

Fred Wilson: "Facebook is NOT..." - emilepetrone
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/16/fred-wilson-facebook-is-not-an-unstoppable-juggernaut/

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iantimothy
One thing I don't understand is the tech pundits' tendencies to implicitly
imply that to build the next big company on the web, one needs to stop, kill,
destroy, annihilate the last big Internet company.

Why can't Facebook be an unstoppable juggernaut when it comes to building a
social network and becoming a utility for social connections for most, if not
all, people for a broad base of use cases and there still be another big
Internet company emerge?

Just like how Google is an unstoppable juggernaut when it comes to search and
contextual text ads.

Take location for example. There could possibly be a next big Internet company
the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook that emerges which owns the
location+mobile space. One reason why everyone seems to worry whether Facebook
is or is not an unstoppable juggernaut is that companies are linking
location+mobile AND social networks. So they ponder incessantly whether
Facebook can just switch on location and mobile services and wipe their
startup off the face of the map.

The thing is, maybe if they focus on location+mobile and make it work without
the social aspect, then there is no worry about Facebook using its advantages
in the social space to compete.

~~~
idoh
Pundits have no imagination, that's why they always think in terms of the next
big thing coming from the ashes of the last big thing.

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jiganti
Describing the main functionality of a service downplays the implications of
something that is largely valued by the quantity and quality of the user base.
That said, he was likely exaggerating in response to the collective opinion of
facebook being over the top (which is arguably still true).

