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Facebook hasn’t had new product success outside of acquisitions in at least a decade. You don't need a 'new trick' when the main business is so frigging profit

Facebook hasn’t had new product success outside of acquisitions in at least a decade. You don't need a 'new trick' when the main business is so frigging profitable and scalable. There is this myth that companies need to keep innovating. At a certain point, when the competition is so weak, you don't. Tobacco stocks have been among the best investment over the past century even though the product never changed. Or Walmart--it's the same type of store, but scaled huge. The fact that a newcomer like TikTok came and ate Instagram’s lunch is downright embarrassing. Not really. Instagram is more popular than ever and much more profitable. It's not all or nothing .Both sites can coexist and thrive, like Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

dangus 1y ago
Sure, a lot of companies don’t need to keep innovating. But still, TikTok passed Instagram active users. This would be like if Universal theme parks surpassed Disney Parks in revenue. Sure, they can both coexist, but it’s an embarrassing reflection of mismanagement when a company that is so far ahead is surpassed by a competitor with better management working with fewer resources. And there are a lot of examples like IBM, Kodak, and General Electric where the company appears untouchable with no need to innovate until suddenly they really do need to innovate and it all collapses around them.
- pavlov 1y ago
  > "TikTok passed Instagram active users. This would be like if Universal theme parks surpassed Disney Parks in revenue" It's like if a Universal theme park surpassed Disneyland Paris in revenue. Meta has other properties too.
  - dangus 1y ago
    Yes, Meta has other properties: - Quest was an acquisition (not an original idea) and has been a money sink, VR market is declining. - Instagram was an acquisition and as mentioned was surpassed in userbase by a newcomer despite cloning TikTok’s functionality relatively early. - Facebook has a declining userbase. It’s still huge but it’s declining. - Threads is the most impressive “original” new Meta product in terms of adoption but it’s about half the size of Twitter if not smaller, and growth is reported as slowing. It’s also mostly recruiting the same users who are already in Instagram. - Meta Workplace got sunsetted and failed I’m not betting against Meta as I acknowledge that they’re a cash cow, but I think that a better CEO for the company exists and could have done better. I think a better CEO would have beat TikTok, I think a better CEO would have Meta competing in more platforms than just social media, and a better CEO would have been able to maintain a better reputation for privacy and security or at least do a better job of separating Facebook’s reputation from the rest of the company. Something like Meta Workplace was doomed from the start at least in part because companies don’t trust Meta with their sensitive data. That is the CEO’s fault.

dangus 1y ago

Sure, a lot of companies don’t need to keep innovating. But still, TikTok passed Instagram active users. This would be like if Universal theme parks surpassed Disney Parks in revenue. Sure, they can both coexist, but it’s an embarrassing reflection of mismanagement when a company that is so far ahead is surpassed by a competitor with better management working with fewer resources. And there are a lot of examples like IBM, Kodak, and General Electric where the company appears untouchable with no need to innovate until suddenly they really do need to innovate and it all collapses around them.

pavlov 1y ago
> "TikTok passed Instagram active users. This would be like if Universal theme parks surpassed Disney Parks in revenue" It's like if a Universal theme park surpassed Disneyland Paris in revenue. Meta has other properties too.
- dangus 1y ago
  Yes, Meta has other properties: - Quest was an acquisition (not an original idea) and has been a money sink, VR market is declining. - Instagram was an acquisition and as mentioned was surpassed in userbase by a newcomer despite cloning TikTok’s functionality relatively early. - Facebook has a declining userbase. It’s still huge but it’s declining. - Threads is the most impressive “original” new Meta product in terms of adoption but it’s about half the size of Twitter if not smaller, and growth is reported as slowing. It’s also mostly recruiting the same users who are already in Instagram. - Meta Workplace got sunsetted and failed I’m not betting against Meta as I acknowledge that they’re a cash cow, but I think that a better CEO for the company exists and could have done better. I think a better CEO would have beat TikTok, I think a better CEO would have Meta competing in more platforms than just social media, and a better CEO would have been able to maintain a better reputation for privacy and security or at least do a better job of separating Facebook’s reputation from the rest of the company. Something like Meta Workplace was doomed from the start at least in part because companies don’t trust Meta with their sensitive data. That is the CEO’s fault.