Ask HN: What does Facebook actually do these days? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What does Facebook actually do these days?

28 pointskackin25 comments

Serious question. We constantly see innovative new services and generally "new" things coming out from companies like Amazon, Apple & Google.

But Facebook? I struggle to point out a genuinely interesting or innovative thing their platform has done in over two years. Yes, there have been small tweaks, but nothing at all that is interesting.

And no, I do not consider just buying other companies (Oculus, Instagram) proof of "innovation."

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Satellite for the Internet.org project https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102407675865061

Drone www.theverge.com/a/mark-zuckerberg-future-of-facebook/aquila-drone-internet

GraphQL http://graphql.org/learn/

Long term storage https://code.facebook.com/posts/1433093613662262/-under-the-...

Which of these blue sky projects actually has a sign of returning money to investors within 2 years?

There is objective evidence already that today's teenagers prefer Snapchat over Facebook, and think that the platform is boring. I think the question is primarily focused on answering: "what innovative things are they doing to actually keep their their bread and butter going -- which is their main platform?"

I agree with OP. Facebook at its core feels like it hasn't changed in many years now, and to me that indicates a stagnating company that's either too distracted with toy projects, or too paralyzed by existing legacy restraints to do anything of substance that rocks the boat.

You can't say the same about companies like Google or Amazon. They do their core services well, but they have branched out in meaningful ways in other areas that every year get better and better, including in areas with real business potential. We have yet to see that anywhere from Facebook outside of its acquisitions. Like Twitter its product feels stuck in a standstill of design-by-committee analysis. The kind that thinks that changing a star into a heart counts as innovation.

I can see your point. Facebook isn't doing anything short term that is going to achieve returning money to investors in two years. However it's been noted that Zuckerberg has longer term ideas of where the company is going. There's the 10 year plan noted here: http://mashable.com/2016/04/12/facebook-10-year-plan/

When a company is going for the long term the short term can suffer.

They have Whatsapp, Instagram and they're Facebook.

I don't know what you mean with "what they actually do". Most people on earth spend most of their internet time inside their business already. I bet they're doing a good work.

I know they are doing cool developer-based projects like React, but that's not innovation that matters in a traditional business sense.

Like Twitter, I can't but help think that both platforms have become paralyzed by a crippling fear of not knowing what to do next with what they have. To me that means a recipe of slow but gradual decline.

It's like Google, their job is to make as much $ from advertising as possible and they are doing a damn good job at it through the news feed but also Instagram. They don't need to innovate that much, as they don't much in the way of competition beyond maybe Snapchat. It's a money-making machine. All they need to do is make small tweaks here and there.

They are trying to take over the entire publishing industry with Instant Articles.

They are trying to create a mobile UI for every small business with Messenger Bots.

They have added ways to send money via Facebook messenger. This is important in places like Israel, where people use Facebook as Craigslist. It's also useful as a payment method for the messenger bots.

They are releasing innovative ads products such as automatic audience targeting (based on the conversion rate of various audiences, which is calculated by just including a facebook tracking pixel on your site, they will automatically target your ads towards the highest-ROI audiences).

React

VR through Oculus

Better Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp

Leaps in AI

Internet across the world

They're doing massive amounts of publishing and research in AI - image recognition. They need to understand all those pics uploaded to Facebook and Instagram and turn them into actionable opportunities.

They are making business of a free service, that's still quite unique and innovative. I think that most of happens in Facebook is not visible to the user - keeping the uptime and performance are the key concern.

Well pretty much all innovation at google is also based on acquiring other companies. GrandCentral -> Google Voice YouTube Boston Dynamics Deep mind and on and on

They've been pushing live video pretty hard. It's on Facebook itself, via some Blizzard games, in Messenger.

Their At Work products are being refined all the time.

And as mentioned they have plenty of open source stuff.

Developing their Ad product, becoming a profitable company.

They have the best ad product in the majority of industries. What else do they need?

They are always coming out with new ad betas.

LOL. I'm sure it's true. I'm not sure if you meant that to be a joke or not, though. :-)

It's fun and lots of people are on it. They make money with ads. Isn't that enough?

Everybody but those without internet is on board, so they are working on locking us in and supplying internet/facebook to those without internet.

What I remember about locking in: instant articles, live video, favor facebook content over external links and some failed apps (paper, notify).

I have internet, and Im not "on board".

FB is not the internet, and I hope we never see a world where it is.

Of course, I hope so too. But this world might happen¹.

Sorry for generalizing and not taking account for those few brave that live without facebook. In my country, germany, it's 79% of the people aged 14 to 49 using facebook (69% for all). This is the majority and facebook therfore needs to bring more people "internet" to have significant further growth/reach.

¹ http://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-ide...

Amazon, Apple & Google are making products/services solving real problems and get payed for it pretty well. Obviously in this kind of business you have to be innovative.

Facebook is the problem a lot of people try to get rid of.

I use Facebook and I also routinely use the open Internet. I use their walled garden a bit and then I venture out. Why is that a big problem?

Facebook React

If I worked for Facebook, I could do so much for them..

They make the world more open and connected.

That's true.

What they're also doing is preparing their markets ( fb, messenger, WhatsApp, oculus, etc ) for future products, like VR chat, VR multiplayer gaming and events ( Fb handsfree - voice controlled VR headset for gaming, social and events ), telepresence androids. Building psychological profiles to guide buying behavior, and adopt products like order clothes, items and food for delivery. Partnering with Amazon for delivery. Working out how to keep order and stability in a big community. Assisting intelligence collection.

The core UX is only one area of innovation. Much happens towards these other ends. In a lot of ways FB is far more future looking than the rest of the Big 5.

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