Expert opinion: Facebook's decline

Decline of Facebook



By Bruce Eckel

 

[Translated from Bruce Eckel's blog: the decline of Facebook
]

 

We all know that in the Internet age, we will not be able to live after we lose our freshness and anger. The story of the rise and fall of the dipper is ongoing. As a matter of fact, in the industrial age, companies have been angry for a day, and on the Internet, such a rise and fall happen much faster.

On the information highway, the pioneers moved across the border. Yahoo was also a big cheese. But now, it is hard to see that they are not only going all the way into the earth
What else can be done. I still remember that when no one thought that Microsoft would stop growing, I noticed that Microsoft was already on a steep cliff. Shortly after that crucial turning point, Ballmer became CEO. Over the past decade, Microsoft has gradually declined, and a large amount of money has been used to solve various practical problems, but has not been used to improve or improve technology.

Today, Facebook continues to grow, but they are also moving towards the platform that is surrounded by steep cliffs and nowhere to go forward (maybe they are already on it, but they still don't know ). Why? The key lies in the fact that Facebook claims that its target customers are broken away from its real customers.

Facebook has only one product, which is their user.

The "services" enjoyed by these users"
The advertisement is actually pushed, so advertisers are the real customers of Facebook. Unfortunately, if Facebook wants to serve its real customers, it will have to speak out to their users and cheat them. When users realize that they are being played, they will escape and graze on other greener lawns. Currently, Facebook users have not escaped, or even because there are no other lawns to survive. Once a user finds a new place to live, Facebook will face the danger of getting people out of the air overnight and will never lose its only product-Facebook users. On the Internet, trust is hard to come by, but it can only be used.

So what is the so-called green lawn? Let's talk about Facebook. I think one of Facebook's biggest problems is its singularity. A person is either my friend or not. However, there are many possibilities for a person to request to be a friend of mine. This person may be in the same city with me, a fan of me, a relative at home, a business partner, or a conservative person, it may also be a liberal. A variety of possibilities are quite good, and Facebook has turned it into "either a friend or not ". The result is that I have a big vote on Facebook for unconfirmed friends. Every time I think about how to handle these friend requests, I am overwhelmed and choose to escape these problems. Facebook does not care about confused users at all, as long as its real customer-advertisers-gets a satisfactory report, everything will go well.

I often use Google Reader and frequently forward articles to those who I think will be interested in. In fact, I have created many "Group of Friends" in my mind. I will forward different articles to different groups of friends. Due to limited mental power, "management" is also relatively simple.

In contrast, I almost never post on Facebook because my "friends" on Facebook cover all "groups ". For example, my niece is on Facebook. Some of the words I want to say are not necessarily suitable for her to listen to, or even offend some "friends ". Therefore, I choose not to post, so as not to offend anyone. In this way, I do not want to add new friends on Facebook.

The next generation of social networks will allow me to create groups without any effort and invite others to be friends in specific groups. This is what actually serves users, and Google can easily achieve this. In this way, you may be "my friends in the Wang Guofeng region of Colorado", maybe "my computer programming friends", or "my family ", it may be "my college friends" or "My business friends". The possibilities may change at any time so that they can be used. If I want to discuss a new commercial article with my colleagues, I can post it to my business friends. My niece does not need to read business articles, nor do she have to see messages about free speech that will make her parents. When I go back to my hometown to visit friends, I don't have to let my business friends know.

Such a design is naturally and obvious. But I don't think Facebook will do this because it doesn't help their business model.

Let's take a look at the Google mode for comparison. The advertisement is just the text that is quietly put there, And I can ignore it completely. Google has achieved a good balance between the demands of advertisers and those of users. I actually bought things through Google ads. That is a sense of trust. Google didn't make me feel that they are abusing my trust in it.

Amazon is even better. Based on what I bought and viewed, they tried to guess what I might want to buy. If the implementation is not good enough, such recommendations may disturb and annoy users. Amazon makes people think that they are actually helping. I keep thinking about what Amazon may recommend to me. Amazon certainly wants me to buy more things, but it seems like it is serving me.

Facebook apparently did not.They do not put the fundamental interests of users in the eyes, but are the enemy of users. They don't care about security (although they seem to be actively committing to protect my computer) and they never try to improve user experience. All the tricks they played were exposed.