What moat exactly? Much of the user data they have access to is drying up due to new regulations, some of which prohibit IIRC direct use on models as well. I'm not even sure they can use historical data.
Meta certainly has an edge in engineer count, undoubtedly. But I'd say they really, really want the metaverse to succeed more to have their on walled garden (i.e. equivalent power of Apple and Google stores, etc.). There's a reason they gave a hard pass to a Google partnership.
> There's a reason they gave a hard pass to a Google partnership.
AIUI, Google required Meta to basically cede control of a partnered OS to them:
"After years of not focusing on VR or doing anything to support our work in the space, Google has been pitching AndroidXR to partners and suggesting, incredibly, that WE are the ones threatening to fragment the ecosystem when they are the ones who plan to do exactly that.
"We would love to partner with them. They could bring their apps to Quest today! They could bring the Play store (with its current economics for 2d apps) and add value to all their developers immediately, which is exactly the kind of open app ecosystem we want to see. We would be thrilled to have them. It would be a win for their developers and all consumers and we’ll keep pushing for it.
"Instead, they want us to agree to restrictive terms that require us to give up our freedom to innovate and build better experiences for people and developers—we’ve seen this play out before and we think we can do better this time around."
I think the raw text inside Facebook groups is at least as valuable as Reddit data. Even if demographics data is restricted under European law, the raw text of people interacting is quite valuable.
That ignores all the user groups that are on Facebook. From apartment communities aka Nextdoor to grief support counseling to the mindfulness therapy groups, there’s a wealth of user comments a tad bit higher than Uncle John’s racist rants.
facebooks downfall will be their lock in. every other social media platform lets you view a public profile, discussion groups etc. it's all locked inside facebook.
> Much of the user data they have access to is drying up due to new regulations, some of which prohibit IIRC direct use on models as well.
Source would be appreciated, because this is opposite of obvious. Regulations against using public first party would be a big news and I haven't heard of anything like that. They use my data for recommending feed so why not for answering my question?
First party data alone can't tell you whether an ad resulted in a sale, unless you own the entire process on your platform. Contrast this with what Apple has via its app store; the fees do more than generate money.
Meta certainly has an edge in engineer count, undoubtedly. But I'd say they really, really want the metaverse to succeed more to have their on walled garden (i.e. equivalent power of Apple and Google stores, etc.). There's a reason they gave a hard pass to a Google partnership.