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Facebook Has Reached Its Microsoft Bing Moment -- History Shows the Results Won't Be Pretty (cnbc.com)
As we noted recently, Facebook continues to duplicate every core feature that rival app Snapchat adds to its service. A new report, which cites multiple Facebook employees, sheds more light into how Facebook operates. The company, the report claims, created a "Teens Team" to figure out how to grab teenagers back from Snapchat, and has been up front about its tactics within the company: The internal mantra among some groups is "don't be too proud to copy." Matt Rosoff, an editor at CNBC says this whole tactics by Facebook is nothing new in the tech industry. From the article: Flash back to the early 2000s, when Microsoft was the undisputed king of the tech industry, with two unassailable monopolies -- operating systems and productivity apps for personal computers. It faced a lot of competitors, but the one that scared it the most was Google, which was in a completely different business. Google didn't start by creating alternatives to Windows and Office, although it did so later. Instead, it created a suite of online services -- first search, followed by email and maps -- that threatened the entire purpose of a personal computer. Why rely on Microsoft software running locally when you could get so much done with web apps? Microsoft's response? Trying to build the exact same service that made Google famous -- a search engine, first known as MSN Search, later rebranded to Bing. Eleven years later, Bing is a small minority player in search, with less than 10 percent market share on the desktop and less than 1 percent in mobile.
Best porn image search engine there is. Beat that, Google!
Remember WhatsApp copying Blackberry Messenger? And all the iterations of IM app from ICQ, AIM, etc?
Eleven years later, Bing is a small minority player in search, with less than 10 percent market share on the desktop and less than 1 percent in mobile.
The summary appears to imply that Bing went from being a major player to a small player in the search engine market. Bing has always been a minority player. The reality is that the 10 percent market share represents growth, considering that Bing was a non-existent presence in the market 11 years ago, so the analogy is fatally flawed.
I didn't have a facebook account before it was cool!
...and by then they'll be using something else (maybe).
When I was a teenager, BBS (and if you were lucky and your parents had a uni account, IRC and NNTP) was about as close as you could get to a social network.
But, old people stuff aside, look at progression here: NNTP, IRC, basic web forums, ICQ groups, PHPNuke forums, MySpace, Facebook, Snapchat, ...?
(or similar, YMMV.)
Odds are perfect someone else may come out with yet another means to communicate in groups by the time today's teenagers are old enough to drink.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
The company, the report claims, created a "Teens Team" to figure out how to grab teenagers back from Snapchat,
In related news, an "Ex's" group is created and meets to figure out how to lure back the person that left them. Reports indicate that candy and presents will play a predominant role.
Let's see, I'm a teen, my parents and relatives are all on Facebook and I'm going to actively use the platform why?
So I still don't have a facebook account.... can I stop wondering do I or don't I?
If you don't have a facebook account, facebook still has an account on you. Opening the account is the only way to get control of privacy settings to limit what facebook publishes of personal data on you.
Look, no matter how much you talk it up, it's not a thing.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I had a facebook account to play farmville. Actually... I had 5 facebook accounts to play farmville.
And then one day facebook wanted to nail down who I really was. And I stopped using facebook.
That must have been over 5 years ago.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
No not really. There are also many instances where copying a competitors product became widely successful.
VisiCalc to Lotus 123 to Excel
WordPerfect to Word
MySpace to Facebook
I can keep going but There are many companies who just happens to get their version at the right time and market to the right group of people to make their obvious copy the more successful product.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
And here I thought that Microsoft didn't make Edge until 2015. The more you know!
I have no idea what you are talking about. Google maps loads instantly for me. It doesn't do much beyond map related functions, so I'm not sure where you are getting "bloated" from.
I use Diaspora, which has the added advantage of being nice and quiet. Peace and quiet is so soothing...
My friends and I all switched to Diaspora,
but then we just went our separate ways...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Google has never been a threat to Microsoft's OS. Their mobile division, definitely, but never their OS division.
What about all the people (younger folks especially) who are no longer buying/using desktop computers since their phones do everything they need?
Reprise the theme song and roll the credits!
Why? I don't have a facebook account either. Nor does my wife. Admittedly I don't know many people who don't have a facebook account, but there are some of us out there!
On the other hand, my teenagers do have facebook accounts, but they don't use them anymore. They and their friends have fully moved over to other social media platforms and openly mock anyone who does use facebook.
According to my teenagers and their friends it already has imploded. They simply don't use it anymore. They've move on to other social media platforms. If you are cool, you don't use facebook.
There are also many instances where copying a competitors product became widely successful.
And that can happen without even killing the original, which is smart, because you can copy from it multiple times: Mac to Windows PC.
It's cute that teenagers still think they're the centre of the world, meanwhile Facebook is moving on from pure social networking and starting to absorb special interest groups from blogs, forums and mailing lists.
The first versions of Word I used in late 80s were keystroke compatible with WordPerfect and would read and write WP format files by default. It was close enough for most companies. Many of my customers went to word because it was much cheaper than WordPerfect (competitive upgrade pricing). Law firms were the hold outs that would not switch and also used more advanced WP features that were not copied. By the time Windows 95 came out WP for Windows was buggy as hell and Word was pretty stable. Law firms that I dealt with starting converting Word at that time. Generally they were going from Novell file servers to NT Server and Win95 workstations and from WP to Word and getting internet connected all in one big upgrade.