Facebook is the devil.
So I’d be wary of anything the devil does.
Clearly a company that started off in a college dorm and became a multi-billion dollar company in the span of ten years must be in league with the devil.
If not the devil himself.
How else would you explain Facebook’s meteoric rise to the top of the social media food chain?
Sure, they’ve got millions upon millions of users.
Sure, they extract a pound of flesh from advertisers to hawk their wares to Facebook’s captive audience.
Sure, their IPO netted them a gazillion dollars.
But damn!
Enough is enough!
If you’ve been paying attention, startups on Facebook’s roster are batting zero.
Case in point.
Let’s look at the giant’s appetite over the past decade, shall we?
- Connect U – shut down
- Friend.ly – shut down
- Gowala – shut down
- Lightbox.com – shut down
- Face.com – defunct
- Threadsy – shut down
Suffice it to say, not all acquired companies fare well under Facebook’s oppressive thumb.
And these are just the more public purchases that Facebook has made.
There are scores of others too obscure to mention, scattered across Facebook’s post-acquisition landscape.
Facebook claims that WhatsApp will continue to operate independently, but their track record doesn’t paint a convincing picture of post-acquisition bliss.
And while, Instagram, Branch and Friend Feed are still thriving on-going concerns, who can say when they will cease to please the devil and have their heads lopped off?
Facebook is a fickle beast, no?
I’m just saying.
I use WhatsApp.
I like WhatsApp.
Unlike most of Facebook’s crap, there are no distracting ads or mindless drivel mucking it up.
So you’ll forgive me if I think that Facebook’s acquisition to WhatsApp can’t possibly bode well for me and countless other WhatsApp users.
Sure, the creators of WhatsApp are making out like bandits, but who gives a fuck about them?
My misgivings are not without merit.
It’s happened before.
It can happen again.
I predict that Facebook is either going to scuttle WhatsApp completely or turn it into some ad-laden behemoth that I won’t want to fuck with.
With a track record like their’s, the devil Facebook is not to be trusted.
Stephen Chukumba 
The longterm aspects of Facebook remain very much in question as far as I’m concerned. They still have not successfully monetized their subscriber base. The advertising they are selling has not proven to be effective. I don’t think they’ve succeeded in showing ads well on phones and other mobile devices yet.
I have been reading articles saying that young people are abandoning Facebook as being “so, so last year.” Very much like teen idol adoration the attention span of young people on things such as which social media app is “hot” is fleeting, perhaps properly measured in nanoseconds.
The idea that these social media sites have a huge value based simply on subscriber populations is very nebulous at best. Nobody has successfully monetized them yet.
You need look no further back than “My Space” to cause questions as to the longevity of this sort of thing.
–Bob
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Very astute observations, my friend. I’m going to have to disagree with you on a few points, though.
Facebook is free. Hence the strategy has never been to monetize its subscriber base. They’re interested solely in monetizing their ad platform, which they have done successfully year over year.
Facebook’s IPO filing shows that the company brought in about $3.7 billion in revenue and made $1 billion in profit in 2011. $3.1 billion of that came from ad revenues alone.
The fervor over social media starts with the premise that eyeballs are everything. Taking the lead from online advertising, page views and impressions (however inapplicable they may be in a social media context) are still influencing how marketers approach assigning value in the space.
This approach, however flawed, inures to the benefit of the Facebooks of the world, who are essentially snake oil salesman when it comes to proving the efficacy of the advertising model.
There was actually an expose that hinted at the likes from Facebook Ads are coming from the same like farms that Facebook bans advertisers from using.
And to your point, many analysts insist that Facebook is losing no ground when it comes to teens. But there is mounting evidence to the contrary.
Ultimately, by buying up everything cool and trending, and then shutting them down or incorporating their features into Facebook’s platform, they’re forcing users to stick with them.
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I deleted what’s app a month ago n using telegram….it’s better as I can on download a direct link or pic from the web and forward it to my contacts or groups,and also send a document.just love it!! Thank you Stephen your post on selfie and now apple keeps me happy.Stay blessed:)
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Meeinal, I’m going to check out Telegram and let you know what I think. Thanks for the positive feedback – I love it!
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Ull bless me even more!! I know
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Let us hope it will remain the same. I only started using WhatsApp again after a few months break. I did not need it, but got a few new friends who only use WhatsApp and it would be shame to have to watch stupid ads…
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Dude, you feel my pain. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason behind which companies are shuttered and which survive. Hopefully WhatsApp will stay off the chopping block
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