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Comment by hiptobecubic | Hacker News Reader

I feel like half the comments here about "facebook dying" and how "facebook can't compete with tiktok" are missing the big picture about facebook.

For a lot of people, facebook basically is the internet. The same way AOL was a long time ago. Everyone they want to talk to as they go about their day is there. Basically every business in the US that bothers with an online presence at all either has a facebook page or exclusively has a facebook page. Craigslist is being eaten by facebook marketplace. Even Facebook messenger is still a wildly successful chat app and it's like... their 3rd or 4th-place messaging platform.

Facebook has become a sort of digital town square that is a pretty significant part of the economy; the real-world brick-and-mortar economy. Tiktok and instagram are much more recreational.

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In Vanuatu, where I am now. Facebook is free to use on mobile phone networks provided by Vodafone or Digicel.

Consequently, Facebook is 'the internet' for most here. We have Facebook groups with member counts that are 1/3 of the country's population. For example the group 'Yumi Toktok Stret' has 128K members for a country of 300k. It is an amazing look into the thoughts of a nation since everything from jokes and gossip to serious arguments on policy occur there.

Maybe I am weird, but I never see the Facebook page of companies. It's always Instagram for non-tech/normal companies and groups and Twitter for more "online" or techy companies.

For looking up a business it's always Google/Website, Yelp, and Instagram for me.

>Maybe I am weird, but I never see the Facebook page of companies.

I may be reaching too far here but maybe it is your adblocker? A lot of times companies use the "facebook page integration" thing in their websites which I think most adblockers (including mine) filter out.

I love companies using Facebook Messenger for support inquires. External chat popups suck, since the chat gets destroyed when you close the window/you lose connection.

With Facebook chat you just send the inquiry and they respond when they log back in the morning. My ISP actually responded immidiately at 2AM once, that was also a nice surprise.

It's not just Facebook. For some people Instagram is the internet. For others Reddit is the internet. For others YouTube. Lots of people log into one app or website and get all their news, culture, politics, entertainment, sports in that one place.

It's interesting that you call it the new Aol, to me it's the new Yahoo.com.

Maybe in hindsight it's always been this way?

No.

Facebook DOES NOT OWN social networking. Facebook improved on an existing design at the right time, PERIOD! Now, as before, the world has moved on, and the bubble has burst. The laggards in 3rd world countries will flock to the next service to disrupt social media, just like before. Facebook innovated at a time when mobile phones were being delivered to these countries. Not because they were a superior service or somehow godlike in its ability to hold mindshare. Tiktok, by its very nature, is its own worse enermy. Chinas economy is crumbling as we speak, and its not going to be long before the CCP will get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. No one makes money in China without authority from the superme leader. And No one can be more famous then the supreme leader. Tiktok, tiktok; Huawi 2.0.

>The laggards in 3rd world countries will flock to the next service to disrupt social media

Oh no man, a laggard from a 3rd world country has already reached HN. Maybe you should pack your bags now because the future of HN looks grim.

Ok so? Those people may leave the internet altogether, and very little cultural value will be lost

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