5 ms·

Not sure where this optimism comes from, but alright.

threeseed 3y ago
Because this is Meta we are talking about. They know how to build social networks. And they have the cash to keep Threads going for decades whereas X is in a financial hole. Linda is meeting with creditors [1] who are freaking out over the drop in valuation and she doesn't even know whether the company plans to be advertising or subscription driven. [1] https://www.ft.com/content/474b30e9-a726-4571-8475-9adabbbc8169 https://www.ft.com/content/474b30e9-a726-4571-8475-9adabbbc8...
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  > Because this is Meta we are talking about. They know how to build social networks. Meta, the company currently named after their attempted pivot to a VR social network that utterly bombed? I'll certainly grant that they built one social network, but it is less obvious to me that they can repeat it on command.
- brnt 3y ago
  > Because this is Meta we are talking about. They know how to build social networks. Not really. Zuckerburg got lucky once, the rest was purchased.
  - rafark 3y ago
    You have to have a talent for that though. How many companies have made terrible purchases? Like him or hate him, Zuckerberg’s strategies have been great for his company. I don’t know about his VR business, but he’s like a Midas king when it comes to social media. Everything social media related he’s touched has turned into gold. Instagram and WhatsApp were already kind of big, but they’re were not the ubiquitous behemoths they are today. Threads could be his first big fail though.
    - marcus_holmes 3y ago
      Beware survivor bias. How many acquisitions has Facebook/Meta made? (answer: a lot). How many are social behemoths? (answer: 2). We don't know how many he tried to make successful and failed at, because we don't hear of them, or don't remember them. The whole Oculus mess does seem to indicate he doesn't have a Midas touch. And let's not forget the metaverse, which isn't going at all well.
      - threeseed 3y ago
        They have 5 successful social platforms: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Workplace, Threads. The latter has reached 130m+ users after all.
        marcus_holmes 3y ago
        Never heard of Workplace before (unless that's the metaverse thing, in which case it's clearly not successful). And "threads is successful" is dubious: the key point of the article is that it isn't.
        threeseed 3y ago
        Workplace is the market leading enterprise social network. And if building a hundred million user social network in such a rapid timeframe isn't a success not sure what is.
        marcus_holmes 3y ago
        yeah, exactly. We're not sure this is success.
        numpad0 3y ago
        Workplace is private Facebook for large orgs. So just Facebook. Doesn't seem like a total flop, though. I'd rather think that Facebook had been consistently successful in catering its cohort. That targeted cohort might just have too little overlap with users in market for Twitter/Mastodon/Threads, but as far as Facebook/Instagram(post-acquisition) are concerned the users seem satisfied with Meta-run social media to me.
  - charcircuit 3y ago
    >the rest was purchased Instagram had 30 million users at the time of acquisition. Scaling that to billions of users is not trivial nor is it inevitable.
    - brnt 3y ago
      WhatsApp, another Meta purchase, begs to differ.
- antupis 3y ago
  also it might be enough now if they dominate some small niches at start and grow from there. Instagram started with mood pictures about coffee, tiktok was first about dancing videos etc. Zuckberg knows actual numbers and we don't.

Because this is Meta we are talking about. They know how to build social networks. And they have the cash to keep Threads going for decades whereas X is in a financial hole. Linda is meeting with creditors [1] who are freaking out over the drop in valuation and she doesn't even know whether the company plans to be advertising or subscription driven. [1] https://www.ft.com/content/474b30e9-a726-4571-8475-9adabbbc8169 https://www.ft.com/content/474b30e9-a726-4571-8475-9adabbbc8...

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
> Because this is Meta we are talking about. They know how to build social networks. Meta, the company currently named after their attempted pivot to a VR social network that utterly bombed? I'll certainly grant that they built one social network, but it is less obvious to me that they can repeat it on command.
brnt 3y ago
> Because this is Meta we are talking about. They know how to build social networks. Not really. Zuckerburg got lucky once, the rest was purchased.
- rafark 3y ago
  You have to have a talent for that though. How many companies have made terrible purchases? Like him or hate him, Zuckerberg’s strategies have been great for his company. I don’t know about his VR business, but he’s like a Midas king when it comes to social media. Everything social media related he’s touched has turned into gold. Instagram and WhatsApp were already kind of big, but they’re were not the ubiquitous behemoths they are today. Threads could be his first big fail though.
  - marcus_holmes 3y ago
    Beware survivor bias. How many acquisitions has Facebook/Meta made? (answer: a lot). How many are social behemoths? (answer: 2). We don't know how many he tried to make successful and failed at, because we don't hear of them, or don't remember them. The whole Oculus mess does seem to indicate he doesn't have a Midas touch. And let's not forget the metaverse, which isn't going at all well.
    - threeseed 3y ago
      They have 5 successful social platforms: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Workplace, Threads. The latter has reached 130m+ users after all.
      - marcus_holmes 3y ago
        Never heard of Workplace before (unless that's the metaverse thing, in which case it's clearly not successful). And "threads is successful" is dubious: the key point of the article is that it isn't.
        threeseed 3y ago
        Workplace is the market leading enterprise social network. And if building a hundred million user social network in such a rapid timeframe isn't a success not sure what is.
        marcus_holmes 3y ago
        yeah, exactly. We're not sure this is success.
        numpad0 3y ago
        Workplace is private Facebook for large orgs. So just Facebook. Doesn't seem like a total flop, though. I'd rather think that Facebook had been consistently successful in catering its cohort. That targeted cohort might just have too little overlap with users in market for Twitter/Mastodon/Threads, but as far as Facebook/Instagram(post-acquisition) are concerned the users seem satisfied with Meta-run social media to me.
- charcircuit 3y ago
  >the rest was purchased Instagram had 30 million users at the time of acquisition. Scaling that to billions of users is not trivial nor is it inevitable.
  - brnt 3y ago
    WhatsApp, another Meta purchase, begs to differ.
antupis 3y ago
also it might be enough now if they dominate some small niches at start and grow from there. Instagram started with mood pictures about coffee, tiktok was first about dancing videos etc. Zuckberg knows actual numbers and we don't.