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When was the last time, Facebook launched a successful standalone product? - WhatsApp - acqusition - Instagram - acquistion - Messenger - acquisition -
by john_max_1 3y ago
When was the last time, Facebook launched a successful standalone product?
- WhatsApp - acqusition
- Instagram - acquistion
- Messenger - acquisition
- Oculus - acquisition
Facebook has DNA to optimize feeds.
It, simply, lack the DNA to build good products from scratch.
My gut feeling no one will care about Threads, 6 months from now.
EDIT:
- Facebook was all-in on cryptocurrencies. The project is fully gone.
- Facebook was all-in on Messenger as a platform. The project is gone as well.
- Facebook also launched dating a few years back. That project is dead too.
- Someone pointed out in comments that Feed & Like as a concept was also based out of an acquisition called FriendFeed - https://techcrunch.com/2009/08/10/facebook-acquires-friendfeed/
- tedunangst 3y agoWhat was Messenger before acquisition?
- john_max_1 3y agohttps://techcrunch.com/2011/03/01/facebook-beluga/ https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/01/facebook-beluga/
- mtrpcic 3y agoAll of your examples are unique, distinct separate product and problem spaces, whereas Threads is pretty aligned with Instagram as-is. A lot of the plumbing for Instagram is likely reusable for threads, and a lot of the same optimization techniques might apply just as well (or with minor tweaks). I don't think this is as much "launch something new" as it is "instagram with a mask on".
- john_max_1 3y agoSo. multiple attempts at cloning Snap, HouseParty, IRL etc. into standalone products were unique. And this one is just a minor tweak on Instagram? Let's discuss this in another 6 months. I can't predict what the future of Twitter is, but Threads would have been shuttered by then.
- mtrpcic 3y agoWhat apps are you referencing that Meta/Facebook launched and failed to clone Snap/Houseparty/IRL? Their snap competitor is Instagram, and it's still doing very well. Instagram is _also_ their TikTok competitor, and Reels has done a solid job in that space as well.
- john_max_1 3y ago1. Bonfire - HouseParty clone https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/3/18528317/facebook-bonfire-shutdown-group-video-chat-houseparty-clone 2. Poke - Snap clone https://www.vox.com/2018/2/17/17022586/facebook-snapchat-poke-clone-mark-zuckerberg-evan-spiegel-billy-gallagher 3. Slingshot - Snap clone https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/10/snapchat-clones-facebook-copies Note: Can't seem to find the one for IRL
- pavlov 3y agoThing is, these were intentionally created as experiments with the expectation that they would be eventually shut down, with whatever learnings integrated into the mainline apps. Since about 2017-18 there has been a unit at Facebook called NPE, New Product Experimentation, tasked with producing these.
- john_max_1 3y agoYou mean Mark Zuckerberg added his voice to Poke knowing that the app wouldn't even exist in a few years? https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/21/mark-zuckerberg-voice-of-poke https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/21/mark-zuckerberg-voice-of-p...
- pavlov 3y agoThat's from 2012. NPE was created around 2017-18 (I don't remember exactly).
- 3y ago
- stubybubs 3y agoMarketplace dominates used goods in my area. I don't think it matters that it's not "standalone," it was a new area and they grabbed the market share. Running threads off IG has a good shot too.
- warning26 3y agoYup, despite Facebook's best attempts to ruin it. (No one wants to have products shipped from scammy sellers, Facebook, please stop making that the default search option.)
- john_max_1 3y agoThat was a natural extension to Facebook conversations and was not a standalone product.
- okwubodu 3y agoThis is functionally an extension of Instagram. It’s no more standalone than, say, Messenger.
- snowwrestler 3y agoGroups has also slowly become a killer feature of FB. There are very strong niche communities there; it’s a direct competitor to Reddit in that way. It’s pretty much the only reason I keep opening the FB app, but it is enough to keep me opening it.
- moneywoes 3y agoBuy sell groups or niche interest groups? Do you discover them from search
- freddie_mercury 3y agoI wouldn't call them "niche" interest groups. Facebook Groups are very popular in the country I live. (Reddit is too American-centric to have ever really caught on.) I'm in groups on legal stuff (19,000 members), boardgames (16,000 members), family stuff likes activities for kids (9,000 members), roadtrips (5,000 members), camping (9,000 members), food (41,000 members), dog lovers (14,000 members), and a general city group (150,000 members), a group for my neighborhood (22,000 members), a musicians network (3,300 members), pens (montblanc, etc; 8,800 members) Most those groups are just for my city (i.e. the dog lovers is just for dog lovers in my city).
- vineyardmike 3y agoHow was messenger an acquisition? wasn't it simply taking FaceBook Chats and making it a standalone app? It seems that meta just has a very curated list of products, and most seem to be hits, and most seem to be regularly iterated upon. > Facebook has DNA to optimize feeds. Isn't that the exact thing that Threads would need to succeed? It's a new feeds-based app, piggybacking their existing social graph. That means you have followers/following immediately. They even have the market opportunity as twitter stumbles.
- john_max_1 3y agoFacebook Messnger was a service named Beluga - https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/01/facebook-beluga/ https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/01/facebook-beluga/
- frankacter 3y ago>Facebook Messnger was a service named Beluga Facebook Messenger existed prior to the acquisition. Beluga was a mobile only product that was essentially an acquihire of the 3 member team to work on the existing Messenger mobile platform. >Facebook was all-in on Messenger as a platform. The project is gone as well. Facebook Messenger platform is still very much alive and well in both the games and the support / chat bot / reservations space.
- archerx 3y agoThey have pretty much killed messenger for me, I used it everyday to chat with most of my friends but now its bloated and filled with ads so we moved on to different platforms. Its too bad because I loved messenger but now I only open it once a week. > games / chat bot / reservation space Yea thats the bloat that killed it for me, I just wanted something that lets me send messages to my close friends, nothing more, nothing less.
- metamet 3y agoI don't think I've ever seen an ad in Messenger. Curious about where you're seeing them? Desktop? Android/iPhone?
- chupchap 3y agoYou forgot Friendfeed which I believe was the engine behind Facebook feed when it shifted to auto-pull.
- john_max_1 3y agoThanks. TIL. Updated my comment.
- 22c 3y agoReels and Stories, while directly ripped from TikTok and Snapchat have probably taken quite a bit of market share from each of those apps from people who already use Instagram as their main platform. I suspect this has some potential to keep users who were getting FOMO on Instagram from signing up to Twitter.
- carstenhag 3y agoIn my social circle (Germany), Snapchat is completely gone, Instagram stories dominate. Some people use Instagram reels, but most use TikTok.
- dagw 3y agoIn my social circle, Snapchat is completely gone as well. But in my teenage daughters social circles Snapchat is the primary method of communication.
- IAmGraydon 3y agoMy gut tells me you’re quite wrong about this one. I’m quite the cynic, but I think this is a lovely confluence indeed. It feels like when you can tell that the batter is about the hit the ball out of the park just a second before the bat has even made contact with the ball.
- john_max_1 3y agoI gave several examples of standalone apps from Facebook. I can count at least 10. And none of them exist today.
- schultzie 3y ago> Facebook was all-in on cryptocurrencies. The project is fully gone. For what it's worth, their cryptocurrency project is absolutely NOT gone. It's gone in the Facebook-ownership sense (in that it was barred from continuing the project by the SEC (?)), but the code and teams are absolutely still iterating on what began at Facebook. Aptos, Sui, and 0L are all projects that have launched to fanfare within the last year. I'm up for lambasting Facebook as much as the next guy, but I don't think government blocking their projects existence counts as failing.
- tharax 3y agoI think a government blocking a project from existing is by definition a failure. And it also shows that cryptocurrency projects will always be at the mercy of the whims of government(s).
- brian_cloutier 3y agoThis feature is not unique to cryptocurrency. Governments are our mechanism for deciding what is and is not allowed.
- zeroonetwothree 3y agoSocial media has far more free speech protection. So it’s a good place to be.
- rurp 3y agoGetting blocked by the government was hardly a black swan event; it was a major risk factor. Facebook absolutely has the lobbyists and political connections to have a good understanding of the risk, as well as have some influence on it. They got it wrong in this case. It happens, but Facebook doesn't deserve a complete pass for chasing a high profile project that ended up being a dead end for them.
- ygouzerh 3y agoI will do the counter-argument: this app is from Instagram, so it might have an higher success rate. To have worked in big corporate, new products are often entirely managed by a division, and only a reporting is done to the central entity.
- Shawnj2 3y agoAlso worth nothing Instagram has been pretty good at eating other apps’s lunch, specifically Snapchat and later TikTok. Obviously Snapchat and TikTok are still things and are quite popular but the instagram versions of those features are quite good and the network effect is important.
- john_max_1 3y agoInstagram is good at improving their app experience by incorporating features. However, it is not good at launching standalone apps either. Consider 1. Boomerang - https://www.niemanlab.org/reading/instagram-launches-a-standalone-app-boomerang-that-turns-photos-into-a-1-second-video-loop/ 2. Shopping app that was never launched? - https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/4/17819766/instagram-shopping-app-e-commerce 3. Layout - photo collage app https://www.stuff.tv/news/instagram-launches-layout-standalone-app-your-photo-collages/
- Shawnj2 3y agoThat is true, I’m a bit baffled they didn’t integrate this in some capacity into instagram itself. With that said I think this has a higher likelihood of success than instagram apps made for instagram users since this is an Instagram app using Instagram to launch a twitter replacement.
- fknorangesite 3y ago> I’m a bit baffled they didn’t integrate this in some capacity into instagram itself. Boomerang and Layout functionality is built in to Stories, now. Shopping is also integrated.
- john_max_1 3y agoTo add more examples of standalone apps that failed 1. Facebook Gaming app - https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/30/meta-shutting-down-facebook-gaming-app/ 2. Facebook livestreaming app - https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/05/meta-testing-livestreaming-platform-influencers-super/ 3. Facebook Events - https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/7/13192918/facebook-events-app-ios-android
- frankacter 3y agoFacebook gaming is huge platform that exists within the Messaging platform. While they may have consolidated from a standalone app to a service in an existing platform, that is not a "fail" by any measure. The same goes for Facebook Events, which is hugely popular within the Facebook platform.
- john_max_1 3y agoRead my original comment again. I asked for successful standalone products.
- frankacter 3y agoI understand what you asked for, but it's a distinction without a purpose as indicated and just by that measure is misleading. Many of these experiments are intended to start out as standalone apps that have their best features folded back into the main product and the user's transitioned over. That's by design. Framing it as a failure is not reasonable from that perspective. This is especially true of many of the products you listed that are arguably some of the most used function of the main platform like messaging, gaming, and events. They all contribute a significant amount to the DAU for Facebook.
- abledon 3y agoReact & LLAMA are their best products, ironically only for developers, not the general population.
- john_max_1 3y agoIMHO, Angular was superior to React. However, Google being Google, they shot themselves in the foot with Angular 2.
- JCharante 3y agoHow is Dating dead? They launched a new feature 3 months ago
- jeron 3y agoDo you know anyone in America who genuinely uses FB Dating and met people from it?
- polote 3y agoWorkplace https://www.workplace.com/ https://www.workplace.com/
- john_max_1 3y agoAnd how successful has Workplace been compared to Microsoft Teams or Slack?
- zeroonetwothree 3y agoMoving the goalposts?
- balaji1 3y agoFacebook should make a LinkedIn copy. LI has taken the majority of the feed eyeball time. LI must have more DAU/MAU than Twitter - most people are just scrolling the LI feed, adding random people to their network (better than adding "friends" on FB), posting/re-sharing longer text+image content.
- john_max_1 3y agoRemember Branch - https://www.cnbc.com/id/47736408 https://www.cnbc.com/id/47736408 - a LinkedIn killer startup based on Facebook graph?
- worksonmine 3y agoI'm not the target audience for either, but how is your LinkedIn feed even remotely similar to Facebook? On Facebook I see what my grandmother does, on LinkedIn I see female recruiters posting pictures of themselves with some text about some position they're recruiting for, or how to leverage AI from the same people people who used to push growth-hacking. Completely useless as social media.
- balaji1 3y agoLI and FB def not similar. just that whatever is on the LI feed is consumed more.
- Remmy 3y agoThreads isn't even a new app from them. It was discontinued just a few years ago. This is a relaunch with a more Twitter like experience.
- Traubenfuchs 3y agoanecdote: a straight lawyer friend of mine found his MD partner on FB dating, THEY certainly can‘t make fun of FB dating
- ulfw 3y agoIn fairness, the same can be said about Google. Google Maps - acquisition Ads - acquisition Youtube - acquisition Android - acquisition I don't need to list all the failed products (included the 285 different kind of messengers), do I?
- john_max_1 3y agoHere are a few massively successful standalone projects built inside Google 1. Google Cloud - 50+ services with varying degress of success 2. Gmail 3. Google Apps for work 4. Google Chrome
- mmcnl 3y agoInstagram obliterated Snapchat with Stories.
- john_max_1 3y agoRead my comment again, I am asking for a single standalone product that's fully incubated inside Facebook and that's successful.
- devnullbrain 3y agoYou won't find one because you've given an arbitrary limitation that is contrary to how Meta do business. Threads is not even standalone because it uses the Instagram graph.
- john_max_1 3y agoEvery other app that I mentioned and is dead used either Facebook or Instagram graph. None survived.
- cowsandmilk 3y ago> Someone pointed out in comments that Feed & Like as a concept was also based out of an acquisition called FriendFeed Nonsense. Facebook added the news feed in 2006. FriendFeed was founded in 2007. Facebook acqui-hired them for employees, in particular to hire Bret Taylor as CTO, nothing else.
- jonesnc 3y agoI'm not sure what you mean that Messenger as a platform is gone. I still use their messaging app all the time, is that not the same thing?
- john_max_1 3y agoVarious bots, for example, Ordering Uber, sharing Spotify playlists, and other such obscure use-cases that only Facebook employees would engage in. https://about.fb.com/news/2016/04/messenger-platform-at-f8/ https://about.fb.com/news/2016/04/messenger-platform-at-f8/