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by splintercell 3783 days ago
> Sets up a monopoly, vendor-lock-in, changes habits: Facebook would hold immeasurable power, once they've got people hooked onto thinking that there's nothing beyond their apps. <

I wanna deal with this monopoly argument I keep hearing everywhere in this thread.

Can there be a monopoly of a web service? Facebook dethrowned MySpace, did myspace have a monopoly? MySpace dethrowned Friendster.

If Google has a monopoly in Search and email then what use is it when it can't push Google Plus? Even with Youtube integration FORCED upon people, nobody used Google plus.

Pretty much every single product other than social networks which Facebook has launched, has been a failure. It couldn't replace Gmail, Snapchat, Instagram.

Microsoft couldn't compete with iPod, Apple couldn't compete on Maps.

It just doesn't matter how much is your market share in a certain existing technology, people judge things based on the products (considering there is no 'price' to lure people away with).

2 comments

You answered your own question, sir. Democratalized Internet is one way those behemoths are taken down.

At Google they say that the compitetor is just a click away. With the "FreeNarcotics" version of the iternet, that may not be true anymore, and a true one omni-monopoly may emerge.

But, if you look people out there is no way they'd even know if something is better...