Fred Wilson:facebook looking for the next platform

I found that the following passage from Mark Zuckerberg's blog about the acquisition of Oculus was most interesting:

We still have a lot to do in terms of mobility, but now I find it's time to think about the next platform that will bring a more practical, entertaining and personalized experience.

Facebook is a bit slow on the move. Unlike Apple and Google,facebook, there is no mobile operating system, and it has been an unhurried rhythm in moving the core experience from Web pages to moving ends. But since they took the issue seriously, the pace has accelerated dramatically, and now Facebook has an excellent user experience on both IOS and Android platforms. The addition of Instagram and WHATSAPP has led them to hold three seats in the top ten third party applications in the global market (Facebook,whatsapp,instagram). That's also great for their mobile strategy (and that's what it means to spend 19 billion of dollars on WhatsApp).

It's time for Zuckerberg and his team to start looking for the "next" (platform), which is not what Larry Page does for Google. What this video is all about is Google's efforts to find the next platform (Whye, unmanned technology, Nest, DeepMind, etc.).

Nest and even Oculus such a big thing at the beginning must let you scratch the scalp. How many cents does an apple-style intelligent thermostat and virtual reality head-wear device have with Google's mobile strategy and Facebook's social map? Half a dime.

But the trajectory of the past seven years, or even longer, has made the intent of these deals clearer. Moving is what everyone has been chasing, but now it's a dead end. All tech are actively looking for the next platform, and no one is willing to miss "it" ... So they will not hesitate to drop a few vaults to gain a favorable position in the next round of competition, even if only a possible vantage point.

Virtual reality, Internet of things, drones, artificial intelligence or whatever else will be the next platform is not clear at present. Larry doesn't know, Zuckerberg don't know, I don't know. So the current competition theme is "looking". Capital markets, trillions of of dollars have been ready to be made, so the billions of dollar deal is the leading pioneer. Of course, for the people who collect the money, billions of dollars means billions of true gold and silver.

In the next few years (I have no idea how long it will last), the game will be in the form of a system that can transition to the next platform. This is a risky game, but the rewards are at risk, and you can even use the public to launch the first round of attacks. I really love this business.