
Facebook F8 2019: What to Expect After Facebook's Bad Year - praveenscience
https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-f8-2019-preview-privacy-messenger-blockchain/
======
neya
Anyone else feel that they've gone past the point of caring about what
Facebook does anymore?

Even from a developer standpoint, they've randomly deprecated so many APIs, so
many flows of doing something, ban you because you competed with a future
product of theirs, that I wouldn't be touching anything relating to them
remotely with a pole.

Yeah, you could argue that's the risk you take by working on someone else's
APIs, but then, there are still so many successful companies out there who
don't screw their developers as bad.

Even all the newer features they announce for developers to use translates
into some sort of dark pattern for the end user, so still, I feel reluctant to
work on their APIs. Eg. The watch party stuff. There's actually no way (even
programmatically) to disable all watch party notifications.

Facebook became popular because of developers. Facebook will die for the same
reason of screwing over the very people who helped them become so successful
in the first place. I'm not even getting into the argument about the users who
trusted them and their platform...

~~~
dgellow
> Anyone else feel that they've gone past the point of caring about what
> Facebook does anymore?

From a developer perspective, I care about what Facebook is doing with their
Occulus products. Rift-S and Quest are definitely something I'm looking for.

~~~
kerng
Unfortunately Facebook seems to tightly integrate Occulus with Facebook - like
you cant even use most things without logging into your Facebook account.

~~~
bryan_w
Thats not even a little bit true. You've always been able to create a
completely independent oculus account

------
cabaalis
Which is true (or both?)

Facebook had a great idea to connect people, and then an advertising scheme
derailed that idea into evil.

Facebook had a great idea to connect people, and empirically found out that
people mostly suck and generally hate each other.

~~~
beager
Given your options only, I’d say something in the middle of those two. An
advertising scheme (not exclusive to Facebook) that realizes it can make more
money by promoting higher “engagement” even if that engagement is negative
sentiment and even if the content of that engagement is inappropriate,
inaccurate, or unpleasant.

------
village-idiot
So, Facebook is making a stable coin. I’m normally pretty bearish on anything
involving blockchains, I think they’re pointless, but that’s not my issue
here. The idea of giving _facebook_ any control over a monetary system, even
just as the developer of a decentralized one, gives me the shivers.

~~~
lettergram
Given Facebook owns a large part of the social media market through Instagram,
Facebook and WhatsApp I suspect people will start using the coin without much
thought. It’s already going to be baked in across their services and for most
people that is now their social lives

~~~
athenot
> for most people that is now their social lives

Until recently I always though that FB is most people's _social media_ lives
but the way you phrased it made me pause and realize that FB, for more and
more people, is becoming the _full extent_ of their social lives. It's the
drug that makes one feel as if they are socializing when in fact they are
lonely—either physically alone or in a group where they are mentally alone,
unable to relate their full self to others in person.

------
PLenz
Honestly, probably a worse year. They just don't seem to get why they are in
the hole they are in and keep trying to escape by digging up.

------
dmitriid
> What to Expect After Facebook's Bad Year

In what regard was that a bad year? Omit all the buzz and go straight to what
FB cares about: financials and users [1]

Increases:

\- 38% in ad revenue

\- 16% in payments and other fees

\- 37% in total revenue

\- 39% in net income

\- 40% in Diluted Earnings per Share

\- 9% in DAUs

\- 9% in MAUs

Decreases:

\- 30% in amount of income tax paid due to Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Facebook had an amazing year.

[1] [https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-
details/...](https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-
details/2019/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-
Year-2018-Results/default.aspx)

------
lacker
Facebook stock is up in this "very bad year". If Facebook executives could
have every single year be just like this one forever, they would take that!

Facebook is certainly suffering if you measure its performance by the tone
that journalists take when discussing the company. It's not a good thing per
se to have journalists criticize you, but it isn't the most important metric
to a company either. Overall, Facebook had a strong, successful year.

------
erentz
WRT the blockchain/stablecoin effort there is something I don’t understand:

If it’s only for internal consumption what’s the point of a blockchain?

So if it’s for external use also then even the best “stable coin” is going to
move against USD (and whatever other currencies they’re trying to follow).
This will create tax implications for their users in the USA (and possibly
elsewhere). Every time you use FBcoin to buy something or send to someone you
need to report the loss or gain converted to USD, just like other
cryptocurrencies surely?

~~~
village-idiot
And this is why I’m bearish on blockchain solutions. Once you start actually
working through the details it gets weird.

------
return1
It that was a bad year i wonder what will be a good one.

------
sli
Should it not be called F7? Like i18n and k8s?

~~~
return1
more precisely f6k

