Quote:
Originally Posted by eroticsexxx
It will be very difficult for another social networking success like Facebook to rise up in the coming decade. Take a look at every major site. Do you see that "Like/recommend button"? Top Internet media companies LOVE FaceBook and its integration aspects have made them almost reliant upon Facebook's social networking platform.
Until persons stop seeing Facebook as just another website and begin seeing that Zuckerberg is thinking on a platform level, many will continue to be surprised at Facebook's success and continue to underestimate the scope of its reach.
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Surfers are fickle and social networking profiles don't seem to have the same longevity as say something like email addresses (how many people still use yahoo?). Millions of users flipped from Myspace to Facebook, and from Friendster to Myspace before that. In the online community space surfers will go to wherever the action is and if someone comes out with a network that in some way provides an edge over what they currently are using history has shown they won't hesitate to drop it like it's hot.
The same could be said for search engines. How many people went from gopher to alta vista, alta vista to lykos, etc. Google came and Google changed the game. Facebook is in a very strong position to do the same, but I think they have a few things working against them.
Facebook doesn't have the same brand loyalty as say a company like Google does, or even better Apple. The majority of facebook users don't seem to be huge champions of the brand. The company already doesn't rate high on the trust scale with it's audience and I don't get the impression users really feel "invested" in the company's success.
I guess I just haven't seen enough evidence to convince me Facebook will grow beyond the social networking box. I agree the Like button has helped futher integrate Facebook with many different aspects of the web, their smart phone apps are decent and their integration with other apps is a good move, but I dont think facebook offers anything that users feel to be irreplaceable by another competitor in the space.