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I assume the downvotes are for the bubble comment, but I agree with you on the other point. Social seems like an inherently fickle business to be in. The fick

by Jgrubb 14y ago

I assume the downvotes are for the bubble comment, but I agree with you on the other point. Social seems like an inherently fickle business to be in. The ficklest. So much of it is basically style and fashion and trendiness - things come into fashion and things go out of fashion. MySpace did, and imho Facebook will to. I mean really, what's to keep people there if something else that all your friends were using came along? I think a lot of people like joining something new, and social web apps scratch that itch. There's almost zero cost associated with leaving - maybe figuring out what to do with that chunk of your day that you have back now. Anyway, not surprised at all to see this report.

debacle 14y ago
People don't leave the social network scene. They simply move to a new social network. As a social network moves to monetize, it becomes increasingly more intrusive and less functional. This reduces its utility to a point where another social network, which may not be to the monetizing 'step,' will have higher utility and thus will see an explosion of users, investment, etc.
- Jgrubb 14y ago
  "As a social network moves to monetize, it becomes increasingly more intrusive and less functional." Well put. We agree. I don't have the link handy, but there was a post floating around on here a couple weeks ago about having customers, not users. Point being, social et all might be the sexy thing to be into, but from a business perspective it's basically a distraction. The real money is and probably always will be in the enterprise, government, health care - sectors where costs of acquiring, adapting, and leaving technology are all significant and so are the profits to be made. Anyway, that post made an impact on me. Then just after that our 3rd boy was born in Morristown Hospital in New Jersey. Supposedly voted "the best hospital in New Jersey". I was pretty amused to see that the state of the medical art that was networked all over the hospital was still running largely on Windows 98. I have to guess the contract to upgrade that software when it does come along will be worth what? Half a billion dollars? For one hospital? Anyway, I digress...

by Jgrubb 14y ago

debacle 14y ago

People don't leave the social network scene. They simply move to a new social network. As a social network moves to monetize, it becomes increasingly more intrusive and less functional. This reduces its utility to a point where another social network, which may not be to the monetizing 'step,' will have higher utility and thus will see an explosion of users, investment, etc.

Jgrubb 14y ago
"As a social network moves to monetize, it becomes increasingly more intrusive and less functional." Well put. We agree. I don't have the link handy, but there was a post floating around on here a couple weeks ago about having customers, not users. Point being, social et all might be the sexy thing to be into, but from a business perspective it's basically a distraction. The real money is and probably always will be in the enterprise, government, health care - sectors where costs of acquiring, adapting, and leaving technology are all significant and so are the profits to be made. Anyway, that post made an impact on me. Then just after that our 3rd boy was born in Morristown Hospital in New Jersey. Supposedly voted "the best hospital in New Jersey". I was pretty amused to see that the state of the medical art that was networked all over the hospital was still running largely on Windows 98. I have to guess the contract to upgrade that software when it does come along will be worth what? Half a billion dollars? For one hospital? Anyway, I digress...