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This underscores what appears to be an interesting strategic move by Facebook: build an ecosystem of applications, which in turn encourages people to use their
by jfasi 12y ago
This underscores what appears to be an interesting strategic move by Facebook: build an ecosystem of applications, which in turn encourages people to use their other products. In turn, this provides continued competition against Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
The interesting thing about this app is that it's an experiment: viral success of social applications appears to be a hit or miss sort of thing, so why not throw many things at the wall and see what sticks á la Paper, Home, Messenger, or buy something already big á la Instagram or Snapchat.
One benefit of this strategy is that it raises barriers to entry for your competitors: the more modes of social interaction you offer, the fewer opportunities for your competitors to chip away at your empire, and the more enticing your properties become to advertisers.
- minimaxir 12y agoThe "barrier to entry" argument would be true if Slingshot was first. Slingshot was created as an attack on Snapchat. And that's after Facebook's previous attempt to attack Snapchat, Poke, failed miserably.
- junto 12y agoI think there is a good reason for these failure. Personally I haven't installed any of these apps, deliberately because Facebook is behind them. I don't trust Facebook, period. They fall into the same box as Microsoft called "Do not trust. Do not re-open". For me, Facebook's historical lax attitude to users' privacy has put them permanently in my personal dog house. Mark Zuckerberg's mum should have introduced him to Aesop's Fables. These would have been the ones that Mark should have heeded: - http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheDogandtheHare http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheDogandtheHa... - http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheEagleandtheArrow2 http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheEagleandthe... - http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheHorseHunterandStag http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheHorseHunter... - http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&MercuryandtheWoodman http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&MercuryandtheW... - http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheShepherdsBoyandtheWolf http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheShepherdsBo... - http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheWolfinSheepsClothing2 http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheWolfinSheep...
- debt 12y ago"build an ecosystem of applications," Google tried this in the mid-oughts. They stopped and began focusing mostly on Android, Search/Ads and YouTube. They rolled all that random idea/app shit into Google X. Apparently, Steve Jobs and the Google founders sat down and he basically said focus or die. So Google focused. I'm sure there's a Google graveyard out there that highlights all the apps they attempted to make, a few are still kicking like finance and news. But like Reader is huge shutdown from that period. FB will likely do the same thing while it finds it's voice.
- josh2600 12y agohttp://www.wordstream.com/articles/retired-google-projects http://www.wordstream.com/articles/retired-google-projects For the uninitiated.
- troymc 12y agoFrom my point of view, Google still is an ecosystem of applications: Search, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Docs, YouTube, Google Analytics, Google AdSense, Blogger, Google+, etc. In fact, if you want a complete list, just get a "Google Apps for Business" account ($50/user/year) and start browsing the Admin pages.