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Something I've never understood about these pivots from successful, revenue generating products. Sure, some users will leave Instagram for Tiktok. But isn't it

Something I've never understood about these pivots from successful, revenue generating products. Sure, some users will leave Instagram for Tiktok. But isn't it a different product? Wouldn't Meta have been better off creating a new product and integrating it with Instagram, rather than killing the golden goose? This kind of thing seems to happen really often.

Havoc 4y ago
Launching something new and separate inherently means starting with zero user base.
- fragmede 4y ago
  I'm sure Mark Zuckerberg could use his influence at Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to get a few users to try out a new app he coded up over the weekend.
  - draw_down 4y ago
prawn 4y ago
Adjusting your product means you don't start your userbase from scratch, but I do agree that I'd prefer they start a fresh product and leverage the userbase to promote it. But I think it's easier for them to centralise advertising operations where possible and steer the most malleable and lucrative audience rather than appease (what they thought of as) a minority of people.
djaychela 4y ago
From what I've read, Meta's strategy (and valuation) ultimately relies on 'ubiquity' (as they put it) - where everyone on earth has a Meta account and uses it. The stall in user growth is accompanied by a massive decrease in the company's valuation as a result of this, so they do the classic "what's working for the competition" action. I've not had a FB account for years, and didn't use it other than for messenger for years before that, but when I was on there, I felt that most of their growth came from 'copy what other sites are doing, extinguish the competition by doing this' strategy, as everyone is on facebook anyway. It's worked for them so far, just now it's a bigger shift to try to emulate TikTok rather than try to destroy local ads sites or small business site hosting.
- marcosdumay 4y ago
  > The stall in user growth is accompanied by a massive decrease in the company's valuation That's because of unrealistic expectation from the stock market, not due to the company's health. A stall in user growth means a limit to the company size, and investors were betting that after the IPO Facebook (that was already used by a large share of the humanity) would still grow by two orders of magnitude.
- throwfh80h82 4y ago
  They can't really be relying on 100% market share. Is this hyperbole? Or real?
IshKebab 4y ago
The "what are my friends up to?" golden goose of Facebook is long dead. The "news feed" is already not really news about your friends so I guess it doesn't matter that they're admitting that and explicitly turning it into something like Tiktok.
rr888 4y ago
I'm not into Tik Tok style videos. I recently really cut back using both Instagram and FB because they're just showing me humorous videos and not why I used those apps.
sct202 4y ago
They had an app called Lasso a couple years ago that they shut down, I don't know anyone who actually used it though.
notatoad 4y ago
is there any evidence that the pivots actually "kill the golden goose"? facebook has a long history of making product changes that initially cause a lot of complaining from existing users. they seem to be making a bet that existing users are addicted enough to the product that a change to it won't drive them away. and so far that seems to have worked for them.
- trebbble 4y ago
  Facebook's changes have taken a whole lot of users from "I am on here because it's useful and I actively like it" to "I am on here only because of inertia and network effects, but dislike it and will be happy when I can get rid of it" May not have killed the golden goose yet, but they've sure sharpened the axe, stretched the neck over the block, and drawn a little X right in the middle.
- sheepybloke 4y ago
  There has been push back against the more algorithmic content they are pushing because it gets in the way of the post of people you follow. I use Instagram to follow some artists and design companies, and it's frustrating when every other post is not the people I follow, but some bad influencer vaguely related to your interests begging for likes and follows. Previously, they had suggested posts after you scrolled a bit or after you've caught up with everyone you follow.
HaloZero 4y ago
They already have a tab called Reels inside of Instagram, I tried using it instead of TikTok and it was fucking awful at trying to learn what videos I liked. It seems that they're just gonna force the video format on everyone in order to get better learning data?

Havoc 4y ago

Launching something new and separate inherently means starting with zero user base.

fragmede 4y ago
I'm sure Mark Zuckerberg could use his influence at Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to get a few users to try out a new app he coded up over the weekend.
- draw_down 4y ago

prawn 4y ago

Adjusting your product means you don't start your userbase from scratch, but I do agree that I'd prefer they start a fresh product and leverage the userbase to promote it. But I think it's easier for them to centralise advertising operations where possible and steer the most malleable and lucrative audience rather than appease (what they thought of as) a minority of people.

djaychela 4y ago

From what I've read, Meta's strategy (and valuation) ultimately relies on 'ubiquity' (as they put it) - where everyone on earth has a Meta account and uses it. The stall in user growth is accompanied by a massive decrease in the company's valuation as a result of this, so they do the classic "what's working for the competition" action. I've not had a FB account for years, and didn't use it other than for messenger for years before that, but when I was on there, I felt that most of their growth came from 'copy what other sites are doing, extinguish the competition by doing this' strategy, as everyone is on facebook anyway. It's worked for them so far, just now it's a bigger shift to try to emulate TikTok rather than try to destroy local ads sites or small business site hosting.

marcosdumay 4y ago
> The stall in user growth is accompanied by a massive decrease in the company's valuation That's because of unrealistic expectation from the stock market, not due to the company's health. A stall in user growth means a limit to the company size, and investors were betting that after the IPO Facebook (that was already used by a large share of the humanity) would still grow by two orders of magnitude.
throwfh80h82 4y ago
They can't really be relying on 100% market share. Is this hyperbole? Or real?

IshKebab 4y ago

The "what are my friends up to?" golden goose of Facebook is long dead. The "news feed" is already not really news about your friends so I guess it doesn't matter that they're admitting that and explicitly turning it into something like Tiktok.

rr888 4y ago

I'm not into Tik Tok style videos. I recently really cut back using both Instagram and FB because they're just showing me humorous videos and not why I used those apps.

sct202 4y ago

They had an app called Lasso a couple years ago that they shut down, I don't know anyone who actually used it though.

notatoad 4y ago

is there any evidence that the pivots actually "kill the golden goose"? facebook has a long history of making product changes that initially cause a lot of complaining from existing users. they seem to be making a bet that existing users are addicted enough to the product that a change to it won't drive them away. and so far that seems to have worked for them.

trebbble 4y ago
Facebook's changes have taken a whole lot of users from "I am on here because it's useful and I actively like it" to "I am on here only because of inertia and network effects, but dislike it and will be happy when I can get rid of it" May not have killed the golden goose yet, but they've sure sharpened the axe, stretched the neck over the block, and drawn a little X right in the middle.
sheepybloke 4y ago
There has been push back against the more algorithmic content they are pushing because it gets in the way of the post of people you follow. I use Instagram to follow some artists and design companies, and it's frustrating when every other post is not the people I follow, but some bad influencer vaguely related to your interests begging for likes and follows. Previously, they had suggested posts after you scrolled a bit or after you've caught up with everyone you follow.

HaloZero 4y ago

They already have a tab called Reels inside of Instagram, I tried using it instead of TikTok and it was fucking awful at trying to learn what videos I liked. It seems that they're just gonna force the video format on everyone in order to get better learning data?