

Dear Facebook, Please Stop Acqui-hiring Everything. - shepbook

So, we all know about the Facebook acquisition of Instagram. When that happened, I went out and searched for a replacement. I had just started using Instagram (when it came out for android) so it was a bit of a 'meh' moment. Eventually, I settled on the LightBox Photo app. A decent little app for wasting time by messing with photo filters.<p>Now, it appears Facebook has bought them and they are closing down. :(<p>Am I the only one who's put off by the massive acqui-hiring that Facebook is doing? To me, it speaks of a lack of internal innovation.
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Ixiaus
Stop complaining. If you built your own company and were offered to be "acqui-
hired" you most likely would take it! There are some businesses that are
viable enough to stand on their own - but the majority of startups in our
industry are BUILT to be acquired, what happens to them is really an exercise
for evolution in the ecosystem we all participate in.

If my company were offered to be acqui-hired, I would take it (assuming the
offer was reasonable!). You probably would too.

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shepbook
I wasn't complaining about the company taking the offer. Bravo to LightBox for
whatever they got for their joining Facebook. I don't mind that they got
acquired. I just wish is wasn't Facebook. The LightBox Photo app is a direct
competitor to Instagram, hence why they had to shut it down when joining
Facebook.

I understand that many startups in our industry have their sights set on being
acquired. In fact, it's the reason many of them exist. Personally, I think
that such objective is myopic and is rather toxic to the technology industry.
If a product is so amazing, why won't people pay for it. I understand that
something like LightBox or Instagram are so called "social apps" and tend to
have a terrible time monetizing. Seems to me that something like these photo
apps could make money via storage. "Free" is rather basic, small online
storage. Perhaps a number of pictures. Perhaps a number of uploads. Something
to that effect. Then offer "Unlimited" plans for a yearly subscription fee
(includes all the picture uploads and storage) or you could do some kind of
"credits" to extend your app. (Think, "you've run out of slots for your
photos. Add 20 more slots for 1 credit") Then people could choose to have
unlimited or to have a set of slots where they could remove certain pictures
in order to put new ones up. (Just an idea here, IDK if it would be viable.)

As for a company I owned being acqui-hired. Sure, everyone has their price.
Were it to be Facebook, it would certainly be a higher price, than just about
anywhere else. (This is entirely due to my issues with Facebook. They could
buy my company out, but it's going to be expensive.)

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Ixiaus
I'm not so sure it's toxic, particularly with the reduction in costs to get up
and running these days (Linux on a laptop with Emacs/VIM and a LAMP stack is
free except for the hardware and hosting on the cloud makes it VERY affordable
to start out small) I actually feel it's healthy and _positive_.

If you look at our industry it is panning out like a miniature biological
ecosystem, with companies devouring other companies, some companies pivoting
into different/new companies, big old companies being overthrown by smaller,
newer, smarter ones.

Acqui-hiring is just one avenue for the evolution of technology to continue -
and TBH, I may not agree with Facebook's policy but what they have achieved
(virtually anyone that is "online" has a "Facebook") is remarkable with
regards to the social graph and connecting people.

~~~
shepbook
I generally agree with you. As far as toxic, I was talking about the "exist to
be acquired". Who knows, I may one day go that route with a company of mine.
However, I would much rather have a product that adds value and could be
bootstrapped. All the advantages you mention also mean that bootstrapping is
also much more possible.

