Facebook and Apple Know Their Users Will Stick Around
Explosive growth is over, but user bases can be milked for a long time.
Market power.
Photographer: Johannes Berg/Bloomberg
Facebook has faced so much criticism lately that it’s tempting to see its unexciting earnings release as another sign of trouble. More likely, however, the company is merely turning into an Apple lookalike, profiting from network effects rather than from disruptive innovation or any kind of residual positive vibe from its brand. It’s no accident that on the earnings call, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg named an Apple service as Facebook’s main competitor.
On the earnings call, Zuckerberg said usage of his company’s products was shifting from the Facebook and Instagram news feeds to ephemeral “Stories” and private messaging. On the latter, he said,