Leonhardt is asking the wrong question here. Mass-market appeal that social media does. But it remains unclear whether VR has anywhere near the Million of its VR headsets, which may suggest the niche is One positive sign for the company: It has sold more than 10 He responded byĪcknowledging it was “ pretty basic” and promised “major Week, critics mocked it as looking dated. When Zuckerberg unveiled parts of the company’s platform last As Ben Thompson wrote back in 2013: “ Facebook is an app, not a platform.” Zuck wants a platform. Thus, we should try to own and control the leading, or at least a leading, AR/VR platform. The only new thing on the horizon that might be such an opportunity is AR/VR. These opportunities for disruptive new platforms only come along once a decade, at best. I think Zuckerberg’s thinking goes like this: We missed out when mobile phones exploded in popularity and became most people’s primary devices. Zuckerberg just wants to own a platform, it’s far too late for that to be a phone platform, AR technology isn’t here yet, so. And true AR - all-day augmented reality via normal-looking eyeglasses (let alone something utterly unobtrusive like contact lenses) remains outside today’s technology. Personally I’m deeply skeptical that it will be. The nuance I’m trying to emphasize here is that I don’t think anyone believes with certainty that VR is going to be huge. They tried, halfheartedly, to make the Facebook Phone a thing a decade ago, but “halfheartedly” might be a generous description of how committed they were to that turd. However big a problem ATT is for Facebook, it wouldn’t be a problem at all if Facebook owned and controlled a mobile phone platform like the iPhone or Android. I think what Zuckerberg now sees clearly is that Facebook missed out by not owning one of the major mobile platforms. It’s too simplistic to say “the future of the internet is AR/VR”. (I also think they changed the name of the holding company from “Facebook” to “Meta” not as proof of that commitment but because the name Facebook is now poison in the public mind, like when Philip Morris changed its name to Altria Group.) I do think Zuckerberg is effectively betting the company on AR/VR, but I don’t think the above is quite right about why. The internet that he renamed the company after it. The world of virtual-reality, or VR - represents the future of Zuckerberg feels so strongly that the metaverse - based around I look forward to dancing on Facebook’s grave if, say, Verizon or AT&T acquires them after a stock collapse. I’m thinking maybe Facebook is the next Yahoo, except that Yahoo’s decline was nothing but sad to watch. I’m not counting them out, but unless something dramatic changes, I think we’ve seen the beginning of a long slow decline into general irrelevance. The ability to shape politics and culture all over the globe.” Is still one of the most influential companies in history, with As Kevin has written: “ItĬan simultaneously be true that Facebook is in decline and that it I know that many readers probably still think of Facebook as aīehemoth. All four of Leonhardt’s problems would exist for Facebook even if ATT didn’t exist. I also think Mark Zuckerberg knows this better than anyone, and he’s been trying to focus public attention on ATT as an unfair attack by Apple, a competitor, to distract from Facebook’s more serious systemic problems. I just don’t think ATT is one of the top problems facing Facebook, and it seems like others are starting to agree.
FACEBOOK ISSUES ANDROID
We also all know that iOS users are a far more profitable demographic for advertising than Android users. We all know Facebook has profited from surveillance advertising, and ATT - to some degree - has decreased the ability for cross-app surveillance on iOS. That’s not to say ATT isn’t a problem for Facebook. As I’ve been arguing, I think this is correct. What struck me is that “Apple” didn’t appear once: App Tracking Transparency not only didn’t make the list, it wasn’t even mentioned. “The antitrust problem”: No summary necessary.Īs usual for The Morning, Leonhardt consulted with and quoted from other Times writers, particularly Kevin Roose.“The metaverse problem”: They’re betting the company on AR/VR, but it remains to be seen whether that’s going to be a big thing.“The innovation problem”: Facebook hasn’t invented a new hit since the blue app itself and its other successes were all acquired.“The age problem”: Young people aren’t using Facebook at all and are using Instagram less, but the success of both platforms as advertising revenue bonanzas is predicated on usage by the youth demographic.Last week David Leonhardt devoted the Monday edition of his The Morning newsletter/column at The New York Times to “ Facebook’s Four Problems”, which he defined as: Facebook’s Problems Wednesday, 31 August 2022
0 kommentar(er)
