mattmaroon.com: Facebook Is Kinda OK but Largely Overrated
Bryan
· 2 years ago
Matt, I often find myself wrapped up in the hype of the day: "Vista Sucks!", "Facebook is the shiznet!", and then I read your insightful, thought-provoking posts. Thank you for the divergent thinking, the your willingness to stick your neck out.
I'm especially keen on this post because I do think people in the valley have lost some perspective when it comes to Facebook. Sure, everyone around here uses it. And lots of other people do to. But I don't see anything unique to facebook that couldn't be duplicated elsewhere - social networking platforms are inherently fickle, as they are only cool when lots of people are there, and lame if they're not. This builds brand loyalty, but the crowd can turn when something better/newer comes along. Just ask friendster and now myspace.
I know I'm biased when I say this, but I'm honestly just starting to get it: email is the only truly global, fully interconnected networking platform on the internet. Man, I'm excited to be working at Xobni.
mattmaroon
· 2 years ago
Xobni is a pretty sweet idea. Email is a platform, one which a lot of stuff is built on and a lot more should be. And it has achieved such ubiquity that Facebook fanboys always say "what if Facebook becomes as popular as email".
Argy
· 2 years ago
I prefer thinking in terms of what I benefit from using a service. I use Facebook because 1) most of my friends are there and 2) it is easy to use (it does most of the work for me and I don't have to 'type' a lot to get in touch with my friends). I am certainly not using it as much as google (not by far) but it would not be fair to compare those two things. What I find impressive is how people like to promote what they use (in your case, google and myspace) and then try to label as "under-rated" other services. I know, my point of view (the end-user) is a very limited one and there are a lot of corporate and financial interests behind the scene. But at least I get to enjoy the services and not have to worry about anything. Keep posting your thoughts.
mattmaroon
· 2 years ago
You are exactly wrong there. I hate myspace and dont use it at all. I use facebook far more because most of my friends are there and I can see their actual contact information. I like facebook about 100 times better than myspace. I just realize I am in the minority there.
Ethan Herdrick
· 2 years ago
MySpace doesn't allow JavaScript.
mattmaroon
· 2 years ago
is it flash or something? How do people have all of those photo slideshows and such.
Daniel Ha
· 2 years ago
I believe they're all flash.
mattmaroon
· 2 years ago
Mea Culpa. though it's still a far better platform since it doesn't have the size restraints Facebook does.
Jon
· 2 years ago
GREAT article! It's nice to hear from someone who can see through all the hype. I've always found it strange that people with little to no financial literacy or business sense think they can make predictions, ignoring "unimportant" data like revenue and profitability.
tom
· 2 years ago
You are wrong in so many ways.
First of all, Kleenex is not a verb. What i think youre trying to say is that Kleenex has become a common term for "tissue" which is a very bad thing for their trademark, as they could lose it.
Second, MySpace allowing arbitrary JavaScript does NOTmake it a platform, just incredibly annoying (CSS too). You need ways to access your so called social graph to make it useful.
Certainly many (most?) of the FB apps out there are trash... But that will improve as devs figure out new and interesting things to do with it.
That said, i dont think comparing google to fb is a good comparison. Google organizes the worlds information, while facebook organizes the worlds relationships.
mattmaroon
· 2 years ago
You're right, Kleenex has become a generic noun, not a verb, but the idea was more that both have turned their brand name into a generic term.
You find myspace annoying due to the customization. So do I. We're in the minority there though.
Every dev in the world is thinking about how to make a Facebook app that's not trash, none have yet done it. What makes you think that will change?
And my base contention is that information is far greater a market than relationships, which is why Facebook is overhyped.
Siqi Chen
· 2 years ago
I think you're wrong on two points: 1. That a monopoly over the online social interactions between people isn't as much of a game changer as search, and 2. That MySpace is undefeatable simply because people want to go where other people are.
Google wants to organize the world's information and make universally accessible and useful. They've done a pretty good job of that, with the exception of your social information and connections. Facebook has a virtual monopoly on it in US. I would argue that controlling that kind of social information has just as much long term value as Google does.
The argument that people want to go where other people are, and therefore MySpace will always be the biggest social network out there, is empirically false. If that were the case, everybody would still be on Friendster. There is room for innovation and better execution in this space, and if you look at Facebook's momentum, they are catching up and catching up fast.
mattmaroon
· 2 years ago
I don't understand how you can argue that they have a monopoly when they're in a distant second place. And even if they were, I would definitely disagree with your assertion that it's worth anywhere near what Google is.
Siqi Chen
· 2 years ago
Two things: a good chunk of MySpace's 190 million users are largely fake profiles with no real identity information behind them - profiles for companies, bands, and spammers. I'd bet bottom dollar that Facebook will over take them well within two years. The trend is pretty clear, even not accounting for MySpace's blatant page view inflation through poor usability:
I never asserted that they are worth more than Google now, but properly executing on that kind of control, in the long term, could be enough to do it. I'm saying it's plausible.
Siqi Chen
· 2 years ago
Also, as far your stats go, although it may be true that the average person uses Google more than they use Facebook - the people who are actually ON Facebook use it, very, very frequently.
Something like 85% of their userbase logins to Facebook everyday, and their average visit time is almost 30 minutes.
heri
· 2 years ago
I agree. FB is overrated. I realized it was worthless when I was in college. It was fun the first two months when you get in touch again with lost friends from high school but I realized it's useless in itself.
But I guess bloggers and media just need something to talk about. Just before FB, it was twitter. There were the anti-twitter and the pro-twitter. before twitter, there was joost etc. The FB hype will die the day when another startup launches something somehow "interesting", then half bloggers will all write it's the big new thing, with the rest claiming it's stupid.
ben
· 2 years ago
Wow you really dont get it eh?
mattmaroon
· 2 years ago
Empirical evidence (i.e. their utter lack of profitability and decreasing use by average users) would seem to indicate that it isn't me who is failing to get it.
Siqi Chen
· 2 years ago
What is the empirical evidence that their use is decreasing? To the contrary:
The whole "_______ Is Kinda OK but Largely Overrated" pretty much sums up my feelings for nearly every web start up.
Rudy
· 2 years ago
The main difference between myspace and facebook in my opinion is that Myspace is used as a way to expess yourself and you're personality, whereas Facebook is used for its utility of providing information about what is happening with you're friends. I use both a fair amount, and think both have their own qualities and downsides, however I think that Facebook will be more valuable in the long run.
I do have to say that as a daily (often multiple times) user of Facebook, I do not click on their advertisements. I think that in the long-run revenue will have to come from other sources or forms of advertising.
mattmaroon
· 2 years ago
Got any good ideas as to how they might capitalize?
Jim Cook Brewer of Sam Adams
· 2 years ago
i really cant believe u would even write about that...i can see this post mattering to high school and college kids...and thats it...get back to writing about poker please...much more productive...
All Comments
I often find myself wrapped up in the hype of the day: "Vista Sucks!", "Facebook is the shiznet!", and then I read your insightful, thought-provoking posts. Thank you for the divergent thinking, the your willingness to stick your neck out.
I'm especially keen on this post because I do think people in the valley have lost some perspective when it comes to Facebook. Sure, everyone around here uses it. And lots of other people do to. But I don't see anything unique to facebook that couldn't be duplicated elsewhere - social networking platforms are inherently fickle, as they are only cool when lots of people are there, and lame if they're not. This builds brand loyalty, but the crowd can turn when something better/newer comes along. Just ask friendster and now myspace.
I know I'm biased when I say this, but I'm honestly just starting to get it: email is the only truly global, fully interconnected networking platform on the internet. Man, I'm excited to be working at Xobni.
I am certainly not using it as much as google (not by far) but it would not be fair to compare those two things.
What I find impressive is how people like to promote what they use (in your case, google and myspace) and then try to label as "under-rated" other services. I know, my point of view (the end-user) is a very limited one and there are a lot of corporate and financial interests behind the scene. But at least I get to enjoy the services and not have to worry about anything.
Keep posting your thoughts.
First of all, Kleenex is not a verb. What i think youre trying to say is that Kleenex has become a common term for "tissue" which is a very bad thing for their trademark, as they could lose it.
Second, MySpace allowing arbitrary JavaScript does NOTmake it a platform, just incredibly annoying (CSS too). You need ways to access your so called social graph to make it useful.
Certainly many (most?) of the FB apps out there are trash... But that will improve as devs figure out new and interesting things to do with it.
That said, i dont think comparing google to fb is a good comparison. Google organizes the worlds information, while facebook organizes the worlds relationships.
You find myspace annoying due to the customization. So do I. We're in the minority there though.
Every dev in the world is thinking about how to make a Facebook app that's not trash, none have yet done it. What makes you think that will change?
And my base contention is that information is far greater a market than relationships, which is why Facebook is overhyped.
Google wants to organize the world's information and make universally accessible and useful. They've done a pretty good job of that, with the exception of your social information and connections. Facebook has a virtual monopoly on it in US. I would argue that controlling that kind of social information has just as much long term value as Google does.
The argument that people want to go where other people are, and therefore MySpace will always be the biggest social network out there, is empirically false. If that were the case, everybody would still be on Friendster. There is room for innovation and better execution in this space, and if you look at Facebook's momentum, they are catching up and catching up fast.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_detai...
I never asserted that they are worth more than Google now, but properly executing on that kind of control, in the long term, could be enough to do it. I'm saying it's plausible.
Something like 85% of their userbase logins to Facebook everyday, and their average visit time is almost 30 minutes.
But I guess bloggers and media just need something to talk about. Just before FB, it was twitter. There were the anti-twitter and the pro-twitter. before twitter, there was joost etc. The FB hype will die the day when another startup launches something somehow "interesting", then half bloggers will all write it's the big new thing, with the rest claiming it's stupid.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_detai...
I do have to say that as a daily (often multiple times) user of Facebook, I do not click on their advertisements. I think that in the long-run revenue will have to come from other sources or forms of advertising.