
Facebook Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Buy Tbh - kawera
https://stratechery.com/2017/why-facebook-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-buy-tbh/
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corobo
> “When we met with Facebook, we realized that we shared many of the same core
> values about connecting people through positive interactions. Most of all,
> we were compelled by the ways they could help us realize our vision and
> bring it to more people.”

At this point I read gushy messages like this as "We made this app
specifically to be purchased by Facebook". From that perspective they were
never a competitor to Facebook so in this specific case no big deal that
Facebook bought them out

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yeukhon
Right, Tbh is bought only because FB is trying to retain those < 20 years old
right now. However, I raise my eyebrows when I think about "never a
competitor". So why buy Tbh anyway? Sorry to be rude if at all... I am betting
Tbh will eventually go out of business if FB doesn't acquire Tbh. Snapchat can
build similar product too, like FB and Instagram built Story to compete with
Snapchat's.

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htormey
FB thinks about apps like tv channels. If you look at the top 10 free apps all
of them are owned by either Facebook, google or Snapchat (they own Bitmoji).

TBH was the only app in the top 10 not owned by one of these 3 so the acquired
it.

TBH could be a feature of either Facebook or Instagram in the same way that
most of the history channels content could be just shows on other tv channels.

These things exist or will continue to exist as separate entities because it’s
more profitable that way.

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shubhamjain
> All social networks should be required to enable social graph portability —
> the ability to export your lists of friends from one network to another.
> Again Instagram is the perfect example: the one-time photo-filtering app
> launched its network off the back of Twitter by enabling the wholesale
> import of your Twitter social graph.

This reminds me how importing your email contacts was major component for
Facebook—or any social network at that time, for that matter—to grow its
network. It made sense then since all your communication (weather with friends
or family) happened over email; email was your social graph. It's scary how
Facebook now holds the key to every (close) connection you might have with
Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

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WillPostForFood
I think people forget or weren't around when Facebook was aggressively
importing not just email, but anything with a contact list (like AOL IM), then
would spam the entire list. They got away with stuff that wouldn't fly today.

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jraby3
Messenger still pulls crap like that.

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jondubois
tbh is obviously a trendy app with a short shelf life. Based on the
descriptions, I don't think it should last much longer than the 'Yo' app.

There is definitely something wrong about Facebook using its position of power
to buy up crappy companies for millions without suffering any ramifications
whatsoever.

It's definitely costing shareholders something but the sheer power and inertia
of Facebook means that the loss is imperceptible in the grand scheme of
things. Facebook really can print money out of thin air it seems.

I actually think that if Facebook did not buy Instagram or WhatsApp; both of
them would have died out. Even Kevin Systrom alluded to this when he was asked
if he regretted selling Instagram to Facebook. Just wait and see what will
happen with Snap... Assuming Facebook doesn't buy it.

It looks like Zuckerberg never makes bad deals but I think that it's just the
inertia of Facebook that makes it impossible for a deal to go bad.

Whenever I read about a Facebook acquisition, I roll my eyes because it tends
to be very random... And yet it seems to always work out.

Even the software tools and frameworks that Facebook pushes out are instant
runaway successes. Even Google doesn't compete on that field despite having
much more experience in this area... And as a developer, I think that Google
tools and frameworks are better too.

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jen729w
I still use 'Yo'. For one very specific thing: telling my gf, who lives
directly over the road, that I'm leaving the house and that I'll meet her out
front. Nevertheless, there it is.

~~~
coldtea
When the 20000000 other available options won't do, Yo is irreplaceable!

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taneq
For anyone else who wondered, Tbh is apparently some kind of mashup of YikYak
and SurveyMonkey which lets you send warm fuzzies anonymously to your friends.

~~~
amigoingtodie
When explained like that, it sounds brilliant.

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Phenomenit
How is this a competitive market if the big five buy all competition before
they become a threat? And then they release articles saying that small
companies don't matter. The small companies are the only ones who add
something to the market.

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rf15
it's clearly about the competition between startups to get bought!

...but yeah this neither particularly fair, competitive nor free in the market
sense, is it?

We should definitely work towards improving the current laws against anti-
competitive behaviour.

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amrrs
This article raises a very fair point of M&As happen in such a way to bypass
Antitrust intervention and how FB has been constantly succeeding in not
letting the next FB come up. Seems Mark has learnt a lot from what Yahoo!
failed doing.

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Scea91
Does anyone know of a situation where a company was not allowed to be sold to
another company and then it went bankrupt in a few months/years? I think they
would have a right to feel wronged in that case.

I myself see value of Antitrust interventions, but I also believe in not
intervening in the market unless it is absolutely necessary. Since I haven't
heard about Tbh to this moment, I don't think that this is the case.

~~~
nikcub
There were attempts at airline mergers just before 911. US Airways and United
were going to merge but the deal didn't get approved.

Both ended up filing bankruptcy some point later, and since then the airlines
have largely merged from a very diverse field into American, Delta, SW and
United.

The other example is in investment banking - previously the retail and
investment banks weren't allowed to merge and many of them got into trouble.
Today, after the financial crisis, the industries have consolidated around 4
or 5 major large and broad banks.

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Animats
Facebook's next target: Craigslist. There's a new "Local Products" section.

~~~
isatty
This'll really suck.

~~~
Animats
Wait until Facebook gets into rental real estate.

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ComodoHacker
Interesting point:

>prohibiting the permissionless sharing of personal information in fact
entrenches Facebook’s position. Take, for example, Europe’s vaunted GDPR law:
as I explained in the Daily Update, data portability that, for privacy
reasons, excludes the social graph (because your friends didn’t give you
permission to share their information with other services) makes it that much
harder for competition to arise.

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hienyimba
Everyone fails to recall the Startup had been struggling for almost 7yrs. The
buyout was a big Hail Mary move for their long-suffering

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sschueller
Are 5 million users really that much these days for a free app? Especially
with the enormous amount of people who own a smart phone.

~~~
wellboy
Yes, it's a lot. If you can create an app and get 5 million users on it that
people are using frequently, then you can sell it for around
$20/user-$30/user. This is around the standard number for social network apps
and somewhat lower for games and apps without a network effect.

~~~
taneq
How is that number generally justified? Marketing opportunity, data
collection? It seems like a lot per user.

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astdb
Shoutouts to Snap

