Category: Facebook

Facebook Funded Most of the Experts Who Vetted Messenger Kids | WIRED

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

There is so much to write about FB these days. 

I don’t have the app installed but keep the account since many people use messenger. I don’t use Instagram anymore – mostly after FB bought it. I keep WhatsApp since agin – so many people use it.

I bought FB stock on the first big deep and of course have held most of it but I sold some a few months back since I seriously wonder with the Russian backlash, the VPN spying crap and now this – if eventually the tide will turn.

I think people may start to use it less but Mark was smart to buy a bunch of other stuff to solidify his revenue and monopoly moat.

This kid’s messenger stuff takes the cake though.

Right out of a movie.

Facebook Funded Most of the Experts Who Vetted Messenger Kids | WIRED

Breaking up Big Tech

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Such a great video – check it out first:

I think a lot of what he says is terribly true and I wonder if most of the world’s governments have simply bowed down to Big Tech assuming that it will always do the right thing for everyone. Sure – these companies are doing amazing things but some of their success feels like it is coming at the cost of meaningful things.

I don’t have the answers but I think government and the people must remain vigilant and not always assume Big Tech has all the answers or always means well.

This is also why I feel conflicted about bitcoin or crypto – on the surface the ideas are amazing but at the same time it is for the moment creating another way to generate wealth that is concentrated mostly with the tech elite and creating a sense of moving away from central management of capital. This could be good or it could be bad, all depends on how you see it or benefit from it.

I think this post is slightly sensationalist but does make some meaningful points :: https://hackernoon.com/ten-years-in-nobody-has-come-up-with-a-use-case-for-blockchain-ee98c180100

All in all I am pro-tech and crypto is here to stay but the world still feels like it continues to bifurcate into the have’s and have not’s and I am sure that is a bad thing.

 

Not missing the USA

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I miss my family a ton. I miss old friends, camping, shake shack and long motorcycle rides along the Cali coast to nowhere. I really miss those things.

But what is going in America is scary. Trump, the FCC and the takeover of large unchecked tech giants is not a great future.

If you don’t already read Redef – you should start. Great daily curation of awesome web reads and the best part – the Rant from Jason Hirschhorn the Curator.

I love his work. I am hoping him and the Prof get together some time for a the Prof’s video series.

World Domination 

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

This past week was busy with switch, slush, venturecon, VC-PE summit and then walkabout. I hit or spoke or cheered them all on. I love 💕 being in Singapore and it was awesome to witness everyone from around the world coming out to support the city/state that continues to punch well above the weight class that everyone thinks it might be in.

I won’t lie – I am Singapore fanboy. 

When I read stories like this about America, startup slump, I am thankful to be in Asia and specifically at the center of SEA. Pro startup with a government mindful of the challenges ahead but super supportive of tech and the role it will play in future societies.

I worry about America but remain hopeful.

Overall I continue to be concerned about the role of the huge tech companies in our lives and their impact on startups and capitalism.

I can’t wait to read The Four.

And on this subject his weekly newsletter is very timely :: https://www.l2inc.com/daily-insights/no-mercy-no-malice/the-worm-has-turned

The biggest opportunity for the Four

The Four could pull off one of the greatest moments in business, addressing a huge social issue while disrupting an enormous, wildly profitable sector that hasn’t innovated in decades. One or more of the Four should launch a tuition-free university that blends offline and online learning, and charges firms to recruit. Student debt and corporate profits are at an all-time high, meaning we need to flip the model — charge firms, not students, for education.

Apple is also well suited to do this as its brand has roots in education. I estimate the economic value of credentialing is, if taken as a market, likely the largest industry in business with 80%+ gross margins. There would be several ways to create $100B+ in shareholder value and catalyze desperately needed competition. We (universities) have stuck out our chins and deserve fists of stone. Feeding like insecure vampires on the scarcity of our product (dopamine surges through our brains at faculty meetings as we revel in how impossible it is for kids to get into our programs), and praying on the hopes and dreams of families. Education used to be the upward lubricant and a social good. It’s now just one of those things.

Other than each other, there is only one thing between the Four and $1T in market value: the perception of poor citizenship. The small-ball strategies of tax avoidance, obfuscation, and the idolatry of youth and the dollar, may turn big tech into smaller tech.

Thoughts to ponder for sure.

I hope one of the companies steps up and challenges the perception of the role they could play and make America proud.

Greed vs Value Creation

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

It’s a struggle sometimes for sure but lately it just feels like most of what is going on in the valley is straight up greed.

https://twitter.com/arrington/status/836345845477851136

I am not a huge Arrington fan but I think he makes a point. Is this a cyclical thing? Is there too much capital around? Is the Trump era to blame?

I tend to think it is more related to the pressure cooker of expectations around always having to have that big exit and making everyone rich versus building cool shit. I know there is a fine line. And I am not saying that I don’t want to make money but there is a difference in my opinion.

Uber as of late just feels like greed. Let’s treat employees like shit, let’s skirt the law and let’s steal stuff to win it all because they are changing the world? It’s too much. You can’t demolish everything in your path and still keep telling your customers that we should trust you ferrying our wive’s and children around. Enough already. I honestly hope Google takes them to the cleaners.

Snap. Who knows on this one but the way they are doing things feels to me like just wanting to cash out versus build something for the long haul. Again, I could be all wrong and this is the technique they are using to get enough money to defend their turf and build something amazing. Only time will tell. I could be all wrong. With Facebook I bought on the dip and held. That’s worked out okay so far. Not sure I would with Snap.

WeWork. Is this really a revolution or is it a modern day real estate play with co-working throw in to be cool? No one knows yet but the Softbank deal feels like greed to me. Let’s see what they do.

I used to miss the valley but I am not sure I could survive there. I am not that greedy to be honest. Interesting times.

I am glad I live in Singapore.

Standing up to Google 

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Check this rant from the Prof.

https://www.l2inc.com/no-mercy-no-malice/fool-me-twice

The shit sandwich here is that having legitimate news next to fake news has only made the Facebook platform more dangerous. When standing in line at Krogers, your bullshit filter is in high gear and you suspect HiIlary isn’t an alien, despite what the Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids tell you. However, the presence of the NYT and WaPo on Facebook has only legitimized fake news. Fuck.

Dear Hearst, Sulzberger, Murdoch, Newhouse, Burda families:

Remove your heads from your asses. Google and Facebook are your frenemy, minus the friend part. Turn off Google / Facebook / Twitter / Snapchat, form a consortium, and command the space you occupy. Take a page from LVMH’s playbook regarding their presence on Amazon — specifically how they’re not present on Amazon.

I tend to agree but guessing very few orgs have the guts to do anything about it.