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Peak FaceBook?
Remember MySpace? No? You are not the only one: apparently nobody else does (even though it did sell for a token price to a greater fool).
What about Friendster? Also no? Hardly surprising either.
Of course, both of these social networks are dead and buried, with Facebook gleefully dancing on their grave, a Facebook, or rather FB, which went public on May 18, 2012. A curious date we should note, because as we showed on that very day, the underwriters decided to go public just as Google Trends showed interest in Facebook was at its very peak.
So, where are we now? It depends who you ask. On one hand, according to the company, and the way it counts eyeballs, pardon Monthly Active Users, things have never been better, with some 1.441 billion MAUs, of which 210 million in just the US and Canada, or more than the entire employed population in those two nations.
What about earnings? Well, there too it depends which accountant you ask: one who believes that GAAP earnings matter, and that share-based compensation (whose proceeds are all too real and allow employees to buy any number of GDP-boosting products and services) is actually an item that should be counted toward one's bottom line. Or that they shouldn't.
Because in the latest quarter, non-GAAP Net Income was more than double GAAP.
But the reason one can't help but wonder just how much of FB's "users" are merely robotic autoclicks and/or originate at various clickfarms somewhere in Asia, is that taking the Google Trends chart posted above, and refreshing it as of today, reveals something troubling.
That something is whether, despite the company's loud protests to the contrary, that Facebook's peak has come and gone, and what remains is the MySpace/Friendster inevitable supernova as Facebook's easily distracted users go on to cooler, newer venues.
Luckily, there is an easy way to find out: if the company folds and admits the growth cycle is finished, and begins to repurchase its own shares courtesy of one of the few largely pristine balance sheets remaining, then it may be time to log off for good.
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Can't have the only reliable FBI database go down, can we?
20 years ago if someone asked you to publicly post your personal pictures, location, interests and relations, what would you have said? FB is sooooo centrally planned.
Let's see. I quit Fraudbook when the ownership decided that tasting Obama's bunghole was more important than providing something necessary or relevant to the internet discussion. If I want "friends" and to talk to them, we meet at a bar and do it in person. From afar, we talk via telephone.
Fraudbook is the losers way of hyping up their lifestyles and opinions for family and friends to create phony "likes" and hunt the nation for other freaks like themselves.
I haven't logged into facefuck for probably 3 years now. Maybe 4. It is BS. And if you post anything publically, it is fair game for the FBI and the local cops.
ANYTHING is "fair game". Text you write but don't post is even saved [see Drudge].
Privacy settings are meant to lull pinheads into speaking freely.
In the sense that even anything on here is fair game, yes. But at least they have to come up with some justification and lie to use it, and you can use that to trip them up.
Trip them up? Seriously?
Chess, checkers and patty cake.
http://www.information-age.com/technology/information-management/1234592...
Yes, seriously. There are some procedural issues that will become obvious if you keep your trap shut.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805
Read about the case that had to be dropped because it originated from the NSA.
Blackmailbook.com or Myonlineprivatediary.com
Same impact.
[BTW I didn't downvote you, OUT]
I'm not familiar with those, and they are dead as domain names. Anyway, my point is, they violate the shit out of your rights when it comes to electronic communication, then conduct a "parallel" investigation to build up what they would call "legitimate" evidence. This relies on your cooperation, and most people will cooperate with getting put into jail in this way. If you do not consent to any searches and keep your yap shut, and stream video of any interactions with the popos, then they have to explain their actions. They actively try to keep this kind of activity hidden from the courts because they know it won't pass public scrutiny.
Never did subscribe to FecesBook aka NSA.com, but know plenty who allowed it to destroy their lives.
Whodunit? They did.
FecesBook, lol.
I never signed on, but as I'm sure you know FaceF*ck "monitors" people who have never signed on; they claim that is a "glitch." Zuckerberg is a nasty little Peeping Tom. Why have there been no tort cases for his peeping/spying on non FaceF*ckers? Is there no legal cause of action, or has it just not happened yet?
Use that to your advantage and only post what makes you look like a low iq non-threat.
Naw, I'm just going to avoid facefuck like the plague.
I have never logged onto Facebook, ever. Somehow I am missing the narcissism gene that creates a desire to splash one's personal life all overy the Internet and seek out admiration from strangers you call "friends".
Proud to say I never bothered with that total waste of time...
I really could care less about what someone had for breakfast yesterday.
How bout the dump I had this am?
Regular rope, I tell you.
i guess i might start to count as an old-timer nowadays - been in the IT game for almost 25 years - i have seen stuff come and go.
i never even created a facebook page because as i kept saying to people - "it is a big data harvester - wait for the other shoe to drop before you decided to share you life with it".
even if/when it goes the way of the dodo - somebody is gonna get that data and do something with it - forever.
good stuff, but why would anyone join to begin with? ... never got that...
self gratification?
I Have friends! Yayyy! look at me! like the retarded puppet in Crank yankers?
Deadlier than a drone for the po po .
nope-1004, that's exactly what I couldn't understand when these social networks first started coming out. Who the fuck would want to post private data about themselves like that? I know a lot of my personal info is out there because I now have to use FB, but I try to hide what I can. Twenty years ago I would have thought someone would pay a monthly fee to NOT have their info broadcasted (oops, did I just give someone an iDea?).
FarceBook - like publishing your life in the classifieds of the newspaper, which would have been considered bat shit crazy 20 years ago, and stupid, and a waste of everyone's time. It feeds the juvenile narcissism of the society and the police state.
Fuck Facebook! Total waste of time and energy!
Oh, the irony of that statement!
Mark Sucker-burglar has my complete confidence as CEO! buying MOAR here!
I'd say "good riddance", but we all know it will only get replaced with something worse.
FaceHugger?
Regards,
Cooter
FaceSitter
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/avp/images/b/bb/Alien-The_Facehugger...
FacePlant....
Did you know Megaweapon has a facebook account?
As I understand it, it's all about Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat now, Facebook's already dead and buried.
No prizes for guessing how those work out in the social media long run (3 to 5 years), either.
You are exactly correct, JL. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat... and I would add Yik Yak. My teenage kids and all their friends (and I do mean ALL their friends) left FB 2 years ago and now use those 4 ways of communicating. FB passed its peak once it had the kids and lost them.
Facebook has its entertainment value
Just yesterday I witnessed an exchange of messages about how cats are really just furry children
At first I thought your post said "furry chicken." Figured you were on some Asian FB page or something.
So, when things REALLY get tough for FB, how bad are they going to screw thier customers by selling them up a river for the personal data they thought was private? At the end of day, all FB is about is ads and datamining/lifestyle mapping.
and blackmail, and .gov employment/promotion vetting, and IRS audits...
pets.com
Bloody FB, like a fart in a lift, it's wrong on so many different levels....
"Bloody FB, like a fart in a lift"
Gotta love that 'limey' twang!
What's Facebook? Does it get you laid? No? Meh.
Fuckface?
(:
People still spend advertising money on Facebook? Well I guess when you have a budget you better spend it or it won't increase the next year.
Oh yes they do, and they throw bad money at Google too. Why? So I can get an ad for a product I just purchased online. They're literally paying to remind me of a product I either have already purchased or have already decided to purchase and am merely shopping online for a sale or special offer.
As for FB logging text as it's entered, not merely posted, I knew precisely when that happened. One day FB started having sluggish text entry, often transposing characters and "typing them" on screen in the wrong order. Classic buggy keylogger behavior ... not even a well executed one.
I can't prove it, but Facebook, like Google, are nothing but Zion Stasi type intelligence operations involved with spying on the people and laundering the "intelligence community's" and Zion's loot. Period.
But then one may be inclined to believe the numbers around these companies' revenues.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.
The difference is that now, Facebook is Too Big to Fail.
MySpace and Friendster were organic in nature. Facebook, "built" (more like copied, the American way! Just ask Bill Gates!) at Ivy League Harvard, is essentially the another database for NSA/FBI Stasi-style tracking (which is why Obama loves Zuckerberg).
Also, Baby Boomers have "bought" into Facebook (which is probably why most folks 25-35 hate the site now and really only stay on b/c their friends and family are on there, like me. I even know a few folks who deleted it DESPITE this). If you start out any Facebook post with, "Why do liberals always" or "Why do conservatives always" - your probably a dumb sheep waiting to get shorn by the system.
Interestingly enough, MySpace has thrived since going donkdown as a mainstream social media site. It's now a go-to destination for musicians and is catered to that community where all of the other bullshit doesn't clutter up their feeds and they can just promote their music (they still use FB and mostly Twitter as "venting" mediums).
mandatory facebook accounts for all citizens (prisoners). only violent domestic terrorists do not have a facebook account
Im still pissed at myspace...they cost me thousands of dollars because I met an ex there.
fuck facespace
Zuckerberg is a loser. The technology he developed was nothing novel. Nothing special. It was simply marketed, pumped, hyped and now is in bed with the government. I feel much the same way about google. It is unfortunate that the real geniuses receive very few accolades for their achievements. It is the shameless marketeers and boot lickers that make the papers.
well google simply beat out the competition with better *cough* gov *cough* algos that gave the user better search results. remember when there were a ton of search engines? google just had better shit. yahoo got complacent and instead of making it's engine better, went straight hollywood when it was number one, only to lose to google shortly thereafter. when you have the gov helping you fund your operation, that can be considered to be a leg up.
zuckerberg is a loser though, facebook has given the gov and leo a massive surveillance system, complete with facial recognition software. if i could say what i wanted on facebook, then i would be okay with it. however... you can't. facebook doesn't even protect free speech.
Einstein was also a marketing creation
Yup. He stole all the credit from the great early-century Italian and German physicists, the true geniuses of that era.
It's really stupid to show the Google search trend chart. People don't search for Facebook in a search engine, especially on desktop computers. They just open the Facebook app on their mobile phone and it doesn't register in any search engine trend chart. The charts posted here speak more to the shift from desktop to mobile than any "decline" in Facebook useage. But then again, Zero Hedgers are not strangers to logical fallacies and misinterpretation of data.
Exactly.
And the irony of many ZH posters whose "comments" would be much more apropos on Facebook or Twitter:
"Facebook sucks"
"Screw Facebook"
"Happy Birthday"
"Gold bitchez"
"Hang em"
Etc
They really add to the conversation here on ZH.
The Nazi Gubmint will bail them out...
FARP Facebook Asset Repurchase Program coming up!
I've always wondered what Justice Roberts "learned" via his internet travels that made him support Obamacare.
That's a puzzler.
My missus swears by FB. Probably why we just exchange a nod in passing!
You should give her a 50 pointer every now and then.../ that'll keep of FB.
This article is ridiculous. Fails to mention whatsapp, instagram and oculus. If we are going by Google trend results, I'll make it easy for you to see that both whatsapp and instagram are at all time highs.
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=whatsapp
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=instagram
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=oculus%20rift
you miss the point. the life cycle of social media is very brief. whether you are aol, yahoo, or twitter or pinterest or etsy or instagram or reddit or whatever, adhd dumb people are waining. people go where everyone else goes. everyone is saying facebbok is done. fuckerberg has tried to keep up but the flagship product is waining, therefore all the web sites that connect through facebook, therefore the momentum in revenue growth is coming to an end.
who will hit the next jackpot?
dup
I got some excellent quality made leather (not chinese pleather) goods for xmas presents from both Germany & Greece on Etsy. Just my contribution to put money where the real market is. The producer and not some parasitic corporate middle man blood sucker.
That will be the guy who buys long dated out of the money puts on FB.
Hpefully, me!
I used to go on Huffington Post for no other reason but to argumentatively troll posters in the comments section. Being a liberal site for the most part, it was quite easy to get the posters riled up even if your argument made sense. And it worked for the Ratpublicans too.
But I had to leave the comments section of HP because one day they required you to sign in via a Facebook account in order to comment on the Huffington Post.
The funny thing is that the comments section on HP was already heavily monitored. I would guess roughly 1/2 my posts were never allowed online by the moderators (whoever that might be). Not that they were anygood.
Almost anything anti-Obama was never posted. I can't remember things that were off limits but it was pretty encompassing.
Bottom line - I don't have a Facebook account and I would never use it to post anything online. It is obvious the NSA and the U.S. government are using Facebook to spy on users.
We are rapidly becoming a totalitarian police state and anyone who can't see it is either blind or in denial.
It’s not just HP. The majority of MSM outlets on the internet now require you to use FB or Twitter to comment. At the very least, they make these communication hubs the most convenient options available. Suddenly they are everywhere, like a termite infestation, inviting you to share everything you say with your designated friends. But, they don’t really give a shit about that do they, because, unbeknown to most users, they have already shared what you said and posted with their paying corporate and government clients who are definitely not among your designated friends. Anything and everything you say can and will be used against you by any means they choose to invent, and you are definitely not privy to those processes either.
It’s the grossest misrepresentation of corporate activity and purpose that I have ever witnessed in my life. One can only hope the reason FB numbers are starting to wane is that other users are coming to that realization too.
yes. so true. why this isn't generating more protest eludes me.
Three words..."barriers to entry?"...
Two more..."network effect".
Amazing that a company with no respect for the privacy of their customers -- who actively spies on their customers, their contacts, and their searches -- and who claims to own everything their customers type or upload -- would be in trouble???
FB=CIA
You think that twit Zuckerburg could pull off FB without caving to the dark side?
The publicly available record on the Facebook/In-Q-Tel connection is tenuous. Facebookreceived $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel, whose manager, James Breyer, now sits on their board. He was formerly the chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, whose board included Gilman Louie, (Gilman Louie (born 1960) is a technology venture capitalist who got his start as a video game designer and then ran the CIA venture capital fund In-Q-Tel.) then the CEO of In-Q-Tel. The connection is indirect, but the suggestion of CIA involvement with Facebook, however tangential, is disturbing in the light of Facebook’s history of violating the privacy of its users.
Google’s connection to In-Q-Tel is more straightforward, if officially denied. In 2006, ex-CIA officer Robert David Steele told Homeland Security Today that Google “has been taking money and direction for elements of the US Intelligence Community, including the Office of Research and Development at the Central Intelligence Agency, In-Q-Tel, and in all probability, both the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command.” Later that year, a blogger claimed that an official Google spokesman had denied the claims, but no official press statement was released.
Now let's see some ZH charts, Tyler.
Well JuliaS you are stil here.
Well JuliaS you are stil here.
Facebook is on its way out. My kids, 23 and 25, have abandoned it. Their friends are bailing too. I went to a local theatre last month and they featured a spoof on FaceBook- they trashed it. Audience members were howling and I was happy to hear at intermission how many had abadoned CIA Zuckerberg.
But FB is rich enough, and valuable enough to the State, to pay $5B+ for whatever retarded three person no-revenue hipster startup(s) build its successful replacement(s). Myspace and Friendster never reached that critical "Buy your way out of almost any fuckup" phase. Too Big To Fail is Not Just for Banksters.
Every once and awhile my friends and I take a pic during a big occasian. Now everyone has to say: "No Facebook!"...just in case some douche is still on it. Kind of a shame people have to remind everyone to respect their privacy but everyone I know hates it and hates the idea of it. I've never been on it myself and intend to never sign up.
My PSA - protect yourself and your loved ones from facebook - add the following to your c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file:
127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 static.ak.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 www.static.ak.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 login.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.login.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 fbcdn.com
127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.com
127.0.0.1 static.ak.connect.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.static.ak.connect.facebook.com
(Note that you have to run your editor "as administrator" to be able to modify your hosts file.)
BTW, is there some way to prevent ZH from automatically turning hostnames into clickable links (without mutilating the hostnames or the other contents that should be pasted into the hosts file)? I wouldn't want to be responsible for anyone accidentally clicking on one of those auto-generated links.
Zuckerberg is a nasty creature who makes his living by spying on his neighbors and selling what he finds out. He is always trying to spy a little bit more (e.g his "accidental" monitoring of non-Facefuck people), "peep" a little bit more, because he might get that extra dollar that way. Always the extra dollar, that drives him. So disgusting. The very notion that a human might desire (or have a legal right to) privacy, sends him into paroxysms of rage; his precious dollars feel threatened.
Every day I get emaisl from fb telling me I have messages but it is an outright lie I only used the damned thing to communicate with a daughter abroad but now everybody is trying to communicate with me but theyre not really and if theyare i dont want to know