1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:18,239 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,279 Speaker 1: and how the tech are you? So? This episode is 5 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:26,600 Speaker 1: a continuation of one I published on Monday, November two thousand, 6 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: two days ago. If you're listening to this, the date 7 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: comes out and I'm walking through the history of social networks. 8 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:38,240 Speaker 1: I was inspired to do this because of various crises 9 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: happening at Meta and Twitter, two of the heavy hitters 10 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:46,519 Speaker 1: in the social network space, particularly here in the United States, 11 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: and the struggles these two companies are going through have 12 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: prompted some to suggest that perhaps the era of social 13 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 1: networks could be coming to an end. Now, I am 14 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 1: not ready to make such a lame, particularly since I 15 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 1: think the definition of social network is pretty wibbly wobbly, 16 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:10,480 Speaker 1: if not timey whiney, and that you could argue platforms 17 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:13,800 Speaker 1: like TikTok or at least a close cousin to social networks, 18 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:17,280 Speaker 1: if not just a social network in a different form factor, 19 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: and that we're not likely to see the complete disappearance 20 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: of these things. But you know, that's just my opinion. Anyway, 21 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:30,080 Speaker 1: in the last episode, we left off with the social 22 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:33,680 Speaker 1: network High five, but we've got a whole bunch of 23 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:40,320 Speaker 1: other social networks to talk about. And here's the real issue, y'all. 24 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:46,320 Speaker 1: Two of the biggest, our most important social networks launched 25 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 1: not long after High five. So while I was hoping 26 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: to cover maybe five, maybe four social networks in this episode, 27 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:57,480 Speaker 1: we're only going to get to two because they were 28 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 1: two very big ones and very important ones. Also, just 29 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: a reminder, this series is not really an exhaustive list 30 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:10,359 Speaker 1: of every social network ever. There have been tons, including 31 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:13,880 Speaker 1: some that never really found much traction, like some that 32 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,160 Speaker 1: kind of quietly debuted, didn't really get enough users, and 33 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:21,480 Speaker 1: then went away without anyone really paying much attention. So 34 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:24,680 Speaker 1: I'm not covering every single one of them. My apologies 35 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: if I leave out your favorite obscure social network as 36 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: we go through this series. So here's our next entry. 37 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: It was a big one, at least for a while. 38 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,800 Speaker 1: It began when a few e Universe employees, among them 39 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:44,480 Speaker 1: two named Krista Wolfe and Everybody's friend Tom Anderson collaborated 40 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: to create a social network that from the start had 41 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 1: an emphasis on promoting and discovering music, it was, of 42 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: course my Space. So we're talking two thousand three here. Now. 43 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,520 Speaker 1: Obviously these guys did not come up with the idea 44 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,880 Speaker 1: for an online social network from scratch right like there 45 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: were previous social networks out there. In fact, they had 46 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: been using Friendster, and we talked about Friendster in the 47 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: previous episode in this series. So if you want to 48 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 1: hear more about that, listen to Monday's episode. Now, for 49 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: those of you who never joined my Space back in 50 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: its original incarnation, because I should point out my Space 51 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: still is a thing, it's just a different thing from 52 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,520 Speaker 1: the original MySpace. Well, if you were never part of 53 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 1: my Space, you might not remember what it was like 54 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: to be on the site back in those days, so 55 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 1: pretty early on in MySpace history. Once it launched, users 56 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:48,520 Speaker 1: could create a profile page that had their their photo 57 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: up on it that could link to other photos as well. Uh. 58 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: They could also include a short playlist of songs that 59 00:03:55,720 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: were available on my Space and those would automatically play. 60 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:03,160 Speaker 1: You could set it to automatically play when someone visited 61 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: your profile. This was something that was both interesting and infuriating, 62 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,120 Speaker 1: depending upon your friends musical tastes. It could also really 63 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 1: put friendships to the test. Right, You go and visit 64 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: a friend's page and you're like, Wow, I didn't know 65 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: that Jonathan was so into Debbie Gibson. Um, not that 66 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: I had Debbie Gibson. Actually I remember I had some 67 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: they might be Giants songs on my my Space profile page. 68 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,520 Speaker 1: As I recall, it has been a long time since 69 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: I had on my Space page, so I I remember 70 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: having they might be Giant songs on there, but I 71 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:41,480 Speaker 1: could be inventing that memory anyway. You could also deck 72 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:44,919 Speaker 1: out your profile with various gimmicks that could make the 73 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: experience of visiting someone's profile and eye bleeding affair if 74 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:51,360 Speaker 1: if you wanted it to be. A lot of folks 75 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: seem to adopt the more is more attitude and they 76 00:04:55,279 --> 00:04:58,680 Speaker 1: threw everything and the kitchen sync at their profiles. At 77 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: least my friends did that, so it was not subtle 78 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:07,040 Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, like you would see some 79 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:11,239 Speaker 1: profiles that have little animated flashes of light and things 80 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:14,560 Speaker 1: like that on them, uh, making it very difficult to 81 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:18,359 Speaker 1: read stuff on occasion. As for Tom, the co creator 82 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: that I said was everybody's friend, That was literally true 83 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 1: in my Space. When you first joined my Space, Tom 84 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:30,320 Speaker 1: Anderson would populate your friends list, so you weren't starting 85 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:32,920 Speaker 1: from nothing. You had Tom as your friend from the 86 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,400 Speaker 1: very beginning. You could, of course removed Tom from your 87 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:38,719 Speaker 1: friends list, but it was a nice touch to suggest 88 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,160 Speaker 1: that all users really are our friends of one of 89 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:43,360 Speaker 1: the creators of the site. Right, you've already got a friend. 90 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:46,080 Speaker 1: You've got a friend in Tom. Now I should actually 91 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:50,080 Speaker 1: add this was not always a thing, because technically Tom 92 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,920 Speaker 1: didn't sign up for my Space until it had already launched, 93 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: like two weeks previously, So there was a time where 94 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,560 Speaker 1: Tom was not automatically your friend if you were in 95 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:04,160 Speaker 1: my Space at the very get go, which was unlikely 96 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: because that was really when the Universe crew themselves were 97 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: kind of launching things and testing it out. Uh, so, yeah, 98 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:15,480 Speaker 1: he wasn't automatically your number one friend from right out 99 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:19,720 Speaker 1: of the gate. MySpace introduced a few things that would 100 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:23,320 Speaker 1: carry over into some other social networks, so some of 101 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:26,040 Speaker 1: the stuff that my Space came up with would become 102 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 1: the bread and butter of social networks moving forward. For 103 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:33,200 Speaker 1: one thing, while you could have dozens of friends, only 104 00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 1: eight would appear on your profile page itself, like you 105 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:41,039 Speaker 1: would have a list of your top eight friends on 106 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: your profile page, and you could select who appeared in 107 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:46,800 Speaker 1: that list of eight. The rest of your friends people 108 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:48,760 Speaker 1: would have to see by clicking through to your friends 109 00:06:48,839 --> 00:06:52,159 Speaker 1: list itself so they could view other friends. It's just 110 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: that these eight would be the ones that would be 111 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 1: featured on your profile page. So being one of someone's 112 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,320 Speaker 1: top eight spaces became kind of like a popularity contest 113 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:07,680 Speaker 1: or a status symbol. Weird. Al Yankovic would reference this 114 00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: in his song White and Nerdy, which was a a 115 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: parody of millionaires writing dirty. So yeah, if you want 116 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:20,520 Speaker 1: to listen to a dated tech reference, actually several of them, 117 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:24,559 Speaker 1: you can listen to that parody song. But you might say, well, 118 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 1: how did my space even become a thing? How did 119 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 1: it start to become popular enough? Where being in these 120 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:36,480 Speaker 1: top eight spaces was important? Because news sites and services 121 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: don't magically become popular instantaneously, right, They have to attract 122 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:43,040 Speaker 1: a user base. There has to be a beginning to it. 123 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: Otherwise we can't get to the point where two friends 124 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,120 Speaker 1: get into a real life argument because one of them 125 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: isn't in the other's top eight spaces on my Space. Well, 126 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 1: this gets back to the universe see the my Space 127 00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: project began at that company, it didn't spin off to 128 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: be its own thing. This, by the way, is one 129 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 1: of the features of my Space that would later be 130 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,640 Speaker 1: cited as a big mistake that it started at under 131 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: a Universe. And the reason why I say it would 132 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 1: be called a big mistake later on is that the 133 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 1: creators of MySpace didn't have ownership over my Space. So 134 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: when it was eventually bought out, which we will get to, 135 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 1: the creators did not get massive payouts, at least not 136 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:29,760 Speaker 1: to the level they would have if they had spun 137 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:33,240 Speaker 1: off MySpace as an independent project. So it started off 138 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:36,200 Speaker 1: at the Universe. But one benefit of that was that 139 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:41,319 Speaker 1: the Universe had a pretty big user base, like twenty 140 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: million email subscribers, so the Universe could lean on that 141 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:50,199 Speaker 1: subscriber list to send out invitations to join my Space, 142 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:55,480 Speaker 1: So they already had access to a potential audience and 143 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 1: that was a big benefit. So this was a real 144 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:03,440 Speaker 1: project the Universe, I mean the entire hierarchy. Even Brad Greenspan, 145 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,240 Speaker 1: who was the CEO and chairman of the Universe, was 146 00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:10,280 Speaker 1: in on this. So they ended up inviting the Universe 147 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:14,640 Speaker 1: customers to join my Space and that helped get a 148 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:18,040 Speaker 1: lot of of folks over And you have to remember, 149 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:21,240 Speaker 1: in these early days of social networks, some of the 150 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 1: networks were hitting a peak of around two or three 151 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:28,720 Speaker 1: million people, right, so that was considered a huge success 152 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:31,560 Speaker 1: if you had a couple million users. But because the 153 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:35,760 Speaker 1: universe already had access to like twenty million people, it 154 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,760 Speaker 1: gave my Space a huge leg up, and so very 155 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:43,800 Speaker 1: quickly my Space became the number one social network on 156 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:46,439 Speaker 1: the web. You could argue part of that was because 157 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:50,120 Speaker 1: of the lack of competition, but either way, it became 158 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:55,720 Speaker 1: number one, and this really became a big deal. When 159 00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:58,560 Speaker 1: the site made a key change to how it operated, 160 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: it would really increase effic to the site. So originally 161 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:05,199 Speaker 1: on my Space, the only people who could view your 162 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:08,000 Speaker 1: profile page were people that you had designated as you 163 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:10,000 Speaker 1: are friends. So you had to do like a friend 164 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: request and accept it, and at that point forward your 165 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:15,880 Speaker 1: friend would be able to view your profile. But before 166 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:18,480 Speaker 1: that they would not. They would just have to try 167 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,240 Speaker 1: and contact you to see if you would become their friend. 168 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 1: The change in the spring of two thousand four was 169 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:29,880 Speaker 1: that the site made all member profiles publicly viewable, and 170 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:32,200 Speaker 1: that would mean that there would be a ton more 171 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:35,360 Speaker 1: traffic going to my Space, which made it one of 172 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,400 Speaker 1: the most popular sites in the web at that time. 173 00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: Another thing that made my Space really popular is that 174 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:47,640 Speaker 1: there was a pretty lax approach to content moderation, So 175 00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:52,720 Speaker 1: things got a little, you know, raunchy on my Space, 176 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:55,920 Speaker 1: more so than you would see in later social networks. 177 00:10:56,360 --> 00:11:00,959 Speaker 1: It wasn't outright like bedlam Or or Solomon god Mora 178 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:05,760 Speaker 1: or anything like that. It wasn't, you know, this crazy 179 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: hedonistic landscape, but things could get a little more racy 180 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:14,800 Speaker 1: on the early MySpace. Now, year after my Space debuted, 181 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:18,960 Speaker 1: we got Facebook, which obviously will play a huge part 182 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:22,360 Speaker 1: in this episode when we get to the second half 183 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: of it. Really and in early two thousand five, when 184 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:29,679 Speaker 1: Facebook had just launched the year before, my Space allegedly 185 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 1: attempted to buy out this competing social network. Keep in mind, 186 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: Facebook in two thousand five was a very different thing 187 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:41,080 Speaker 1: than Facebook today. It was just Facebook, and it was 188 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:45,520 Speaker 1: really restricted to college students and maybe high school students. 189 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:49,840 Speaker 1: By two thousand five, and according to Julia Angwin's book 190 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:53,760 Speaker 1: about the history of my Space, the MySpace reps came 191 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:58,400 Speaker 1: to Zuckerberg, the head of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, that is, 192 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:02,959 Speaker 1: and they offered to acquire Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg quoted 193 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,920 Speaker 1: them a price of seventy million dollars and that my 194 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,600 Speaker 1: Space just said like, no, that's unreal estate, that's way 195 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,440 Speaker 1: too much money. We're good, and they walked away from 196 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:16,600 Speaker 1: the deal. Now, in hindsight, this would be a very 197 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:20,440 Speaker 1: bad decision, like if my Space had bought Facebook, things 198 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: might may have turned out at least somewhat differently, But 199 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:26,640 Speaker 1: at the time they had no way of knowing that, 200 00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:29,160 Speaker 1: so it's not like you can really blame them. They 201 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:34,720 Speaker 1: just saw Facebook as a small time competitor. And besides that, 202 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:40,280 Speaker 1: you could argue that this my Space decision was overshadowed 203 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:43,760 Speaker 1: by a much larger, worse decision that was made later on, 204 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:48,120 Speaker 1: So Facebook was not the only possible acquisition or merger 205 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:53,120 Speaker 1: opportunity early on in my Space's history. Both match net 206 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:57,680 Speaker 1: and Viacom showed early interest in acquiring my Space in 207 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:01,200 Speaker 1: two thousand four, offering somewhere in the neighborhood of forty 208 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:04,640 Speaker 1: million dollars, and my Space turned down those offers. So 209 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,440 Speaker 1: my Space did the same thing, you know that they 210 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:10,079 Speaker 1: were like, we're not going to sell for forty million, 211 00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:12,360 Speaker 1: we feel we're worth more than that. And then, of 212 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:15,640 Speaker 1: course Zuckerberg had a very similar attitude in two thousand five, 213 00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:18,520 Speaker 1: saying he felt Facebook's value with seventy five million, and 214 00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:21,200 Speaker 1: my Space was like, no, I don't. I don't think so. 215 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:25,360 Speaker 1: So my Space and Friendster looked at a potential merger, 216 00:13:25,640 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: but they couldn't come to an agreement on that, so 217 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:33,040 Speaker 1: ultimately that that fell through. But in June two thousand five, 218 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,719 Speaker 1: a buyer with extremely deep pockets came a call in 219 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:40,920 Speaker 1: and made my Space an offer it couldn't refuse. And 220 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:46,079 Speaker 1: that caller was News Corporation or news Corps, the company 221 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:49,880 Speaker 1: that at the time owned the Fox Entertainment Group and 222 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:54,200 Speaker 1: several publishing and media concerns. It was run by Rupert Murdoch, 223 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:56,400 Speaker 1: and the company came to my Space and made an 224 00:13:56,440 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: offer of five hundred eighty million in dollars. When you 225 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:05,360 Speaker 1: get an offer that is more than ten times larger 226 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:10,520 Speaker 1: than offers you got just a year earlier, stuff has 227 00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:15,520 Speaker 1: seriously changed, but it was on the precipice of changing 228 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:21,000 Speaker 1: even more to a disastrous degree, which we will talk 229 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 1: about in just a moment. But first let's take a 230 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:37,000 Speaker 1: quick break Okay, before the break, we had just got 231 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:39,800 Speaker 1: to the point where news Corps acquired my Space for 232 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: five eight million dollars. After the acquisition, a few of 233 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:46,400 Speaker 1: the folks at my Space actually stayed on and they 234 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:49,240 Speaker 1: got huge paychecks. Were doing so so while they didn't 235 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 1: necessarily get an enormous payout because of the lack of 236 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:56,160 Speaker 1: ownership of my Space, I mean, Brad Greenspan made out 237 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,720 Speaker 1: really well, but a lot of the others didn't. Uh 238 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:02,400 Speaker 1: some of them stayed on and they were getting massive 239 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,480 Speaker 1: compensation packages from News Corps. So one of those people 240 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,560 Speaker 1: was Dwolf, who met with Zuckerberg again in two thousand 241 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:13,880 Speaker 1: five and again wanted to make an offer to acquire Facebook. Right. 242 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 1: Remember in two thousand four they had asked and we're 243 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,120 Speaker 1: told sony five million. So what happened in two thousand five, Well, 244 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:22,360 Speaker 1: this time Zuckerberg said, no, the price has gone up 245 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:26,760 Speaker 1: now it's seven hundred fifty million. Obviously that didn't happen, 246 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,840 Speaker 1: So once again, my Space walks away and decides not 247 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:35,080 Speaker 1: to purchase Facebook. Within a short while, my Space became 248 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,800 Speaker 1: the most visited site on the web, beating out Yahoo 249 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:43,160 Speaker 1: and Google. It also landed a nearly one billion dollar 250 00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:47,200 Speaker 1: ad deal with Google, which meant that my spaces website 251 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:51,360 Speaker 1: real estate would be peppered with ads served up through Google. 252 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,680 Speaker 1: On the site, Facebook was gaining momentum, but was still 253 00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:58,440 Speaker 1: seen as being a second you know, also ran like 254 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:02,800 Speaker 1: it's distant second, partly because, as we'll talk about later on, 255 00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:06,200 Speaker 1: the site was initially catering to students but not the 256 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:08,920 Speaker 1: public at large. And by two thousand seven we were 257 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,040 Speaker 1: entering into a new era of social networks, the network 258 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 1: as a platform for developers. Facebook had actually already pioneered this, 259 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:21,440 Speaker 1: and other social networks were trying to play catch up 260 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:24,760 Speaker 1: to create a way for developers to make things that 261 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 1: could run on top of social networks that users could 262 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 1: tap into that would augment their experience in some way. 263 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:35,720 Speaker 1: So this is a really important thing to consider. You know, 264 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:39,440 Speaker 1: initially everything you encountered on social networks came pretty much 265 00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:43,000 Speaker 1: from the network itself, right You generated the content, but 266 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:46,520 Speaker 1: all the tools, all the assets that you could use 267 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:51,240 Speaker 1: to build out your profile, those were provided by whatever 268 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:56,720 Speaker 1: the social network was. But otherwise that you were limited. 269 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:00,520 Speaker 1: As these sites evolved, it became possible for third party 270 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:04,000 Speaker 1: developers to build applications that could use the social network 271 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 1: as a foundation, so you can get stuff like games 272 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:12,000 Speaker 1: or new ways to interact with other users. But in turn, 273 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:14,800 Speaker 1: that was leading to a problem because the landscape was 274 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:17,080 Speaker 1: terribly fractured. You have to keep in mind by this 275 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:21,560 Speaker 1: time they were like a dozen or so social networks 276 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:24,159 Speaker 1: out there. Now there were two really big ones. There 277 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:28,080 Speaker 1: was my Space and Facebook, which was growing rapidly. Those 278 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:32,560 Speaker 1: were very easy to spot, so you would understand that 279 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:36,360 Speaker 1: developers would try to make stuff for those those platforms, 280 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:39,760 Speaker 1: But there were tons of other social networks out there too, 281 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:42,800 Speaker 1: including some that we've talked about in the last episode 282 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:45,720 Speaker 1: like high five and some that we'll talk about in 283 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:50,520 Speaker 1: the next episode. But without a common framework to rely 284 00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:53,679 Speaker 1: upon for developers, it would mean that developers would have 285 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:56,800 Speaker 1: to pick and choose which platforms they would develop four 286 00:17:57,359 --> 00:18:01,320 Speaker 1: Otherwise they would have to build the same app numerous times, 287 00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:04,120 Speaker 1: so that would work on each and every social network. 288 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:09,199 Speaker 1: That's an enormous time sinc and waste of energy and money. 289 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:12,719 Speaker 1: The same sort of thing happens with game development, right Like, 290 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,560 Speaker 1: ideally you develop a game for all platforms so that 291 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:21,320 Speaker 1: you're available everywhere, but that's a huge commitment to do that. 292 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:25,119 Speaker 1: You know, if you want, you could sign an exclusivity 293 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:28,560 Speaker 1: deal and then you developed just for one platform. You've 294 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:32,439 Speaker 1: limited your audience, but you've also restricted the amount of 295 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 1: work you're going to have to do to make it happen. Well, 296 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:39,400 Speaker 1: to sidestep this problem of the fractured landscape, Google spearheaded 297 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,080 Speaker 1: the Open Social Alliance that brought together a bunch of 298 00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:48,480 Speaker 1: different social networks, but not most notably Facebook, and they 299 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:51,920 Speaker 1: were trying to build a set of software development standards 300 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:56,119 Speaker 1: for social networks so that developers could use a common 301 00:18:56,160 --> 00:19:01,480 Speaker 1: set of tools to develop things for multiple networks time. Now, 302 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:03,360 Speaker 1: part of that might have been because at this point 303 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:05,439 Speaker 1: it was becoming obvious that Facebook was going to be 304 00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:09,920 Speaker 1: a big existential threat because it was growing considerably. And 305 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:13,359 Speaker 1: the next year, in two thousand and eight, Facebook overtook 306 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: MySpace in web traffic, and within another year it had 307 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:22,040 Speaker 1: overtook my Space and unique visitors. People began to migrate 308 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: from my Space to Facebook. On top of that, my 309 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,359 Speaker 1: Space was facing a lot of other problems. It wasn't 310 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:32,200 Speaker 1: just that people were jumping shut from my Space to Facebook, 311 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 1: although that was a big part of it. There were 312 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:37,919 Speaker 1: lawsuits against my Space that were stemming from some really 313 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: serious and dark issues. One was that various U. S. 314 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: Attorneys General had discovered numerous registered sex offenders who were 315 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 1: creating profiles on my Space, presumably with an intent to 316 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 1: uh to continue praying upon victims. So my Space also 317 00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 1: became associated with some really really dark stuff like child 318 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:05,480 Speaker 1: predators as well as there was an infamous suicide case 319 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 1: where a thirteen year old user of my Space was 320 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:15,360 Speaker 1: the target of online abuse which was supposedly coming from 321 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:19,080 Speaker 1: a teenage boy, but in fact was coming from a 322 00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:23,119 Speaker 1: grown woman, and she, this thirteen year old took her 323 00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:26,240 Speaker 1: own life. It was a true tragedy. Megan Meyer, I 324 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:30,399 Speaker 1: will never forget that story. It was absolutely heartbreaking, and 325 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:34,239 Speaker 1: that became associated with my Space. It was really an 326 00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:38,240 Speaker 1: early indication of how content moderation and community policies were 327 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:42,040 Speaker 1: going to be critical for social networks moving forward, and 328 00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:45,840 Speaker 1: in fact, to this day we see conversations around content 329 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,199 Speaker 1: moderation and policies being enforced and all of that kind 330 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:53,560 Speaker 1: of stuff coming to the forefront. I mean, it's definitely 331 00:20:53,800 --> 00:20:55,760 Speaker 1: a big part of the conversation of what's going on 332 00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:59,480 Speaker 1: over at Twitter right now. So this is this is 333 00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:03,399 Speaker 1: something that we continue to struggle with today. Now. My 334 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:08,720 Speaker 1: Space also had overextended itself and invested millions of dollars 335 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:13,119 Speaker 1: into features that users weren't necessarily interested in, some of 336 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,359 Speaker 1: which they might not have even been aware of simply 337 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:18,119 Speaker 1: because they were hard to find um or in some 338 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,679 Speaker 1: cases it was just because that's not why they created 339 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:23,320 Speaker 1: a MySpace profile, so you know, there was no reason 340 00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:26,679 Speaker 1: for them to to explore these other features. But a 341 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:32,119 Speaker 1: big one was the MySpace Music feature. MySpace had always 342 00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:34,280 Speaker 1: been kind of connected to music. I mean, one of 343 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:36,679 Speaker 1: the things that my Space was used for from the 344 00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 1: very beginning was to promote bands. So there were bands 345 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:44,439 Speaker 1: out there that had uploaded their own music to my 346 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:47,679 Speaker 1: Space so that people could discover them. Heck, one of 347 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:50,679 Speaker 1: the bands that I followed quite a bit in the 348 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:54,400 Speaker 1: early early to mid two thousand's uh, the Velvet Chain. 349 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:59,800 Speaker 1: They had their own uh MySpace page that promoted their music, 350 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,760 Speaker 1: and I had seen them play live a few times, 351 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:06,680 Speaker 1: and so I was an avid follower of their their 352 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:08,879 Speaker 1: profile page because I got to learn about new music 353 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,360 Speaker 1: and new tours they were doing and that kind of thing. 354 00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:15,880 Speaker 1: So you could incorporate music into your profile pretty early 355 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:20,160 Speaker 1: on with my Space, but this music feature, which included 356 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,359 Speaker 1: agreements with three of the big four music labels Sony, 357 00:22:23,359 --> 00:22:26,960 Speaker 1: b MG, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group, would 358 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:33,119 Speaker 1: let users MySpace users download music from these different you know, 359 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:36,920 Speaker 1: publishers directly through my Space, Like you could make your 360 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:39,560 Speaker 1: purchases and all that through my Space, you didn't have 361 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:45,760 Speaker 1: to go to some other um online marketplace. But one, 362 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:49,639 Speaker 1: it was arguable that users weren't terribly interested in doing 363 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:51,879 Speaker 1: this through my Space anyway. And two it was not 364 00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:55,040 Speaker 1: easy to even find the darn thing. And three they 365 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:59,320 Speaker 1: had some technical issues pretty early on that marred the feature. 366 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,440 Speaker 1: Then there was a massive change of the guard at 367 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:09,400 Speaker 1: my Space. Uh, the CEO and president were essentially removed, 368 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:12,520 Speaker 1: so that was like de Wolf and Tom Anderson and 369 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:16,239 Speaker 1: a former Facebook executive was brought in to kind of 370 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:20,800 Speaker 1: fixed things. Uh. That executive would then go about laying 371 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,800 Speaker 1: off around thirty of all my Space employees. So that 372 00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:29,159 Speaker 1: was tough. And around this same time, Google's nine million 373 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:34,399 Speaker 1: dollar ad deal expired, so you also had my Space 374 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: falling behind Facebook, and it had just lost its major 375 00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:42,679 Speaker 1: source of revenue because this ad deal has expired, and 376 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:45,520 Speaker 1: and it also launched lost a healthy chunk of its workforce. 377 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:48,480 Speaker 1: A lot of bad things were hitting by Space all 378 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:53,679 Speaker 1: at the same time, and you also had stories about 379 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:57,720 Speaker 1: a really bad company culture. And and in the wake 380 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,280 Speaker 1: of things like uby Soft and a division Blizzard, where 381 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,520 Speaker 1: we've heard about truly toxic environments, it doesn't sound to 382 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:09,120 Speaker 1: me like my Space was that kind of bad work culture. 383 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:11,880 Speaker 1: I mean, maybe that was going on too, but what 384 00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:16,400 Speaker 1: was being reported was that under the ownership of News Corps, 385 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:21,480 Speaker 1: my spaces corporate culture got very much bogged down with bureaucracy, 386 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,480 Speaker 1: and so it was very hard to innovate and it 387 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,520 Speaker 1: was hard to move quickly, and so everything in my 388 00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,360 Speaker 1: Space was bogged down, and there were departments that were 389 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:34,840 Speaker 1: working at cross purposes with each other, and it was 390 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:38,560 Speaker 1: just a very frustrating experience trying to get stuff done. 391 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:43,160 Speaker 1: From what I understand, maybe there were the toxicity problems too, 392 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:46,080 Speaker 1: but that was not really heavily reported on. This was 393 00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:51,280 Speaker 1: also before the Me Too movement, so that's part of it. Uh. Anyway, 394 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: things over the next couple of years got worse and worse, 395 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,920 Speaker 1: and by two thousand and eleven it was really grim. 396 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 1: My space was a shadow of what it had once been. 397 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:06,000 Speaker 1: So News Corps made the decision to cut ties. It's 398 00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:10,280 Speaker 1: sold off my Space for thirty five million dollars. Now, 399 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:14,280 Speaker 1: remember this is the same company that News Corps had 400 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:18,040 Speaker 1: bought for five hundred eighty million dollars just a few 401 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,600 Speaker 1: years earlier, and that is probably the biggest worst decision 402 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,879 Speaker 1: in my Space's history. You can actually make an argument 403 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,120 Speaker 1: for several other bad decisions that led to the company's downfall, 404 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:33,480 Speaker 1: but you frequently will hear about news corps purchase of 405 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,879 Speaker 1: MySpace being one of the worst acquisitions in the text 406 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,439 Speaker 1: space of all time. It's it's right up there with 407 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:44,120 Speaker 1: things like the A. O. L. Time Warner merger. Actually, 408 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,360 Speaker 1: pretty much everything that has to do with Warner at 409 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:50,760 Speaker 1: this point has a lot of people saying, yeah, Warner 410 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:55,320 Speaker 1: just kind of had a lot of of bad deals 411 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:59,040 Speaker 1: to bad deals situations going on, But yeah, my Space 412 00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,480 Speaker 1: and news Corps that always ends up being at the 413 00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:07,440 Speaker 1: top of these conversations. Now, my Space sort of disappeared 414 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:10,520 Speaker 1: after that for a couple of years, like it was 415 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:15,480 Speaker 1: essentially gone after the sale from news Corps, and it 416 00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:18,639 Speaker 1: re emerged in two thousand thirteen. Justin timber Lake was 417 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,520 Speaker 1: a big part of the rebranding of my Space, and 418 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:26,000 Speaker 1: it was coming out more as a music discovery site. 419 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 1: It was less about being a social network. I guess 420 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:32,000 Speaker 1: the view was at that point that Facebook had pretty 421 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,800 Speaker 1: much sewned that up and it didn't make sense to 422 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:38,639 Speaker 1: try and bring that back to my Space. Instead, it 423 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,879 Speaker 1: was more about people who loved music being able to 424 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:46,440 Speaker 1: find new music that they would come to love. And 425 00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:51,040 Speaker 1: this version of my Space more or less still exists today. 426 00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 1: Um it's it has changed looks a few times since 427 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:59,040 Speaker 1: two thousand thirteen. It also looks to me like my 428 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:01,879 Speaker 1: Space doesn't get frequent updates because like one of the 429 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 1: articles I saw featured on the front page of MySpace 430 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,520 Speaker 1: dot com looks like it was more than a year old. 431 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:13,800 Speaker 1: So if one of the news articles on your homepage, 432 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:16,920 Speaker 1: like your landing page for your site, is more than 433 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:20,320 Speaker 1: a year old, uh, that's a bad indication of how 434 00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:25,359 Speaker 1: things are going at your website if it is positioned 435 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:29,480 Speaker 1: as news. Right. Also, there was like a massive issue 436 00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:31,800 Speaker 1: there was a server migration a couple of years back 437 00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:37,320 Speaker 1: where apparently everything that had been hosted on my Space 438 00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:42,560 Speaker 1: before two fift was lost, So all those user profiles, 439 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:47,200 Speaker 1: all those photos, all those messages, everything it's all gone. 440 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,520 Speaker 1: So that's an entire chunk of web history, of personal 441 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:57,160 Speaker 1: history for all the MySpace users that is no longer accessible. Uh. Anyway, 442 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,240 Speaker 1: that's the super short summary of my Space. I could 443 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:05,239 Speaker 1: clearly do multiple episodes really detailing the rise, fall, and 444 00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:09,040 Speaker 1: rebirth of my Space. There's a lot more that went 445 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: into it. Uh. And I did spend more time on 446 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,840 Speaker 1: my Space than some of the ones that I talked 447 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,840 Speaker 1: about in episode one, because it played such an important 448 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:21,440 Speaker 1: part in establishing social networks as not just a thing, 449 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,199 Speaker 1: but one of the most popular and recognizable applications you 450 00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: can find on the web. So we're done with my Space, 451 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:36,520 Speaker 1: I'm gonna backtrack to my old timeline. See what's next? Uh? Right, Yeah, 452 00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: next is Facebook. You know, there have been entire documentaries 453 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:46,520 Speaker 1: and biopics about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, and goodness knows, 454 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:51,120 Speaker 1: I've done a ton of episodes either specifically about Facebook 455 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:55,800 Speaker 1: and later Meta, or episodes that were at least tangential 456 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,680 Speaker 1: too Facebook and Meta and mentioned them heavily. I mean, 457 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,560 Speaker 1: half the news episodes of this year ended up being 458 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:07,920 Speaker 1: about at least partially Meta or Facebook. But I'm gonna 459 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:11,200 Speaker 1: do it down in dirty summary of the company's history. 460 00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,719 Speaker 1: It will be the cliffs notes of cliffs notes versions 461 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:17,360 Speaker 1: of that history, because it's going to take up the 462 00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,800 Speaker 1: rest of our episode. And you know, our third episode 463 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 1: will be picking up with companies like or Cut and Flicker, 464 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:27,360 Speaker 1: you know, the ones you really care about. So when 465 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:32,880 Speaker 1: we come back from the break, we'll start our almost 466 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,560 Speaker 1: childishly simple summary of Facebook, which will take up the 467 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 1: rest of this episode. But first, before I dive into that, 468 00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:54,200 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. All right, As many of 469 00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:59,080 Speaker 1: you undoubtedly know already, Facebook actually grew out of an 470 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:04,400 Speaker 1: earlier app called face Mash, and this was the brainchild 471 00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:11,200 Speaker 1: of Mark Zuckerberg, the Internet's punching bag, one of them. Anyway, 472 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: for you know, justifiable reasons. I don't feel a whole 473 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: lot of sympathy for Mark Zuckerberg, if I'm being honest. 474 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,920 Speaker 1: But anyway, he was attending Harvard University at the time, 475 00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:25,479 Speaker 1: and he was developing web stuff, web based stuff, and 476 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:29,200 Speaker 1: he thought what the campus really needed was a website 477 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 1: where students could rate the attractiveness of other students. So 478 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,480 Speaker 1: essentially he created a tool design to identify all the 479 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,640 Speaker 1: hot girls at Harvard. Just figure it's really good for 480 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,280 Speaker 1: us to start off with that understanding, because it really 481 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:47,600 Speaker 1: informs a lot of what will follow. Like Facebook, It's 482 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:51,720 Speaker 1: empire is huge today, enormous. But if you sit there 483 00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:54,360 Speaker 1: and you think, and and I realized this is reductive. 484 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:56,440 Speaker 1: But if you sit there and think all of this 485 00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:02,120 Speaker 1: grew out of an app that I h raunchy college 486 00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:05,160 Speaker 1: student made in order to be able to rank how 487 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,080 Speaker 1: hot girls were at his school, things make a lot 488 00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:12,920 Speaker 1: of sense. And again, I I understand it's reductive, but 489 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:17,120 Speaker 1: I'm not apologizing for it. Anyway. Facemash lasted all of 490 00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:21,000 Speaker 1: two whole days before Harvard shut it down. Now, from 491 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,120 Speaker 1: what I understand, the reason Harvard shut it down did 492 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 1: not really have to do with the facilitating of the 493 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:32,840 Speaker 1: objectification of Harvard students. That really wasn't the big reason. Instead, 494 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,440 Speaker 1: it was because Zuckerberg was using college resources without permission 495 00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,600 Speaker 1: to do it. So, yeah, we have to understand where 496 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,719 Speaker 1: our priorities lie. And I am I am salty about this, 497 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:47,360 Speaker 1: unapologetically salty, because I am so tired of people being 498 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:54,600 Speaker 1: valued less than things, right than assets, or being equated 499 00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,960 Speaker 1: to assets. I'm just tired of it. People are people. Hey, y'all, 500 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:02,120 Speaker 1: I love you. You are valuable, valuable people, all on 501 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:06,200 Speaker 1: your own right. And you should always value yourself more 502 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:10,760 Speaker 1: than things, and each other value each other more than things. Okay, 503 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 1: enough of that anyway, Zuckerberg, what he had done was 504 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,600 Speaker 1: he essentially had hacked into the student I D database 505 00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:23,560 Speaker 1: to pull photos for Harvard students to populate face mash, 506 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:25,960 Speaker 1: and that was against Harvard's policies. That's why I got 507 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,760 Speaker 1: shut down. Now let's get back to business. I'll I'll 508 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:32,320 Speaker 1: get out of my touchy feely persona for a bit. 509 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:38,479 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg's initial idea gets shut down, and it received a 510 00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:41,040 Speaker 1: fairly strong response in the brief amount of time it 511 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:45,120 Speaker 1: was online. So while it was you know, closed off, 512 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:48,680 Speaker 1: it really sent the message to Zuckerberg that hey, I'm 513 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,120 Speaker 1: onto something here, something that could be really popular. I 514 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,480 Speaker 1: just need to retool it and not use school based 515 00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:59,920 Speaker 1: assets to do this, and we could be in business. 516 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:02,120 Speaker 1: So he goes on to register a u r L 517 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:06,080 Speaker 1: called the Facebook dot Com in early two thousand four. 518 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,000 Speaker 1: He teams up with some fellow Harvard College students, among 519 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:15,560 Speaker 1: them Dustin Makowitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Savern and they 520 00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:19,720 Speaker 1: create a new social network with Zuckerberg being the primary developer. 521 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:22,800 Speaker 1: Not first, the idea was to create a sort of 522 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:28,720 Speaker 1: digital yearbook for Harvard students. When the Facebook as it 523 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:32,560 Speaker 1: was originally known, launched in February two thousand four, Harvard 524 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:35,800 Speaker 1: students could upload a photo of themselves and they could 525 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,920 Speaker 1: fill out some basic information about themselves, including things like 526 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,840 Speaker 1: their class load and schedule and that kind of stuff. 527 00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:45,760 Speaker 1: They could also browse through other student profiles, so it 528 00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:49,680 Speaker 1: was a way of reinforcing existing connections and building new ones, 529 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:54,160 Speaker 1: and it naturally migrated to a social web approach that 530 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,200 Speaker 1: we talked about in the previous episode, though it would 531 00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:59,080 Speaker 1: take a little time for that to happen because it 532 00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:03,240 Speaker 1: was a very basic service when it first launched. Now, 533 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:08,000 Speaker 1: eventually the team expanded the Facebook to allow students at 534 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:12,239 Speaker 1: Yale and Stanford to create their own profiles, but it 535 00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:15,720 Speaker 1: was still limited to just those schools. By the summer 536 00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:18,600 Speaker 1: of two thousand four, the Facebook had folks from more 537 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:23,680 Speaker 1: than thirty different universities and colleges. As part of the Facebook, 538 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,840 Speaker 1: you still needed a dot e d U email address 539 00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:30,640 Speaker 1: to join that would indicate that you were a student 540 00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:35,839 Speaker 1: or faculty member of a college reuniversity. Now, interestingly, it 541 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:39,160 Speaker 1: wasn't until the fall of two thousand four that the 542 00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:43,839 Speaker 1: Facebook added what was called the Wall. This was a 543 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:48,880 Speaker 1: part of the Facebook experience that would let friends post 544 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:53,239 Speaker 1: to other profiles. So the wall was kind of like 545 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:55,560 Speaker 1: a bulletin board where you could leave messages for other 546 00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:59,799 Speaker 1: users on their profile. And now the Facebook was more 547 00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:04,359 Speaker 1: than just a useful directory. It became a conduit for 548 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:08,200 Speaker 1: communication between friends. This was a key element to the 549 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:12,160 Speaker 1: site's early success, right, Like, it was more than just oh, hey, 550 00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:14,920 Speaker 1: I found my friend's profile and here's the classes that 551 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,120 Speaker 1: they're going to. Now is a way of saying, oh, 552 00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:20,239 Speaker 1: I can go to my friend's profile and leave a 553 00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:22,560 Speaker 1: message like Hey, don't forget we're gonna go out for 554 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,879 Speaker 1: pizza tomorrow night, or whatever it might be. In two 555 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:30,239 Speaker 1: thousand five, the Facebook dropped the the from its name 556 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:34,440 Speaker 1: and became just Facebook. It also allowed folks to tag 557 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:37,759 Speaker 1: photos so that a picture could be associated with a 558 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:42,320 Speaker 1: specific person, and now Facebook friends could see more photos 559 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:46,440 Speaker 1: of themselves and of their own friends across the platform. Right, so, 560 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:51,600 Speaker 1: maybe you are not friends with Bob, but Bob happens 561 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,120 Speaker 1: to be a friend with Alice, and Alice is a 562 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:57,080 Speaker 1: good friend of yours. And Bob posts a photo of 563 00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,279 Speaker 1: Alice and tags Alice in the photo, and now you 564 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:02,720 Speaker 1: can see that photo because even though you're not friends 565 00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:05,160 Speaker 1: with Bob, you are friends with Alice, and so you 566 00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:08,000 Speaker 1: can see this photo that's been posted, and maybe that 567 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,279 Speaker 1: means you meet Bob, and you and Bob hit it 568 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:13,439 Speaker 1: off and you become friends. So this was really where 569 00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:17,360 Speaker 1: that social web thing was starting to seriously take hold, 570 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,319 Speaker 1: and people were starting to discover new friendships as well 571 00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 1: as reinforce existing ones. So again one of the key 572 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,640 Speaker 1: elements of social networks. It all sounds very basic and 573 00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:31,799 Speaker 1: simple now because we've lived with it for more than 574 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 1: a decade, right, really like two decades almost, but at 575 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:40,279 Speaker 1: the time this was one of those really big moments 576 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:44,759 Speaker 1: that would set a foundational feature in social networks. Now. 577 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,840 Speaker 1: Two thousand five would also see high school students joining 578 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:52,040 Speaker 1: the site, and the following year Facebook lifted the student requirements, 579 00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:54,480 Speaker 1: so in two thousand and six it opened up the 580 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:57,680 Speaker 1: site to the public at large. And I'm pretty sure 581 00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:01,279 Speaker 1: I held off on making my own Facebook account for 582 00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:04,120 Speaker 1: at least another year because I was not one of 583 00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:07,080 Speaker 1: the cool kids. Actually, I wasn't a kid at all, 584 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,839 Speaker 1: because I graduated college in nine, so I was not 585 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:17,400 Speaker 1: eligible for Facebook membership because Facebook was restricted to college 586 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:19,480 Speaker 1: students and I hadn't been a student for years by 587 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:23,040 Speaker 1: the time Facebook became a thing, So when it finally 588 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,480 Speaker 1: did open up to the public, I did not join 589 00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,000 Speaker 1: as soon as I was allowed to. I was a 590 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,240 Speaker 1: relative latecomer. I probably joined in like two thousand seven, baby, 591 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,319 Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, Probably two thousand seven. It's hard 592 00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,719 Speaker 1: to say because I'm not on Facebook anymore, so I 593 00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:40,399 Speaker 1: can't really look back at my own history. But two 594 00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,360 Speaker 1: thousand seven was also when Facebook would hit one of 595 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:46,600 Speaker 1: its early stumbling blocks, and one that would set a 596 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,799 Speaker 1: tone that would stick with the company for years to come. 597 00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:56,040 Speaker 1: The site launched a feature called Beacon not Bacon, which 598 00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:58,359 Speaker 1: also was a huge trend on the web at the time. 599 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:04,799 Speaker 1: No Beacon, and companies like retail companies, for example, could 600 00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:10,279 Speaker 1: participate in this Beacon program and incorporate it into their 601 00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:14,080 Speaker 1: online market places. And what this essentially was doing was 602 00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:19,399 Speaker 1: tracking and publishing user purchases on other sites. So let's 603 00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,239 Speaker 1: say you decided you wanted to buy a brand new 604 00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:26,520 Speaker 1: pair of sneakers, and this particular sneaker company participates in 605 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,920 Speaker 1: the Beacon program, and so you make a purchase on 606 00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:34,040 Speaker 1: this company's website. Uh, you're doing it through the fact 607 00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:37,520 Speaker 1: that you're also logged into Facebook, and now that purchase 608 00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:40,960 Speaker 1: can be published to your Facebook profile, which lets everyone 609 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:44,280 Speaker 1: know you've got a brand new pair of kicks. Well, 610 00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:46,799 Speaker 1: a lot of folks pretty quickly pointed out that this 611 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:51,320 Speaker 1: service could really intrude upon a person's privacy. Like, maybe 612 00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:54,840 Speaker 1: what you're doing is buying a present for someone else, 613 00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:59,480 Speaker 1: but because of Beacon, you accidentally broadcast this purchase to 614 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,800 Speaker 1: every and who visits your profile, perhaps you know, ruining 615 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:06,920 Speaker 1: the surprise. Or maybe you're buying something that frankly is 616 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,920 Speaker 1: just no one's business but your own. But whoopsie Daisy, 617 00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:12,799 Speaker 1: now it's on your Facebook profile and everyone can see it. 618 00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:18,520 Speaker 1: The negative reaction prompted Facebook too pretty quickly kill Beacon, 619 00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:22,640 Speaker 1: but users were now wary that Facebook wasn't going to 620 00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:27,080 Speaker 1: be super duper vigilant when it comes to protecting user privacy. 621 00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:31,399 Speaker 1: In fact, this would become undeniable in two thousand and ten. 622 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:35,360 Speaker 1: That's when Mark Zuckerberg would famously declared an interview that 623 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:41,080 Speaker 1: privacy was dead and sure he would definitely want privacy 624 00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:44,520 Speaker 1: to be dead because the more information that is shared 625 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,640 Speaker 1: with Facebook, the more effectively Facebook can monetize that information 626 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:55,000 Speaker 1: by developing a targeted advertising strategy. So, just in case 627 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:59,680 Speaker 1: you're not familiar with targeted advertising, and it's hard for 628 00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:02,000 Speaker 1: me to imagine that these days, but it could happen, right, 629 00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:05,960 Speaker 1: Maybe you've just never encountered that phrase. Targeted advertising is 630 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,640 Speaker 1: what it says it is. It involves matching advertisers or 631 00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:13,880 Speaker 1: ads with people who are most likely to respond to 632 00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:17,520 Speaker 1: those ads. And it could be as something as simple 633 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:20,520 Speaker 1: as as noting that a person has listed fishing under 634 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:24,040 Speaker 1: their interests. Right, So back in the day, when you 635 00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,640 Speaker 1: create a Facebook profile, you would include things that you 636 00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:30,399 Speaker 1: were interested in, activities and subjects you're interested in. Let's 637 00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:32,520 Speaker 1: say you put fishing in there, Well, that would tell 638 00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,520 Speaker 1: Facebook run away, Oh, this person likes fishing. You know. 639 00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:40,279 Speaker 1: We can partner with advertisers that are advertising stuff like 640 00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: I don't know, fishing gear or phishing vacations, that kind 641 00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,520 Speaker 1: of stuff and serve that to this person who is 642 00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:50,240 Speaker 1: more likely to respond to those ads because they've already 643 00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:53,600 Speaker 1: indicated this is something that they are interested in. And 644 00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:58,000 Speaker 1: so we are matching ads to users which sees a 645 00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:01,080 Speaker 1: benefit across the board, at least in theory right, The 646 00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:05,160 Speaker 1: advertiser sees a benefit because people who are already disposed 647 00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:08,080 Speaker 1: to being interested in their product or service are going 648 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,920 Speaker 1: to see the ad, and then the users are more 649 00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:14,360 Speaker 1: likely to see stuff that they will respond well to 650 00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:18,200 Speaker 1: and actually act on that otherwise maybe they wouldn't see. 651 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:21,440 Speaker 1: So the idea is that everyone benefits. The problem is 652 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:26,480 Speaker 1: really the biggest benefit or is Facebook, and they the 653 00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:31,520 Speaker 1: company becomes extremely interested in profiting off of personal information 654 00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:37,640 Speaker 1: as much as it possibly can, So Facebook could see 655 00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:41,960 Speaker 1: lots more data to match users with ads, more than 656 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:45,600 Speaker 1: just what your interests are that are listed on your profile, 657 00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:49,480 Speaker 1: and Facebook, as a result, would be able to demand 658 00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:53,759 Speaker 1: higher rates to serve ads to users. They could They 659 00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:58,359 Speaker 1: could say, you know, our advertising service is far more 660 00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:01,480 Speaker 1: valuable than our competitors cause we have access to so 661 00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:06,960 Speaker 1: much information. The company wasn't satisfied with just knowing what 662 00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,120 Speaker 1: users were up to while they were on Facebook. They 663 00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:14,440 Speaker 1: invented a tool called Pixel, and Pixel is something that 664 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:18,719 Speaker 1: other websites can install on the back end on their 665 00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:23,160 Speaker 1: website that helps them track user behavior. So they get 666 00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:26,839 Speaker 1: benefit from using Pixel, but some of that data also 667 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:30,040 Speaker 1: gets sent back to Facebook itself, which in turn can 668 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:33,800 Speaker 1: profit off that information. So now Facebook is able to 669 00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:37,080 Speaker 1: gather data not just on what people are doing on Facebook, 670 00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:41,360 Speaker 1: the social network, but across the entire web. Any website 671 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:45,759 Speaker 1: that has a pixel installed on it is sending at 672 00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:48,600 Speaker 1: least some information back to Facebook, and in some cases 673 00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:52,000 Speaker 1: it could be a lot of information. Later on, they 674 00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:55,040 Speaker 1: would find out what people were doing on various apps 675 00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:59,799 Speaker 1: on smartphones. It would track smartphone use and so there 676 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:03,919 Speaker 1: were are similar tracking systems used so that Facebook would 677 00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:06,800 Speaker 1: know what apps are you most frequently using, how long 678 00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:10,080 Speaker 1: are you on each app per day, what are you 679 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:12,640 Speaker 1: doing when you go on your apps on your phone. 680 00:43:13,239 --> 00:43:16,000 Speaker 1: This was something that Apple would address a couple of 681 00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:19,560 Speaker 1: years ago now where they gave users the ability to 682 00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:24,080 Speaker 1: prevent companies like Facebook from seeing this kind of activity, 683 00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:30,160 Speaker 1: which was a massive blow to Facebook's revenue strategy, something 684 00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:34,759 Speaker 1: that Facebook has really objected to, which is understandable because again, 685 00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:38,439 Speaker 1: the company was so heavily dependent upon targeted advertising still 686 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:43,960 Speaker 1: is so heavily depend on targeted advertising that anything that 687 00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:47,359 Speaker 1: that restricts targeted advertising even a little bit is a 688 00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:51,960 Speaker 1: blow to the company's revenue. So Apple's move was a 689 00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:56,760 Speaker 1: huge strike against meta slash Facebook. Uh. Also, we should 690 00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:01,320 Speaker 1: add that Apple itself doesn't seem to have to follow 691 00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:04,080 Speaker 1: the same rules that you know, third parties have to 692 00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:08,480 Speaker 1: follow on iOS devices. So some would argue that Apple 693 00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:11,719 Speaker 1: is giving itself a huge unfair advantage at least as 694 00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:16,319 Speaker 1: far as activity on mobile devices. That's a conversation that's 695 00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:20,640 Speaker 1: still playing out in the tech space. But anyway, this 696 00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:24,400 Speaker 1: really points to how Zuckerberg wants privacy to be dead, 697 00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:29,960 Speaker 1: because private information is what Facebook really profits off of. 698 00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:33,800 Speaker 1: Um personal information. I should say, not just private because 699 00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,760 Speaker 1: like if we say private, it suggests that we don't 700 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:40,400 Speaker 1: share it with Facebook. That's not what Facebook wants. It 701 00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:44,160 Speaker 1: wants access to all the data it can get. So, 702 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:47,759 Speaker 1: as we mentioned earlier, Facebook overtook my Space as the 703 00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:50,960 Speaker 1: number one social network in two thousand eight. It was 704 00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:53,560 Speaker 1: already ahead of the game and giving developers a chance 705 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:57,000 Speaker 1: to build applications on top of Facebook because it introduced 706 00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:00,799 Speaker 1: its Application Programming Interface or ap I back in two 707 00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:04,440 Speaker 1: thousand and six, so it got ahead of the Open 708 00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:07,240 Speaker 1: Social Alliance. In fact, you could argue that the Open 709 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,840 Speaker 1: Social Alliance was formed largely because Facebook was making these moves, 710 00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:15,040 Speaker 1: so games began to proliferate on Facebook, as did goofy 711 00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:19,320 Speaker 1: features like the old poke feature. You might not remember 712 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:21,160 Speaker 1: this if you haven't been on Facebook in a while, 713 00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:23,960 Speaker 1: or maybe you've never been on Facebook, but back in 714 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:28,440 Speaker 1: the day when they first introduced apps on Facebook, they 715 00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,840 Speaker 1: introduced the poke And this was a very simple feature 716 00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:35,799 Speaker 1: where you could choose one of your friends and you 717 00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,359 Speaker 1: could send a poke to them and they would get 718 00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:41,799 Speaker 1: a little notification that said so and so poked you, 719 00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:44,759 Speaker 1: and then they could poke you back. And this could 720 00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:46,719 Speaker 1: go back and forth. Right, You could send a poke, 721 00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:48,600 Speaker 1: they could send it back. You can send it back 722 00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,080 Speaker 1: to them, they could send it back. And it was 723 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:54,359 Speaker 1: really just a little message letting you know someone had 724 00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,000 Speaker 1: poked you, or that you know they knew that you 725 00:45:57,040 --> 00:45:58,919 Speaker 1: had poked them. And that was it. That was all 726 00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:01,040 Speaker 1: there was to this little app. There was nothing more 727 00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:05,040 Speaker 1: to it. But of course we saw an emergent behavior 728 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:07,959 Speaker 1: arise where the poke feature was used as a kind 729 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,279 Speaker 1: of flirtatious message, or, if you want to be a 730 00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:14,040 Speaker 1: little more crude and cynical, an attempt to see if 731 00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:17,600 Speaker 1: someone wants to hook up. I mean, considering that Facebook's 732 00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:19,960 Speaker 1: origins date back to a site that lets students rate 733 00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:23,680 Speaker 1: how hot other students were. It's not really a huge 734 00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:28,000 Speaker 1: surprise that that that this would emerge as a way 735 00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:32,600 Speaker 1: to flirt or or feel out someone to see if 736 00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:36,799 Speaker 1: they would be receptive to perhaps a booty call. And yes, 737 00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:40,000 Speaker 1: I know how ridiculous it sounds for me to say 738 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:44,280 Speaker 1: those words, but yeah, Anyway, a lot of other apps 739 00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:47,440 Speaker 1: would follow, and in the early days, Facebook wasn't too 740 00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:50,800 Speaker 1: terribly careful about the sorts of stuff these apps could 741 00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:56,839 Speaker 1: tap into. Like could these apps actually mine Facebook for information? 742 00:46:57,080 --> 00:47:00,440 Speaker 1: The answer is initially yeah. There were not a lot 743 00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:03,440 Speaker 1: of protections in place to prevent an app from tapping 744 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:05,680 Speaker 1: into tons of information. This would lead to one of 745 00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:09,839 Speaker 1: the biggest scandals in the company's history that had its 746 00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:12,640 Speaker 1: origins back in two thousand thirteen, when a data scientist 747 00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:17,640 Speaker 1: named Alexander Cogan launched an app called This is Your 748 00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:23,120 Speaker 1: Digital Life. Okay, I'll explain why that was such a 749 00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:26,480 Speaker 1: big deal and how that developed into a huge scandal, 750 00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:31,080 Speaker 1: and then we'll conclude are our story about Facebook as 751 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:33,640 Speaker 1: we look into a bit more of its history. But 752 00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:47,520 Speaker 1: first let's take one last break. Okay, So, Alexander Cogan 753 00:47:47,600 --> 00:47:50,319 Speaker 1: launches an app called This is Your Digital Life in 754 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:54,160 Speaker 1: two thousand thirteen, and this app consisted of surveys that 755 00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:59,000 Speaker 1: were designed to build out psychological profiles of users, and 756 00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:02,120 Speaker 1: it was pitched as an app that was meant really 757 00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:05,920 Speaker 1: for academic use, that these psychological profiles were going to 758 00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:08,560 Speaker 1: be used for some academic purpose like maybe a research 759 00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:12,759 Speaker 1: paper or something. And further, people who agreed to use 760 00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:15,800 Speaker 1: the app would get compensated for participating in this study, 761 00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:20,319 Speaker 1: so there was an incentive to actually use it. You know, 762 00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:23,080 Speaker 1: if you pitch it as just find out what your 763 00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:25,680 Speaker 1: personality type is, I think it would have already done 764 00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:28,960 Speaker 1: really well, because those sort of things just really did 765 00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:32,000 Speaker 1: well on social media, you know, particularly if you could 766 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:34,279 Speaker 1: phrase it as what kind of Star Wars character are you? 767 00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:36,960 Speaker 1: Or something like that. Right, It's just it's ridiculous how 768 00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:39,200 Speaker 1: well those take off. But in this case, it was 769 00:48:39,239 --> 00:48:43,839 Speaker 1: about building an actual psychological profile. And the downside here 770 00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:48,480 Speaker 1: or or the dark side. Something that wasn't really communicated 771 00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:52,120 Speaker 1: was that this app would also allow Cogan to access 772 00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:56,279 Speaker 1: not just the people who consented to be part of 773 00:48:56,320 --> 00:49:01,640 Speaker 1: this process, but also to those people's friends. So in 774 00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:04,759 Speaker 1: other words, let's say that you were on Facebook back 775 00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:07,759 Speaker 1: in two thousand thirteen, and you have no interest in 776 00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:11,480 Speaker 1: using the app, right, so you are not part of 777 00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:15,640 Speaker 1: the this is your digital life, you know, experiment or 778 00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:18,600 Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. However, one of your 779 00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:22,320 Speaker 1: friends on Facebook, someone that you are friends with on Facebook, 780 00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:26,040 Speaker 1: has agreed to participate, so they download the app and 781 00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:29,719 Speaker 1: they fill out their survey. Well, their participation would mean 782 00:49:29,719 --> 00:49:32,920 Speaker 1: that Cogan would have access to your information as if 783 00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:37,000 Speaker 1: Cogan had been that Facebook friend of yours. So let's 784 00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:39,640 Speaker 1: let's say that we'll use the word named Bob again. 785 00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:44,239 Speaker 1: Your friend Bob takes this survey. Now Cogan can view 786 00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:48,920 Speaker 1: your profile as if Cogan were Bob, and Cogan can 787 00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,000 Speaker 1: do the same with all of Bob's other friends. So 788 00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:55,880 Speaker 1: even though you didn't consent to using that app and 789 00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:59,000 Speaker 1: you don't know Cogan, Cogan can see all your information 790 00:49:59,120 --> 00:50:02,240 Speaker 1: just as if they were your buddy Bob, because Bob 791 00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:05,960 Speaker 1: took the bait and use this app. This was an 792 00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:10,360 Speaker 1: enormous breach in privacy, and it was due to the 793 00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:14,600 Speaker 1: fact that Facebook was not good about setting in protections 794 00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:18,319 Speaker 1: to limit developers to the kinds of information they could 795 00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:22,080 Speaker 1: access when they built an app on Facebook, and it 796 00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:25,960 Speaker 1: gets worse. See now, none of this would really be 797 00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:29,440 Speaker 1: a thing, like people probably wouldn't have even known about it. 798 00:50:29,920 --> 00:50:36,120 Speaker 1: But years later, a political consulting company called Cambridge Analytica 799 00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:39,360 Speaker 1: was found to have bought the data collected by the 800 00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:44,080 Speaker 1: This is Your Digital Life app back in and they 801 00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:47,200 Speaker 1: use that data in an effort to support various political 802 00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:50,200 Speaker 1: campaigns in the UK and in the United States, and 803 00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:57,840 Speaker 1: primarily they were conservative candidate campaigns. Now, Cambridge Analytica attempted 804 00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:03,440 Speaker 1: some pretty underhanded and scummy things like ways to try 805 00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:09,440 Speaker 1: and discourage certain people from even participating in the voting process. 806 00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:14,239 Speaker 1: So they tried this, They tried to affect voter behaviors. 807 00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:19,280 Speaker 1: The company was not terribly good at doing that. It tried, 808 00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:24,279 Speaker 1: but from most reports it sounds like it's aspirations were 809 00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:28,279 Speaker 1: greater than its actual capabilities. But still, there was this 810 00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:32,719 Speaker 1: huge scandal that broke out when the the Cambridge Analytica 811 00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:37,160 Speaker 1: story hit the news, and it was really more about 812 00:51:37,160 --> 00:51:39,400 Speaker 1: what the company was trying to do in an effort 813 00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:42,359 Speaker 1: to manipulate voters rather than what it was actually doing, 814 00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:46,360 Speaker 1: which was, you know, not having a whole lot of 815 00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:49,839 Speaker 1: success and manipulating voters But at the heart of all 816 00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:53,000 Speaker 1: of this was the fact that Facebook had facilitated the 817 00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:57,480 Speaker 1: whole thing through its insufficient user protections in its a 818 00:51:57,600 --> 00:52:01,400 Speaker 1: p I. Now, to be somewhat fair to Facebook, the 819 00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:05,240 Speaker 1: company had changed its a p I in the meantime, 820 00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:09,200 Speaker 1: Like in between when the app was released and when 821 00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:12,560 Speaker 1: all the Cambridge Analytica news came out, Facebook had already 822 00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:15,719 Speaker 1: made these changes to try and limit how developers could 823 00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:19,680 Speaker 1: access user information on Facebook. The idea being that an 824 00:52:19,680 --> 00:52:24,480 Speaker 1: app should only have access to whatever information is necessary 825 00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:27,520 Speaker 1: for the application to actually work. So that way, you 826 00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:31,760 Speaker 1: couldn't create like a dead basic app that has access 827 00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:35,320 Speaker 1: to all user information on Facebook. That would be against 828 00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:38,400 Speaker 1: the rules. It could only tap into whatever was needed 829 00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:41,400 Speaker 1: for the app to actually function and nothing more. But 830 00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,720 Speaker 1: that change came too late to prevent the Cambridge Analytica scandal. 831 00:52:45,040 --> 00:52:47,680 Speaker 1: All right, Let's look at some of the other big 832 00:52:47,719 --> 00:52:50,719 Speaker 1: moves made by Facebook over the years. The company has 833 00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:55,480 Speaker 1: a reputation of either acquiring competitors or attempting to mimic 834 00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:59,960 Speaker 1: them in an effort to stave off competition. Uh. Actually 835 00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:03,000 Speaker 1: makes me think of the Disney parks in Florida, which 836 00:53:03,040 --> 00:53:07,160 Speaker 1: frequently seemed to try and outperform competitors like Universal Studios 837 00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:13,080 Speaker 1: and Sea World by creating their own kind of uh 838 00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:15,160 Speaker 1: you know, like well, in the case of Universal Studios, 839 00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:18,359 Speaker 1: they created what was originally called MGM Studios and now 840 00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:21,480 Speaker 1: is known as Disney Hollywood Studios. In the case of 841 00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:24,279 Speaker 1: Sea World, it was the Living Seas at Epcot. So 842 00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:26,759 Speaker 1: they saw mixed success with this. But the attempt was, 843 00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:30,800 Speaker 1: how can we convince people to stay on Disney property 844 00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:34,399 Speaker 1: and not split their vacation up between Disney and all 845 00:53:34,440 --> 00:53:38,160 Speaker 1: these other attractions that are in the Orlando area. Well, 846 00:53:38,200 --> 00:53:43,040 Speaker 1: Facebook follows a very similar strategy. Uh. They bought up 847 00:53:43,560 --> 00:53:47,879 Speaker 1: a ton of companies early on. So one of them 848 00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:51,840 Speaker 1: was Parakey, which was an applications development company. They bought that. 849 00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:54,560 Speaker 1: In two thousand seven. They bought connect You, which was 850 00:53:54,600 --> 00:53:57,399 Speaker 1: another social networking company. They bought that. In two thousand eight, 851 00:53:58,200 --> 00:54:01,120 Speaker 1: they scooped up friend Feed. I'm sure I'll talk about 852 00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:04,759 Speaker 1: in the next episode. It technically and our timeline as 853 00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:07,759 Speaker 1: we're going by company debuts hadn't come out by the 854 00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:10,759 Speaker 1: time Facebook came out in two thousand nine. That's when 855 00:54:10,800 --> 00:54:13,319 Speaker 1: it bought a friend feed, and it also bought some 856 00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:15,920 Speaker 1: of Friendster's I p in two thousand ten. I did 857 00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:19,360 Speaker 1: talk about Friendster in the previous episode in this series, 858 00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:22,719 Speaker 1: and it bought up dozens of other companies, but let's 859 00:54:22,760 --> 00:54:26,120 Speaker 1: talk about a couple of truly big ones. In two 860 00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:29,320 Speaker 1: thousand twelve, Facebook announced it would acquire the photo focused 861 00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:34,719 Speaker 1: social network Instagram for a whopping one billion dollars. That 862 00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:38,000 Speaker 1: was a huge deal, and analysts quickly pointed out that 863 00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:40,080 Speaker 1: Facebook was trying to stay on top of the social 864 00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:43,520 Speaker 1: networking game, partly by buying a company that was much 865 00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:47,480 Speaker 1: better at photo sharing than Facebook had been. So this 866 00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:49,880 Speaker 1: was one of those cases where Facebook is essentially saying, 867 00:54:50,719 --> 00:54:55,000 Speaker 1: I recognized this as a key component to being a 868 00:54:55,040 --> 00:55:00,040 Speaker 1: successful social networking company, but I cannot make something I 869 00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:02,960 Speaker 1: can compete with Instagram, which is already doing it super well, 870 00:55:03,120 --> 00:55:07,440 Speaker 1: So let's just buy Instagram instead. Facebook kept buying more companies, 871 00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:11,080 Speaker 1: and the next huge purchase was in when it bought 872 00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:17,040 Speaker 1: WhatsApp for a staggering nineteen billion dollars. Now, while it 873 00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:19,759 Speaker 1: wasn't widely known in the United States that at the 874 00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:24,200 Speaker 1: time of acquisition, WhatsApp was and continues to be a 875 00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:27,640 Speaker 1: popular mobile instant messaging client in the rest of the world, 876 00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:30,839 Speaker 1: and again, Facebook was looking at companies that were doing 877 00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:35,479 Speaker 1: really well in areas where Facebook kind of wasn't. Also, 878 00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:37,600 Speaker 1: we should keep in mind that Facebook was all about 879 00:55:37,719 --> 00:55:41,040 Speaker 1: maximizing the time users were spending on Facebook owned and 880 00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:45,480 Speaker 1: operated services. So if you're spending more time on messaging 881 00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:49,040 Speaker 1: than you are on social networks, well, that could hurt 882 00:55:49,040 --> 00:55:53,239 Speaker 1: Facebook's bottom line unless Facebook buys the messaging service and 883 00:55:53,280 --> 00:55:58,760 Speaker 1: then you're still on Facebook's stuff. That same year, Facebook 884 00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:03,799 Speaker 1: bought up Oculu VR for two billion dollars, and this 885 00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:08,720 Speaker 1: would form the nugget of Facebook's Reality Lambs division, which 886 00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:11,719 Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll mention again before this episode is over. 887 00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:15,319 Speaker 1: And there are many many more acquisitions that Facebook did 888 00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:19,960 Speaker 1: over the years. Some were recently reversed. Take Giffee, for example, 889 00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:24,320 Speaker 1: This is an online database and search engine for animated gifts. 890 00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:29,680 Speaker 1: Facebook bought it in but recently the UK's regulatory authority 891 00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:34,239 Speaker 1: has ordered Facebook to divest itself of this acquisition. It 892 00:56:34,320 --> 00:56:37,520 Speaker 1: has said that otherwise Facebook has engaged in anti competitive 893 00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:42,160 Speaker 1: business practices, which I mean, yeah, that's kind of Facebook's 894 00:56:42,160 --> 00:56:46,040 Speaker 1: bread and butter in many ways. So Facebook has spent 895 00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:50,160 Speaker 1: tens of billions of dollars on acquisitions, of the big 896 00:56:50,160 --> 00:56:55,680 Speaker 1: ones being WhatsApp, than Instagram, UH and Oculus VR. Right, 897 00:56:55,760 --> 00:56:59,480 Speaker 1: those make up a lot of the money that Facebook 898 00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:04,160 Speaker 1: has spent on acquisitions. As for growth, Facebook story has 899 00:57:04,239 --> 00:57:07,200 Speaker 1: also been pretty incredible. At the end of two thousand six, 900 00:57:07,239 --> 00:57:11,120 Speaker 1: Facebook boasted around twelve billion users, and in two thousand 901 00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:14,280 Speaker 1: seven that number just kept growing. In April two thousand seven, 902 00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:17,680 Speaker 1: it hit twenty million. By July it was thirty million, 903 00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:21,800 Speaker 1: by October it was fifty million, and it just kept growing. 904 00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:26,480 Speaker 1: By two thousand twelve, Facebook hit a crazy milestone of 905 00:57:26,680 --> 00:57:33,440 Speaker 1: one billion active users. Five years later it hit two billion. 906 00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:38,640 Speaker 1: Crazy numbers, right. But then this past February, which is 907 00:57:38,720 --> 00:57:41,600 Speaker 1: February twenty two for all of those of y'all who 908 00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:45,960 Speaker 1: are listening from the future, Facebook posted a net loss 909 00:57:46,120 --> 00:57:50,360 Speaker 1: of users for the first time in eighteen years, and 910 00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:54,120 Speaker 1: it amounted to about half a million fewer users logging 911 00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:58,600 Speaker 1: in daily. And that doesn't sound like it's that bad, right, Like, 912 00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:00,320 Speaker 1: oh yeah, half a million, that's a lot of people. 913 00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:04,560 Speaker 1: But we were talking about two billion and just insane 914 00:58:04,640 --> 00:58:07,480 Speaker 1: growth from the get go. But this was kind of 915 00:58:07,520 --> 00:58:12,760 Speaker 1: the tip of an iceberg of things that investors became 916 00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:17,560 Speaker 1: really concerned about. For one thing, a loss in daily 917 00:58:17,680 --> 00:58:20,920 Speaker 1: users could be a signal that maybe Facebook has finally 918 00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:26,000 Speaker 1: reached saturation across the world, that they're just no more 919 00:58:26,160 --> 00:58:28,760 Speaker 1: users that they can add to the service, that that 920 00:58:29,040 --> 00:58:33,200 Speaker 1: Facebook weeps for, there are no more worlds to conquer. 921 00:58:34,120 --> 00:58:36,520 Speaker 1: And of course we have to remember that a lot 922 00:58:36,640 --> 00:58:41,000 Speaker 1: of capital investment is largely focused on the concept of growth. 923 00:58:41,080 --> 00:58:44,880 Speaker 1: It's not just good enough to do well year over year. 924 00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:48,760 Speaker 1: A company needs to grow. That is like a big 925 00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:53,080 Speaker 1: part of how investors view company performance. That if you 926 00:58:53,320 --> 00:58:57,360 Speaker 1: failed to grow, then the investment is not going to 927 00:58:57,640 --> 00:58:59,800 Speaker 1: increase over time and you just want to get out. 928 00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:03,840 Speaker 1: So a failure to grow can be a company's death sentence, 929 00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:06,320 Speaker 1: which is crazy because the company can still perform well 930 00:59:06,520 --> 00:59:09,760 Speaker 1: year to year, but it's not growing. It's not good enough. 931 00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:13,040 Speaker 1: If you've already hit as many users as they're going 932 00:59:13,080 --> 00:59:16,120 Speaker 1: to sign up for your service, well you start to 933 00:59:16,200 --> 00:59:19,240 Speaker 1: really face a massive problem. You might think that this 934 00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:22,760 Speaker 1: kind of obsession with growth is ultimately self defeating, and 935 00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:24,960 Speaker 1: I would agree with you, but again I'm no expert 936 00:59:24,960 --> 00:59:29,320 Speaker 1: in financial matters. You could very convincingly argue that I 937 00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:32,160 Speaker 1: am taking far too narrow a view, and you could 938 00:59:32,240 --> 00:59:35,360 Speaker 1: very well be right. I do not pretend to have 939 00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:38,520 Speaker 1: a deep understanding of these things anyway. At this point, 940 00:59:38,520 --> 00:59:42,120 Speaker 1: Facebook the company had changed its name to Meta, with 941 00:59:42,560 --> 00:59:46,919 Speaker 1: Facebook just being one property under Meta's ownership, the other 942 00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:50,440 Speaker 1: big ones being Instagram and WhatsApp. Now the name change 943 00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:54,400 Speaker 1: both indicated Zuckerberg's new desire to forge the next incarnation 944 00:59:54,400 --> 00:59:58,800 Speaker 1: of the Web, or maybe even the Internet, called the metaverse. 945 00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:01,360 Speaker 1: That this was is an indicator of, Yes, this is 946 01:00:01,400 --> 01:00:04,280 Speaker 1: the business that this company is headed toward. But it 947 01:00:04,360 --> 01:00:07,680 Speaker 1: also came to the time when the former Facebook company 948 01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:11,400 Speaker 1: was in headlines a lot for a lot of really 949 01:00:11,560 --> 01:00:17,280 Speaker 1: bad stuff. There was the whistleblower, where we get this enormous, 950 01:00:18,000 --> 01:00:23,520 Speaker 1: uh collection of internal documents that showed a really unflattering 951 01:00:23,600 --> 01:00:28,520 Speaker 1: look at Facebook's business plans and how it treated user privacy, 952 01:00:28,600 --> 01:00:33,560 Speaker 1: and how it viewed misinformation and just it was a 953 01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:38,160 Speaker 1: lot of really ugly stuff that came out from that leak. 954 01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:42,120 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg himself had been called to testify in front of 955 01:00:42,160 --> 01:00:46,680 Speaker 1: the US Congress a few times on different matters, ranging 956 01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:50,560 Speaker 1: from user privacy and security to things like national security 957 01:00:50,600 --> 01:00:54,720 Speaker 1: and the proliferation of misinformation across Facebook, So the name 958 01:00:54,840 --> 01:00:56,800 Speaker 1: change was probably seen as a way to maybe at 959 01:00:56,880 --> 01:01:00,360 Speaker 1: least dodge a little bit of the problems that were 960 01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:03,400 Speaker 1: being flung towards Facebook. I don't know how effective that was, 961 01:01:03,480 --> 01:01:06,360 Speaker 1: but that might have been part of the reason. Today. 962 01:01:06,560 --> 01:01:08,640 Speaker 1: Meta is a company that many of you as being 963 01:01:08,760 --> 01:01:12,760 Speaker 1: in crisis mode. But like a lot of big tech companies, 964 01:01:12,760 --> 01:01:15,240 Speaker 1: that's in crisis mode right. I mean, it's recently held 965 01:01:15,280 --> 01:01:18,760 Speaker 1: layoffs in the face of economic uncertainty, but that's the 966 01:01:18,840 --> 01:01:23,520 Speaker 1: case across numerous big tech companies. It has spent billions 967 01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:27,240 Speaker 1: of dollars developing the metaverse concept, which Zuckerberg himself has 968 01:01:27,240 --> 01:01:30,520 Speaker 1: said is going to take years to become a revenue generator. 969 01:01:30,840 --> 01:01:34,560 Speaker 1: So in other words, that everyone should be prepared for 970 01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:38,640 Speaker 1: the company to continue to lose money while developing this, 971 01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:41,000 Speaker 1: because there's no way to make money from it yet. 972 01:01:41,960 --> 01:01:45,920 Speaker 1: And that is a huge concern to investors too, because 973 01:01:46,040 --> 01:01:49,240 Speaker 1: I think a lot of people still aren't sold on 974 01:01:49,280 --> 01:01:51,120 Speaker 1: the concept of metaverse. You've got a lot of people 975 01:01:51,160 --> 01:01:54,400 Speaker 1: saying like, no one's interested in it, which I think 976 01:01:54,480 --> 01:01:57,280 Speaker 1: is an overstatement. I think there are people who are 977 01:01:57,320 --> 01:01:59,880 Speaker 1: really interested in it. I think a lot of entities 978 01:01:59,880 --> 01:02:01,800 Speaker 1: that are interested in the metaverse are ones that are 979 01:02:01,840 --> 01:02:05,880 Speaker 1: accounting on another gold rush. Right. They don't really know 980 01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:08,480 Speaker 1: what the metaverse is going to turn out to be, 981 01:02:09,280 --> 01:02:12,439 Speaker 1: but they suspect that if it does become a thing, 982 01:02:12,840 --> 01:02:14,520 Speaker 1: that there will be money to be made there. So 983 01:02:14,560 --> 01:02:19,200 Speaker 1: there's a lot of push toward the metaverse. A lot 984 01:02:19,280 --> 01:02:22,600 Speaker 1: of companies, including I Heart Radio, have been really active 985 01:02:22,840 --> 01:02:26,120 Speaker 1: and at least establishing some sort of presence related to 986 01:02:26,160 --> 01:02:30,040 Speaker 1: the metaverse, But there's so much uncertainty there that I 987 01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:33,800 Speaker 1: think that gives investors a lot of concern at least 988 01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:37,560 Speaker 1: in the short term. Facebook also has struggled to attract 989 01:02:37,720 --> 01:02:41,480 Speaker 1: younger users who seem to prefer platforms like TikTok. That 990 01:02:41,560 --> 01:02:45,000 Speaker 1: gives investors even more concerns because if you're not replenishing 991 01:02:45,040 --> 01:02:48,240 Speaker 1: your user base, they will continue to age out, and 992 01:02:48,280 --> 01:02:50,880 Speaker 1: then the probe the platform will become less and less 993 01:02:50,920 --> 01:02:54,840 Speaker 1: relevant over time. So you might wonder, are we witnessing 994 01:02:55,120 --> 01:02:58,720 Speaker 1: a mega company on the verge of collapse. Is Meta 995 01:02:58,840 --> 01:03:04,600 Speaker 1: slash Facebook heading toward becoming irrelevant? Well, I think it's 996 01:03:04,680 --> 01:03:06,960 Speaker 1: way too early to make such a pronouncement. I mean, 997 01:03:07,000 --> 01:03:10,720 Speaker 1: I am very critical of meta and I do see 998 01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:14,000 Speaker 1: a lot of problems with the company, but I'm not 999 01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:16,160 Speaker 1: sure that we could say this is the end. I 1000 01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:19,120 Speaker 1: think that would be far too premature. Um. I don't 1001 01:03:19,120 --> 01:03:21,240 Speaker 1: think Facebook is too big to fail. I don't think 1002 01:03:21,280 --> 01:03:23,280 Speaker 1: there is such a thing as being too big to fail. 1003 01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:27,200 Speaker 1: But I do think that Facebook is really freaking big, 1004 01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:29,280 Speaker 1: so it's gonna take a lot to bring it down. 1005 01:03:29,560 --> 01:03:31,880 Speaker 1: So yeah, not too big to fail, but too big 1006 01:03:31,920 --> 01:03:37,200 Speaker 1: to fail instantaneously unless like a ridiculous series of events 1007 01:03:37,200 --> 01:03:40,160 Speaker 1: comes to pass. But then this year has been pretty ridiculous. 1008 01:03:40,680 --> 01:03:45,120 Speaker 1: The company does face increasing regulatory scrutiny around the world, 1009 01:03:45,720 --> 01:03:49,840 Speaker 1: so there are various agencies out there calling to further 1010 01:03:50,000 --> 01:03:54,720 Speaker 1: break up Meta into its constituent parts. Maybe that will 1011 01:03:54,760 --> 01:03:58,360 Speaker 1: go somewhere. I I remain somewhat skeptical of that. But 1012 01:03:58,400 --> 01:04:01,440 Speaker 1: they are also increasing invest your demands as people are 1013 01:04:01,600 --> 01:04:05,440 Speaker 1: calling on Zuckerberg to make some dramatic changes because they 1014 01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:08,960 Speaker 1: don't like seeing costs go up and revenue not go 1015 01:04:09,160 --> 01:04:13,800 Speaker 1: up more. It still faces the challenge of attracting new users, 1016 01:04:13,920 --> 01:04:16,480 Speaker 1: younger users. It's not doing so well in that, and 1017 01:04:16,520 --> 01:04:20,880 Speaker 1: the attempts that it has pursued have gained the company 1018 01:04:20,880 --> 01:04:23,800 Speaker 1: a lot of criticism because it sounds like they're trying 1019 01:04:23,840 --> 01:04:29,080 Speaker 1: to prey upon young people right, like to create Instagram 1020 01:04:29,200 --> 01:04:34,680 Speaker 1: for preteens, when Instagram is also associated with some really 1021 01:04:34,760 --> 01:04:38,200 Speaker 1: negative stuff like negative self image issues and that kind 1022 01:04:38,200 --> 01:04:40,760 Speaker 1: of thing. It's also trying to sell people on the 1023 01:04:40,760 --> 01:04:43,560 Speaker 1: idea of the metaverse, which obviously is still a big 1024 01:04:44,040 --> 01:04:47,000 Speaker 1: ask and and a lot more so, there are a 1025 01:04:47,040 --> 01:04:51,240 Speaker 1: lot of long bets going on over at Meta slash Facebook. 1026 01:04:51,720 --> 01:04:55,360 Speaker 1: If they pay off, then it's possible that Meta will 1027 01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:58,800 Speaker 1: be a foundational pillar of the Internet of the future, 1028 01:04:58,880 --> 01:05:03,240 Speaker 1: like it's possible that Meta and the Internet will be 1029 01:05:03,280 --> 01:05:08,200 Speaker 1: practically synonymous if those long bets pay off. I remain 1030 01:05:08,280 --> 01:05:12,040 Speaker 1: skeptical that they will, but some of them might. I 1031 01:05:12,080 --> 01:05:14,840 Speaker 1: don't think all of them will. I still find it 1032 01:05:14,920 --> 01:05:17,600 Speaker 1: hard to believe that in the future I'll be wearing 1033 01:05:17,840 --> 01:05:22,280 Speaker 1: a headset in order to access the web. But we'll see. Anyway, 1034 01:05:23,280 --> 01:05:26,080 Speaker 1: there we go. That is the short version, believe it 1035 01:05:26,160 --> 01:05:29,760 Speaker 1: or not, of summaries of my Space and Facebook, and 1036 01:05:29,880 --> 01:05:33,640 Speaker 1: obviously I could do full series and both of those companies. 1037 01:05:33,720 --> 01:05:37,000 Speaker 1: When we come back for the next entry in this series, 1038 01:05:37,640 --> 01:05:40,000 Speaker 1: we will pick up with some other social networks, which 1039 01:05:40,480 --> 01:05:44,400 Speaker 1: you know, either enjoyed brief popularity and then fizzled away 1040 01:05:44,560 --> 01:05:48,960 Speaker 1: or in some cases, are still around. Um, you know, 1041 01:05:49,120 --> 01:05:51,840 Speaker 1: we haven't even hit Twitter yet, so that is on 1042 01:05:51,880 --> 01:05:55,800 Speaker 1: the horizon. Okay, that wraps this up, y'all. One thing 1043 01:05:55,800 --> 01:05:59,080 Speaker 1: I am working on right now as I'm putting together 1044 01:05:59,400 --> 01:06:03,560 Speaker 1: a list of some of the biggest stories to unfold 1045 01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:07,240 Speaker 1: in two in tech. So if you have any in 1046 01:06:07,280 --> 01:06:09,320 Speaker 1: particular you want me to touch on, let me know. 1047 01:06:09,520 --> 01:06:11,600 Speaker 1: Obviously they're gonna be some big ones that we talked 1048 01:06:11,600 --> 01:06:15,000 Speaker 1: about even in this episode, like stories about Meta and 1049 01:06:15,080 --> 01:06:19,000 Speaker 1: stories about Twitter. Don't worry, the Elon Musk Twitter story 1050 01:06:19,040 --> 01:06:22,520 Speaker 1: will definitely make the cut because goodness knows. But if 1051 01:06:22,520 --> 01:06:25,200 Speaker 1: there are anything, if there's anything that happened in tech 1052 01:06:25,280 --> 01:06:28,479 Speaker 1: this past year that you really would like to hear 1053 01:06:28,720 --> 01:06:30,920 Speaker 1: me cover in kind of an end of the year 1054 01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:33,120 Speaker 1: wrap up, let me know. There are a couple of 1055 01:06:33,160 --> 01:06:35,400 Speaker 1: ways to get in touch with me. One is you 1056 01:06:35,400 --> 01:06:38,240 Speaker 1: can download the I Heart radio app. You can navigate 1057 01:06:38,280 --> 01:06:39,920 Speaker 1: over to tech Stuff. You just put tech stuff in 1058 01:06:39,960 --> 01:06:42,480 Speaker 1: the search field, it'll pull up. You can use a 1059 01:06:42,480 --> 01:06:44,880 Speaker 1: little microphone icon there and leave me a voice message 1060 01:06:44,920 --> 01:06:46,720 Speaker 1: up to thirty seconds in length. Just let me know 1061 01:06:46,760 --> 01:06:48,920 Speaker 1: what it is you would like me to cover, or 1062 01:06:49,200 --> 01:06:51,080 Speaker 1: if you would prefer, you can head over to Twitter 1063 01:06:51,280 --> 01:06:53,080 Speaker 1: and you can leave me a message on Twitter. The 1064 01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:56,440 Speaker 1: handle for the show is tech Stuff H s W 1065 01:06:57,160 --> 01:07:05,959 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Yes. Text 1066 01:07:05,960 --> 01:07:09,400 Speaker 1: Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts 1067 01:07:09,440 --> 01:07:12,200 Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 1068 01:07:12,320 --> 01:07:15,480 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.