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>Modern social media leaves a very big gap - that was filled by old Facebook, or to some extent MySpace: The "people directory" where basically everybody has a page, and you can see what friends are doing, or look up acquaintances and strangers.

This was Social Networking 101 and Zuck got it right and he won big but there are so many different forms of social networking that are possible and are happening today like ephemeral content(Snapchat), short videos(TikTok) etc.

Video was and still is huge opportunity and you could see that from the astronomical rise of YouTube since 2005/2006 till today. YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world and the second most visited website in the world.

Speaking of TikTok; the rise of TikTok was inevitable since Vine was also huge video opportunity but Twitter simple blew it away. If Vine had good leadership TikTok probably wouldn't exist or it wouldn't be as popular as it is today.

And also YouTube and TikTok are sort of hybrid social networks in a way that they are modern form of TV entertainment platforms because you can passively watch videos and get entertained nonstop without interacting with anybody. So they are not really at the same conceptual level as Facebook is.

>I think it would be hard to start something like this again, because people are afraid of data collection now in a way they weren't in 2006.

Then why the hell all wannabe successful people are on LinkedIn aka the directory of professionals. They keep signing up every single day because they want to be looked up and found by their fellow professionals and potential employers.




When you share your data on Linkedin you get part of the financial value of that data collection. This is different than any other social media platform.


You get fast, powerful and easy to use communication tools for free when you use Facebook and its family of apps. Why do you think Whatsapp is so popular now and not SMS anymore?


>Why do you think Whatsapp is so popular now and not SMS anymore?

Is this actually the case? I've heard Whatsapp is popular outside the states (something about differences in phone plans, in the US unlimited SMS texting is basically universal) but it's definitely still in the minority here. Anecdotally I feel like each friend group here has a different, idiosyncratic method of text communication in the US. Some people communicate through SMS, others through instagram/snapchat, others through discord, or whatsapp, or facebook messenger, etc. There are some interesting trends in the distribution along age and gender lines too.


In Germany, it is absolutely the case, yes. We have unlimited SMS as well, but I think we didn’t have it back in 2011 or whenever WhatsApp launched.

Almost everybody is on WhatsApp. Groups for local stuff, extended family, parents of kids classes, whole school classes etc.

Some people are also on Instagram, but not as a first for communication.

Telegram is a thing, but more in working class circles.

Nobody uses Snapchat. Some kids might use TikTok, but hardly as a replacement for WhatsApp. It’s really that strong.


Yes, but the data collection is tangential to that value. With Linkedin, you get direct financial benefit from having recruiters able to search Linkedin's database and target you with opportunities.


> Then why the hell all wannabe successful people are on LinkedIn aka the directory of professionals. They keep signing up every single day because they want to be looked up and found by their fellow professionals and potential employers.

That's an entirely different thing than individual sharing private details of their personal lives.


Your business career is also your private life. Why would the whole world need to see it or anybody who uses the internet?


Your business career is your public life. You would want people to see it because they may want to work with you.




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