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Comment by zephrx1111 | Hacker News Reader

I don’t understand why Meta is always in the center on this problem, at least on most media. It is not relevant anymore. TikTok, or even Google should be the most concern now no?

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I think with WhatsApp and Instagram under its control, Meta still has quite a reach.

Facebook might be (rapidly) declining, but I didn't hear young people switch to Signal/Telegram in masses, because their parents are also using WhatsApp.

Also: Yeah, there's TikTok, but I think Instagram is not dead yet for young(er) people.

> Facebook might be (rapidly) declining

From Meta's Q3 earnings release[0]:

> Facebook daily active users [...] were 1.98 billion on average for September 2022, an increase of 3% year-over-year.

[0] https://investor.fb.com/financials/default.aspx

Yes, those numbers look fine, but have a closer look.

Check page 14, Monthly Active Users: They have slightly risen in the US, slightly decreased in Europe, strong growth in Asia and RoW.

Compare that to page 15, Average Revenue per User: US around $49, EU $14, Asia $4.4, RoW is $3.2. Those numbers are also decreasing for the US and EU.

So for each user you lose in the US or the EU, you'll need 3 to 10 new users in Asia, even more in the rest of the world, or you'll need to squeeze the existing users harder.

They're at best stalling.

They cannot grow much in any case. When half of the world's population is a facebook-user they could double at best. Doubling isn't the kind of growth expected from this kind of company, so they have to try crazy things like metaverse, or they would soon be valued like a utility.

This is a super uninformed take.

"During the third quarter of 2022, the number of daily active users on Facebook reached 1.98 billion" (https://www.statista.com/statistics/346167/facebook-global-d...)

A site with 2 billion daily active users is relevant.

WhatsApp + Instagram are still relevant. Facebook is still relevant by audience size.

It may not be as relevant for the youth, but it’s absolutely still relevant. A LOT of eyeballs for ad dollars are still on Facebook.

The usage of particular social platforms may differ significantly in each country. Don't treat the rest of the world the same as the US.

It's pretty simple: Meta is still the largest network by a considerable margin and they have a longer history of abusing user data.

Worth nothing that TikTok has also increasingly been getting negative attention in the US as they grow.

Facebook / Meta is the one big bad wolf that has been painted up by the media. Most common people don't even know what TikTok is.

Also, good luck getting TikTok to even reply to some weird European Data Protection official - from a country the size of a mid-sized Chinese city...

TikTok Technology Limited, Ireland, will absolutely care if the Irish DPA sends a strongly worded letter.

Big "if". The Irish DPA is about as useful as a marzipan dildo due to being chronically underfunded.

Calling them chronically underfunded is very charitable. Corrupt would be a more accurate term considering they’ve privately collaborated with Facebook on ways to effectively bypass the regulation they’re supposed to be enforcing, in disagreement with most other DPAs.

Citation, please?

See https://noyb.eu/en/irish-dpc-greenlights-facebooks-gdpr-bypa....

Thank you! Interesting reading and not a good look for the DPC in question. That said, your use of the term "corrupt" implies that she has personally profited from the draft decision, and to be fair, I don't see any suggestion of that in the noyb article.

You wouldn't know if it was under the table or if it was non-monetary favours such as promotions for friends/family working at Meta or the implied promise of a nice high-paying position once they're out of the DPA role.

It could also be corruption at a higher level - the only reason Big Tech likes Ireland is because it's somewhat of a tax haven and accommodates unlawful practices like this one - if they stop being accommodating the companies will leave, so there's an incentive to not piss them off too much.

Sure but the claim was that TikTok is practically immune because they're a Chinese company and thus don't care what the EU thinks. My point was that they do business in the EU via their EU subsidiary in Ireland and that one is very much subject to EU laws.

Additionally the alternative to having a subsidiary in Ireland with a "special relationship" with the Irish DPA (look up "GDPR one-stop shop") they'd be subject to every single DPA in the EU at the same time, not just the Irish one, which would also mean every DPA could fine them independently. This is why people familiar with this arrangement paid particular attention to the restructuring at Twitter Ireland (and especially its involvement in reviewing feature proposals for compliance) which seems to have killed its GDPR OSS role.

Facebook has 2.96 billion MAUs.

Not relevant?

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