

Ask HN: Will Facebook export allow competitors really start? - rakkhi

Export allows a reduction of a major barrier to the network effect will this allow clones and competitors like Dispora a real start with the ability to get a few million users quickly? Will it lead to some real innovators who were previously put off due to scaling up to Facebook?
======
al_james
No. Social networks are only useful when you can access a critical mass of
your friends in one network. Thus, fragmentation of social networks reduces
their utility for most people.

Uber geeks may want to try something else, but for most people facebook works
and thats what counts.

The thing that would allow growth of some networks would be an open id style
profile API so that I can interact with users from social network X from
within social network Y. But why would any leading social network adopt such
an API?

