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So should facebook absorb every social threat? What would happen if Google's hangouts started to become popular, or another startup?

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Absorbing upstart threats worked for Rockefeller!

And yes, social threats that have half-a-billion active users, and still-accelerating adoption, definitely deserve Facebook's acquisition attention.

No, for their own interest they should do what they can to combat the most vital threats.

>What would happen

That would be more of a problem for Microsoft's Skype.

Hangouts is also a messaging app that is meant to replace texts.

True, but the only thing I've ever heard it praised for is how well it handles multi-person video chats. I've never heard of anyone using it for purely text chats. Maybe that will change, but it's not an SMS replacer yet at any level.

Neither is What's App

Of course people use hangouts for purely text chat -- it's Google Talk!

Yep, my company uses Google Talk for IM, so as a result most of us use the Hangouts app if we want to chat on mobile.

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