Robert Scoble - I noticed that a few people keep asking …
I noticed that a few people keep asking about whether one social network or service or another will be a good competitor to Facebook. They simply don't do any critical thinking and I find I just don't have time anymore to consider these claims.
Here's a hint: let's say your new social thing is hot. Well, then it'll need bigger datacenters than Facebook has. Now, how is your new hot thing going to get, say, $4 billion to build said datacenters? Not to mention that Facebook has thousands of engineers, most of whom are paid more than $100,000 a year. You think your new thing is gonna be able to take on Facebook? Ask Google how that all worked out.
Yeah, I know you can use Cloud Computing, but you ready for Instagram's AWS bills? Even Facebook is looking at those with a fine tooth comb now (they are in the millions, I hear, every month, and that number is old).
And, how are you gonna get your logo on every taco truck in the world?
Medium right now is burning my phone up with notifications. So, how is your service going to filter out the crap? (Hint: filtering REQUIRES you to share something about yourself. In other words your system MUST gather private info about you). I just turned off Medium because the notifications no longer are mostly of interesting things said by interesting people.
How is your service going to make money? Oh, really, you aren't going to have advertising? That's nice. So you are gonna get a billion people to quit using Facebook and move over to your thing and, say, pay $10 a month like I pay for Spotify? I don't think so!
Finally, how is your service going to get the best content developers onto it? A friend of mine buys advertising for Kia. She just paid a famous Instagram user $50,000 for ONE PHOTO that had their car in the background. So you think that Instagram VIP is gonna move over to your service that pays a few cents per 1,000 views? You are nuts.
Until you can figure those things out, leave me alone.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, NextDoor and Twitter are in the power seat. Don't bother me until you have a REAL alternative. Thanks.
Finally, I won't even mention these new things by name. Why? I only hate things I respect. Why? Because I know at least 10% of you disagree with everything I write or video. You are here just to hear the other side from where you are. So if I hate on something those things get a nice audience for free. I won't do that anymore.
Have a great weekend!
That all said, I joined WeChat this week and have hundreds of messages already (although Messenger is better here, and has far less spam). So you want to compete? Go to a market that matters, like China or India. But keep in mind that Mark Zuckerberg already is focused on those two markets too. Translation: if you know how to code why don't you do something else with your skills?