The number of "I don't get it." comments on this thread should be a lesson for everyone. THIS is the reason diversity in your company and social circle is important. A forum full of men not understanding how a $3.8 billion company is successful.
I guess that begs the question: how is a web app that reposts content that doesn't belong to them and with zero revenue a "$3.8 billion company" again? I won't accept any answer from an investor or web "entrepreneur" type that has everything to gain from cashing in. The real lesson here is speculation and shortsightedness never changes and this is 1999 all over again.
Looking forward to the coming IPOs of Pinterest, Snapchat, Rap Genius!
It turns out that EVERY SINGLE TIME someone builds a product that zillions of people love in an enduring way, they are able to hire world-class value-extraction experts who can make zillions of dollars.
Pinterest has the extra advantage of intent-- shoppers pinning products that they want/love gives Pinterest a lot more power to advertise cleverly than Facebook/Twitter. Unsure about Snapchat and RapGenius, but the key question is "With that audience and that growth, what could the smartest people in the industry turn them into if they were armed with functionally infinite spending money?"
Ad-ridden, privacy-destroying malware I'd imagine. Since that's all the "smartest people" in the biz are working on: getting people to click ads and subverting the web.
The Facebook Jr's out there won't like to hear it but that's the cold truth.
I was commenting on the revenue potential, not the ethics or quality of the product at the end of the process.
That said, I still love Google Search-- it's nigh magical how it shortens the distance between my brain and the answers it craves at any given moment. And I still watch youtube (yet another service that some said would never make money), even with the ads. And I still use Facebook to stay connected with friends while I travel the world for the next 6 months or so. I don't see any (present or future) privacy consequences with these services, and the ads hover right around the "tolerable" range.
You can take your pick here and see what's most important to you: http://pleasedeletefacebook.com/
The consequences range from enabling the surveillance state, data theft, NSA slurping, job loss, employer intrusion, bullying, lowering of credit scores, depression, stalking, jail.
These are some interesting ones to name a few:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/03/198129...
http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/26/technology/social/facebook-c...
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/06/finding_sociop...
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/07/13/1247257/facebook-scan...
> Doesn't take many of those for wholesale evacuation of Facebook, does it?
Sadly, I wouldn't bet on it.
At what point will my personal decision to opt out off the leading social networks (Twitter, and LinkedIn to a lesser extent, are exceptions) start affecting my professional insight into where the Internet and the bulk of its users are headed? I frankly don't know.
I rationalize the renunciation of social media by remembering that I'm looking to build something incredibly innovative. And to build something incredibly innovative, it helps to (first) step away from the crowd, (second) find a boon, and (third) bring it back.
I think you can worry about the crowd after the first 2. At least then you have direction amidst the chaos.
Internet, at its root, is a communication medium. Things like facebook, google+, pinterest, snapchat, etc. are part of a VERY natural evolution of this medium.
Being part of the chaos doesnt mean you cant see order amidst it. That's where great entrepreneurs come from. They dont go away from all society and magically, one day, reappear with a brilliant idea. They are in the middle of the chaos, figuring out what works, why it works and how to make it work even better...
It's still legitimate to question whether or not a company with no revenue is worth $3.8 billion.