
Facebook revenue beats estimates; discloses antitrust probe - tareqak
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-results/facebook-discloses-antitrust-probe-revenue-beats-estimates-idUSKCN1UJ2U1
======
cryptica
I came to the conclusion that there is definitely an ad network listening in
to private conversations on users' phones and that network probably belongs to
Facebook.

Recently, I was cleaning my apartment and I moved a heavy piece of furniture
to vacuum the dust underneath it and I found a set of clear plastic retainers
for teeth. They must have belonged to the previous tenant who had moved out
about 6 months earlier. The retainers looked like they were 3D printed (lots
of small ridges on them) and I told my wife that when I had mine (a decade
earlier), they were kind of expensive but these ones were 3D printed so they
must be a lot cheaper and we can probably just throw them away. The
conversation lasted no more than a minute.

Next day, I was browsing yahoo.com and the ad banner had a picture of a clear
plastic retainer and was advertising 3D printed retainers. Neither me not my
wife had posted anything about the retainers anywhere or discussed it with
anyone else or even looked it up on any website (neither of us cares about the
subject at all; neither dentistry nor 3D printing). This is the first time I
ever saw advertising related to dentistry or 3D printing.

This is not the first time that I've experienced a creepy ad but it was
definitely the most disturbing because:

1\. It was an extremely specific and niche subject matter which does not
relate to me in any way; it was based on an extremely unlikely freak
occurrence.

2\. I only spoke about it with my wife in an extremely casual way. Neither of
us looked it up online on any website afterwards (we verified). The subject
matter only occupied our thoughts for an extremely small amount of time.

3\. The ad came up the next day after having the conversation.

~~~
kevstev
I have had similar stuff come up, the most cut and dried example I could
pinpoint was when on a Sunday morning, Meet the Press, which after the 2016
election I had started watching each week, was pushed off in place of a golf
tournament that week. I got distracted, and started just doing some stuff
around the house while it was on in the background.

I have no interest in golf, I have never searched or cared about golf in any
way whatsoever. Yet, the next few weeks I started getting ads about golf stuff
in FB. The only other real explanation would be that Verizon is selling my
viewing information and this is somehow being linked back to my FB account.

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pier25
It's totally anecdotal, but most people I know have either stopped using
Facebook or are much less active than previously. The few teenagers I know
don't even use it at all.

I guess all that growth must come from countries that recently got into
Facebook.

~~~
taude
They are reporting their users now across Whatsapp, instagram, and FB. While
almost everyone I know hardly logs into the FB property, we're still really
active on WhatsApp.....and that counts towards their 2.5b monthly user metric.

~~~
cstrat
Yeah unfortunately I contribute two users - WhatsApp and Instagram to that
count. I am sure plenty of people count multiple times because the services
may not be linked together. IG, WhatsApp, FB and even FB Business accounts
would all count as separate users when really they are the same human behind
the account

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newsreview1
I'm betting that an FTC antitrust probe will have no effect on other nations
using FB. I lived in Brazil, and it was typically a year or two behind the
trending here in the US. While US use of FB is down in their previous major
demographics, it is spiking internationally.

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baby
The title mentions an antitrust probe but the article says nothing about it.
What is that about?

~~~
tareqak
The last part of the opening sentence has it (emphasis mine):

Facebook Inc (FB.O) beat analysts’ estimates for revenue on Wednesday, even as
the world’s largest social network agreed to pay a $5 billion fine over data
privacy _and announced a U.S. antitrust investigation_.

~~~
nothis
Oddly, I see less issues with Facebook than with Google. Facebook has a
_tight_ grip on social media, but then there's also Twitter. facebook.com is
dying long-term (though Instagram is picking some of that up) and they're not
nearly as vertically integrated as Google is, for example (browser, operating
system, email, video streaming, maps,...).

In the current political climate, I don't see an antitrust investigation ever
leading to any major impact but it's almost inevitable, over the coming decade
or so, to see a ton of regulation and forced splits for tech giants. The
current system simply can't be healthy.

~~~
reaperducer
_Oddly, I see less issues with Facebook than with Google._

Patience. Everyone will get their turn.

~~~
tareqak
The last paragraph in
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/facebook-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/facebook-
says-it-s-being-investigated-by-the-ftc-over-antitrust) says that the FTC will
be dealing with Facebook and Amazon while the Justice department will deal
with Apple and Alphabet.

------
tareqak
More specific news about the antitrust probe:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/facebook-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/facebook-
says-it-s-being-investigated-by-the-ftc-over-antitrust) .

------
yalogin
Facebook has the same problem the Republican party has. Their users/supporters
are all dying and less and less people are signing up. However they are still
a force to reckon with and generate a lot of cash.

~~~
throwaway122378
How’s life in your Bay Area bubble?

~~~
adjkant
It's not hard to look at the age breakdown for each of the political parties
and see this checks out.

[https://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-
af...](https://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-
among-demographic-groups/)

~~~
Mountain_Skies
Haven't Republicans traditionally trended older? If there are enough voters
who change parties as they age, does it matter that one party tends older
while the other trends younger?

~~~
adjkant
I hear that claim a lot but if you look at the link I posted under the "A wide
– and growing – generational divide in partisanship" heading, it doesn't
appear to actually be the case. If that were true you'd likely see a much
bigger pull to republicans as Gen X aged during the studied period (94-17).
Also doesn't explain the sharp millennial pull to democrats at all.

