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The Social Media Landgrab Is Over: Facebook, Reddit, And Twitter Won

8 points by tmbsundar 15y ago

Hrundi 15y ago
I think Reddit is too US-centric. I really like Reddit, but communities from all over the world are quite small. World pageviews for Reddit must be very large, but when you talk about global penetration, Facebook and Twitter are far, way far ahead. I cannot walk 300 meters here in South America without seeing a billboard selling me some shampoo, with Facebook and Twitter logos prominently displayed.
- cynest 15y ago
  I suspect it's also centered around a specific US demographic, say 14-30 as a perhaps too large estimate, and doesn't have much to offer those significantly outside it.
drewblaisdell 15y ago
The search engine and operating system landgrabs are over too-- just look at Windows 98 and Lycos. - 1999
- tmbsundar 15y ago
  and Orkut in 2002. Also I remember in one of the postings on early stage Google story, someone remarked, when prompted to use Google that. "Thank you..I use Altavista. no more serach engines" only to come back next year to find out that Google was the more popular search engine then.
scottmcleod 15y ago
Hahaha-Except this isn't a landgrab when all you need is better user acusition or value propostion. Facebook has won identity, but not networking. Twitter? Reddit? Ask an average America, let alone global citizen what networks they use, not either. Lots of opportunity.
rooshdi 15y ago
Ha, good one.
halo 15y ago
Reddit has changed to such a degree that plenty of its early users want an alternative that doesn't currently exist. The site is involved in a tug-of-war between users who want quality news articles and those who want pictures and jokes, with the latter overwhelming the site. It's not hard to imagine a successful competitor appealing to the more mature crowd, especially since Metcalfe's Law does not apply to the same degree with social news sites since a social news site only needs a few hundred active users to be useful. Facebook is very entrenched and difficult to compete with. It's the universal identity directory that the Internet has always needed since the start. Very hard to directly compete. I'm still not sure I completely 'get' Twitter. I think it's used for many purposes, many of which could be eroded by rather different and more specialised services. Its 'spying on celebrities' niche seems pretty entrenched, though.
- potatolicious 15y ago
  Now that Facebook has implemented "subscribers", and owners of pages can broadcast to their fans, my use for Twitter is pretty much zilch. I can hear from celebs, and I can hear about sales from my favourite stores, and I can hear about where all the food trucks are for lunch. All without visiting Twitter. It's a pretty big win.
bdfh42 15y ago
There are so many (very) large niche areas available that new opportunities abound. A specialist can (and should) outperform the generalist sites even where supposedly specialist areas exist within them. We are shooting for just one in a sporting area and I can't believe just how big it is.
twidlit 15y ago
Where is Instagram, Youtube or Wordpress/Blogger in this? Google+ has yet to be tightly integrated into Youtube, Android and Chrome so i wouldn't count that out yet.
aw3c2 15y ago
That website seems like a "generate content for the sake of driving traffic, regardless of what you write, just give us ad impressions" pool. I'd prefer not to see such garbage.

8 points by tmbsundar 15y ago

I think Reddit is too US-centric. I really like Reddit, but communities from all over the world are quite small. World pageviews for Reddit must be very large, but when you talk about global penetration, Facebook and Twitter are far, way far ahead. I cannot walk 300 meters here in South America without seeing a billboard selling me some shampoo, with Facebook and Twitter logos prominently displayed.

cynest 15y ago
I suspect it's also centered around a specific US demographic, say 14-30 as a perhaps too large estimate, and doesn't have much to offer those significantly outside it.

drewblaisdell 15y ago

The search engine and operating system landgrabs are over too-- just look at Windows 98 and Lycos. - 1999

tmbsundar 15y ago
and Orkut in 2002. Also I remember in one of the postings on early stage Google story, someone remarked, when prompted to use Google that. "Thank you..I use Altavista. no more serach engines" only to come back next year to find out that Google was the more popular search engine then.

scottmcleod 15y ago

Hahaha-Except this isn't a landgrab when all you need is better user acusition or value propostion. Facebook has won identity, but not networking. Twitter? Reddit? Ask an average America, let alone global citizen what networks they use, not either. Lots of opportunity.

rooshdi 15y ago

Ha, good one.

halo 15y ago

Reddit has changed to such a degree that plenty of its early users want an alternative that doesn't currently exist. The site is involved in a tug-of-war between users who want quality news articles and those who want pictures and jokes, with the latter overwhelming the site. It's not hard to imagine a successful competitor appealing to the more mature crowd, especially since Metcalfe's Law does not apply to the same degree with social news sites since a social news site only needs a few hundred active users to be useful. Facebook is very entrenched and difficult to compete with. It's the universal identity directory that the Internet has always needed since the start. Very hard to directly compete. I'm still not sure I completely 'get' Twitter. I think it's used for many purposes, many of which could be eroded by rather different and more specialised services. Its 'spying on celebrities' niche seems pretty entrenched, though.

potatolicious 15y ago
Now that Facebook has implemented "subscribers", and owners of pages can broadcast to their fans, my use for Twitter is pretty much zilch. I can hear from celebs, and I can hear about sales from my favourite stores, and I can hear about where all the food trucks are for lunch. All without visiting Twitter. It's a pretty big win.

bdfh42 15y ago

There are so many (very) large niche areas available that new opportunities abound. A specialist can (and should) outperform the generalist sites even where supposedly specialist areas exist within them. We are shooting for just one in a sporting area and I can't believe just how big it is.

twidlit 15y ago

Where is Instagram, Youtube or Wordpress/Blogger in this? Google+ has yet to be tightly integrated into Youtube, Android and Chrome so i wouldn't count that out yet.

aw3c2 15y ago

That website seems like a "generate content for the sake of driving traffic, regardless of what you write, just give us ad impressions" pool. I'd prefer not to see such garbage.