. I would bet actual money that they won't dip below 1 billion by 2035, and that they would be still there (in whatever profitable form) with the same trademak in 2050.
    - lelanthran 4y ago
      > That day is very far into the future (in tech terms). 1.96 billion users are a whole fucking lot of a base to bleed. I would bet actual money that they won't dip below 1 billion by 2035, and that they would be still there (in whatever profitable form) with the same trademak in 2050. While I broadly agree with you, I'd only bet money depending on the odds the bookie is giving, and I wouldn't bet on 1:1 odds either. The reason is because those timescales are a full generation away. Since the entire value of FB is in the social network of people, it's possible that the upcoming generations bypass FB altogether for a competitor, and FB is unable to risk the pivot[1]. [1] FB might have to intentionally discard the aging existing users for the new users if the featureset that the new users want is exclusive with the featureset that the old users want.
jsemrau 4y ago
We do share a disdain for the DataKraken, yet META dominated in June '22 across the most downloaded apps. [1] [1] https://app.finclout.io/t/b9BbQa4 https://app.finclout.io/t/b9BbQa4
tomlin 4y ago
> TikTok is really taking over and is a force. So that means what? That other social medias can't exist unless they are on the absolute top? Sounds like a race to the bottom, patched up with investor creole language bullshit.
- chitowneats 4y ago
  Sorry, why is creole being referenced here? Is this an inside joke/reference I'm not familiar with? Is it a typo? Edit: Thank you all for the replies. I am aware of and respectful of the literal definition. The usage on the comment I responded to strikes me as either antiquated, inaccurate, or a typo.
  - marginalia_nu 4y ago
    I'd assume they're referencing it being something like a pidgin language.
  - msbarnett 4y ago
    Creole language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language
  - QuarterReptile 4y ago
    'creole' has developed a linguistic meaning that parallels the ethnic one you may be interpreting. From Wikipedia: a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. I still found the comment to be a bit of a stretch with that usage.
    - chitowneats 4y ago
      Agreed. Is there not a better or more general word we have for this these days in English? Maybe we could borrow it from the Germans. I do like words like Schadenfreude.
  - 4y ago
groffee 4y ago
Facebook is dying, but not because of TikTok. Facebook is dying because they stopped being Facebook. If they gave what's left of their userbase what they actually wanted (chronological feed, seeing friends posts, not seeing spam, more ways to interact (bring back pets, gifts, superpokes etc)) they'd do ok. It doesn't help that their core code is a steaming pile of bloated dung that doesn't seem to be tested by anyone.
- naravara 4y ago
  When I started using Facebook it wasn't a newsfeed, it was just a personal homepage with a photo album and a bulletin board attached. I'd love to have something like that again that everyone uses, but everything is about goosing the influencer economy now rather than letting me socialize.
  - nine_k 4y ago
    It almost sounds as if there is a niche for that! BTW have you tried dreamwidth.org, a fork of the venerable livejournal.com? They look as if 2005 had never ended,in a good sense.
    - threeseed 4y ago
      There isn't. Many companies e.g. Path, Google have tried and failed to build a social network that focused on more personal relationships. They simply don't offer enough value over say a WhatApp group.
      - nine_k 4y ago
        I think they wanted hockey-stick growth and prospects of a big payout, while the sustainable model may be a lifestyle business that barely pays for itself.
        naravara 4y ago
        This. Though I'm not even sure about the "barely pays for itself." I mean, Automaticc/Wordpress sustains itself okay and had the resources to buy Tumblr. I think they're just under $100M in annual revenue. Outside the world of absurd Silicon Valley valuations, that would be considered very respectable
technion 4y ago
Is it taking over the same space though? I use Facebook because it's the only place I can see the schedules at my gym, or the menus as many local restaurants despite them not having updated their Facebook page in two years. As far as I know Tiktok doesn't really try to compete against these things.
Spooky23 4y ago
Good luck. TikTok is amazing. Facebook tries so hard to push junk and noise content at you it’s ridiculous. They’ve become a parody of themselves, and the obvious knockoff of TikTok looks pitiful.
- herval 4y ago
  You can hate Facebook all you want, but it's quite the stretch to call TikTok "amazing". It's very addictive, while the algo knows what you want, but that's mostly it. Obviously anecdotal and personal opinion here, but me & many other people I know tried it a bit, spent MANY hours mindlessly scrolling, and eventually got bored. Nonetheless, it's still growing like a wildfire, but I deeply suspect it'll be a very, very fast fire. Which is a deep irony, since Facebook is following TikTok into the same cliff.

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago

Facebook is a sinking ship. It's hard to turn that around. It seems like it would've been easier to go after TikTok with Instagram - which is basically the same product, growing, and still has some brand value.

mysterydip 4y ago
Maybe other people's feeds are different (admittedly I don't do much on it), but almost all I see on instagram are screenshots of twitter, tumblr, reddit, and tiktok videos. Very little content original to the platform.
- tayo42 4y ago
  If you don't much on it that seems right. That seems like generic content. I used to get a lot of that, now mine is the stuff I follow. Mostly art and people I know in real life
holler 4y ago
They are, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32233415 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32233415
rvz 4y ago
Meta already knew Facebook would sink someday. As they have Instagram, they don't care and Meta will be around for another 10 years to extract more from Instagram and their other unused platforms. I'd expect the hype and growth around TikTok to peak once their parent company IPOs, as more corporations, advertisers, mainstream media accounts, move in to the platform to ruin it just like they did with the rest of the other social networking platforms, especially for YouTube and Instagram. If they don't IPO soon, TikTok will get much worse for their users. Either way, the users will eventually get annoyed by TikTok's changes, pushed and boosted by the company.
- citizenkeen 4y ago
  Why would ByteDance IPO?
  - tmccrary55 4y ago
    Specifically to cash out at peak hype.
  - Drew_ 4y ago
    To make even more money
  - Kye 4y ago
    You don't raise almost $10 billion dollars for a steady, stable lifestyle business. You raise almost $10 billion dollars to reach a liquidity event that pays it back to the investors with a huge profit.
- HWR_14 4y ago
  > once their parent company IPOs, as more corporations, advertisers, mainstream media accounts, move in to the platform to ruin it j > If they don't IPO soon, TikTok will get much worse for their users So, if they IPO TikTok gets worse and if they don't TikTok gets worse? I don't see why bringing up an IPO matters. Meanwhile, it seems unlikely they'll IPO soon if ever. They apparently raised a 2 billion round in December 2020, and they won't want to IPO in a recession. And IPOing is going to be a political act, and if I were them I would hesitate to incur the CCP's wrath.
- Banana699 4y ago
  >Facebook would sink someday That day is very far into the future (in tech terms). 1.96 billion users are a whole fucking lot of a base to bleed. I would bet actual money that they won't dip below 1 billion by 2035, and that they would be still there (in whatever profitable form) with the same trademak in 2050.
  - lelanthran 4y ago
    > That day is very far into the future (in tech terms). 1.96 billion users are a whole fucking lot of a base to bleed. I would bet actual money that they won't dip below 1 billion by 2035, and that they would be still there (in whatever profitable form) with the same trademak in 2050. While I broadly agree with you, I'd only bet money depending on the odds the bookie is giving, and I wouldn't bet on 1:1 odds either. The reason is because those timescales are a full generation away. Since the entire value of FB is in the social network of people, it's possible that the upcoming generations bypass FB altogether for a competitor, and FB is unable to risk the pivot[1]. [1] FB might have to intentionally discard the aging existing users for the new users if the featureset that the new users want is exclusive with the featureset that the old users want.

jsemrau 4y ago

We do share a disdain for the DataKraken, yet META dominated in June '22 across the most downloaded apps. [1] [1] https://app.finclout.io/t/b9BbQa4 https://app.finclout.io/t/b9BbQa4

tomlin 4y ago

> TikTok is really taking over and is a force. So that means what? That other social medias can't exist unless they are on the absolute top? Sounds like a race to the bottom, patched up with investor creole language bullshit.

chitowneats 4y ago
Sorry, why is creole being referenced here? Is this an inside joke/reference I'm not familiar with? Is it a typo? Edit: Thank you all for the replies. I am aware of and respectful of the literal definition. The usage on the comment I responded to strikes me as either antiquated, inaccurate, or a typo.
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  I'd assume they're referencing it being something like a pidgin language.
- msbarnett 4y ago
  Creole language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language
- QuarterReptile 4y ago
  'creole' has developed a linguistic meaning that parallels the ethnic one you may be interpreting. From Wikipedia: a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. I still found the comment to be a bit of a stretch with that usage.
  - chitowneats 4y ago
    Agreed. Is there not a better or more general word we have for this these days in English? Maybe we could borrow it from the Germans. I do like words like Schadenfreude.
- 4y ago

groffee 4y ago

Facebook is dying, but not because of TikTok. Facebook is dying because they stopped being Facebook. If they gave what's left of their userbase what they actually wanted (chronological feed, seeing friends posts, not seeing spam, more ways to interact (bring back pets, gifts, superpokes etc)) they'd do ok. It doesn't help that their core code is a steaming pile of bloated dung that doesn't seem to be tested by anyone.

naravara 4y ago
When I started using Facebook it wasn't a newsfeed, it was just a personal homepage with a photo album and a bulletin board attached. I'd love to have something like that again that everyone uses, but everything is about goosing the influencer economy now rather than letting me socialize.
- nine_k 4y ago
  It almost sounds as if there is a niche for that! BTW have you tried dreamwidth.org, a fork of the venerable livejournal.com? They look as if 2005 had never ended,in a good sense.
  - threeseed 4y ago
    There isn't. Many companies e.g. Path, Google have tried and failed to build a social network that focused on more personal relationships. They simply don't offer enough value over say a WhatApp group.
    - nine_k 4y ago
      I think they wanted hockey-stick growth and prospects of a big payout, while the sustainable model may be a lifestyle business that barely pays for itself.
      - naravara 4y ago
        This. Though I'm not even sure about the "barely pays for itself." I mean, Automaticc/Wordpress sustains itself okay and had the resources to buy Tumblr. I think they're just under $100M in annual revenue. Outside the world of absurd Silicon Valley valuations, that would be considered very respectable

technion 4y ago

Is it taking over the same space though? I use Facebook because it's the only place I can see the schedules at my gym, or the menus as many local restaurants despite them not having updated their Facebook page in two years. As far as I know Tiktok doesn't really try to compete against these things.

Spooky23 4y ago

Good luck. TikTok is amazing. Facebook tries so hard to push junk and noise content at you it’s ridiculous. They’ve become a parody of themselves, and the obvious knockoff of TikTok looks pitiful.

herval 4y ago
You can hate Facebook all you want, but it's quite the stretch to call TikTok "amazing". It's very addictive, while the algo knows what you want, but that's mostly it. Obviously anecdotal and personal opinion here, but me & many other people I know tried it a bit, spent MANY hours mindlessly scrolling, and eventually got bored. Nonetheless, it's still growing like a wildfire, but I deeply suspect it'll be a very, very fast fire. Which is a deep irony, since Facebook is following TikTok into the same cliff.