,
10 tweets,
2 min read
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1/Why is it a given that Instagram and YouTube were anticompetitive acquisitions?
There’s a huge amount of hindsight bias in that assertion.
There’s a huge amount of hindsight bias in that assertion.
2/If we run through the probability trees, there are likely many more worlds in which those fledgling companies—which didn’t have monetization in place—would have failed.
And plenty of other scenarios where their acquirers built something similar anyway.
And plenty of other scenarios where their acquirers built something similar anyway.
3/It’s only because of the resources of the parent companies (FB and GOOG) that they succeeded and became important at all.
The acquisitions *created* their success to a large extent. But now we look backwards, and it seems *obvious*.
It isn’t obvious.
/end/
The acquisitions *created* their success to a large extent. But now we look backwards, and it seems *obvious*.
It isn’t obvious.
/end/
Zuckerberg was in Aspen earlier today and delivered a well-reasoned argument for regulating Facebook, how data portability is hard, why breaking up Facebook wouldn't solve its problems (in fact, it would give FB fewer resources to deal with them!)....
And why the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions were definitely not anticompetitive. Zuck needs to make more of these well-reasoned arguments publicly because he's the best messenger for them.
Cass Sunstein asked him about AT&T and I think here Zuck missed the opportunity to point out that AT&T controlled the physical connection to your phone/home, whereas FB does no such thing. You are free...
...as a consumer to install and use any social or messaging app you want, which was definitely not the case under the AT&T monopoly.
On Instagram, Zuck says Jon Stewart joked at the time, "You're paying 1 billion of... money? For an app that makes your photos *worse*?"
On Instagram, Zuck says Jon Stewart joked at the time, "You're paying 1 billion of... money? For an app that makes your photos *worse*?"
On WhatsApp, the app used to cost $1 and Facebook quickly removed the fee, making it dramatically more competitive against the fee-based SMS services that existed at the time. The acquisition was in fact pro-competition.
And of course both Instagram and WhatsApp benefitted from the $ billions in FB infrastructure and R&D to dramatically innovate on product and features (admittedly Insta way more than WA), something that wouldn't have happened had they stayed independent.
Video of the interview:
