
Ask HN: Has Facebook started to plateau? - rblion
To me, that does seem to be the case based on headlines I see here and on reddit. This may just be the media fanning flames to create a story but maybe the anti-Facebook sentiment has reached a tipping point.
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wand3r
I see Facebook as the new landline telephone. You basically have it but never
really use it unless you need to talk to your grandmother or interact with
spammers. For a few people, it's your only point of contact so you can't axe
the damn thing but you don't really engage with it either.

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jaredcwhite
Part of the perception I believe is due to the fact that, possibly for the
first time, Facebook seems like it doesn't have a forward-looking product
strategy. To date they've always had a "next big thing" to dazzle us
with...from the expansion out of college networks to the original news feed to
social apps and games to business page content to news publishing & instant
articles.

Now they seem to be in retreat and refocusing on their core product strategy
of giving people a way to stay in touch with their real-life friends. In a
way, that is a good thing, but the problem is the shine has worn off and
people are wary of the company's problematic relationship with user privacy
and "fake news". It doesn't feel safe, friendly, and positive anymore like it
did 10 years ago.

So the question becomes: can Facebook return to a past era of upbeat brand
perception and core product focus while still making lots of money (which
requires keeping advertisers very happy)? Personally, I don't think so. FB is
certainly not going anywhere and will likely do well financially for some time
to come, but its golden age has passed.

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bbg215
the user base of HN is in no way an accurate reflection of the user base of
FB.

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sotojuan
Yep. Any article or post about Facebook on this site is largely negative or
full of self-congratulatory "I quit FB" posts. Neither attitude is _wrong_ but
you are not going to be a balanced view point about Facebook's user base here.

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ianamartin
Facebook as a website is certainly on its way out. Facebook as a company is
fine. It will eventually turn into the IBM of online advertising: it will
transition into a services company.

Companies are starting to slowly figure out that online ads have almost zero
value. Facebook is surviving by buying the hottest properties around, and they
will continue to do so. They are diversified. I give it 5 years before they
pull a google and change the name.

But as long as advertisers can keep moving the goal-posts, there will be
marketing teams who think they need to pay money for those ads. The problem
with previous social media companies was that they got complacent. Facebook
isn't. They are actively acquiring every next big social media company they
can. Facebook as a website is a worthless graveyard. Other properties will
make money while it and its users decline and die.

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cm2012
I am a direct marketer and assure you that FB has easily measurable return on
ad spend for millions of companies.

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dlwdlw
I don't think this was unexpected though. Hence the willingness to buy into
other forms of social like Instagram, WhatsApp, and snap(attempted)

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ecesena
Do you mean user growth, user engagement, or revenue?

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fiftyacorn
It will be interesting to see if facebook ends up like yahoo in the long term

