<story><title>Why is no one making a new version of old Facebook?</title><url>https://12challenges.substack.com/p/why-is-no-one-making-a-new-version</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostrademons</author><text>&amp;quot;Every moment in business happens only once.&amp;quot;  -- Peter Thiel&lt;p&gt;The success of the old Facebook was very much rooted in a particular time and place.  The leading edge of the Millennial generation (which was raised to be both more social and more trusting than previous generations) was in college.  The Internet was new, and people were figuring out what it was for.  The economy was humming along, and recovering from the dot-com bust, and people had few concerns that basic needs like housing and food would be taken care of.  A website where the point was to throw sheep at each other was a nice idle diversion for that time surplus.&lt;p&gt;It also helped that Facebook was started in one of the highest social-status dorms, in the highest social-status college, among the highest social-status demographic (college students), in a generation that was tightly socially connected.  I&amp;#x27;d remarked to a coworker, when Google was just starting Google+, that we were replicating all the technology in Facebook (and many good ideas &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; in Facebook that had been pioneered by LiveJournal), but we were missing the particular social moment in time that Zuckerburg capitalized on.&lt;p&gt;In short, yes, consumer preferences have changed.  Consumer preferences are &lt;i&gt;always&lt;/i&gt; changing.  The new Facebook is messaging, or hanging out in person, or &lt;i&gt;maybe&lt;/i&gt; TikTok.  Replicating the old Facebook won&amp;#x27;t give back the moment in time that lead to its ascendance.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>I pretty strongly disagree with this. I don&amp;#x27;t think that user preferences have changed so much, in that I think a lot of people would respond well to an &amp;quot;old-school&amp;quot;-style Facebook, even if released right now. The issue is simply that &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; version of Facebook probably has people only using it 15-30 mins a day max, but you really need to get the continual mindless scrolling to maximize ad rates. Facebook is just suffering &amp;quot;the tyranny of the marginal user&amp;quot;, the topic which was so well-discussed on HN a couple months back.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why is no one making a new version of old Facebook?</title><url>https://12challenges.substack.com/p/why-is-no-one-making-a-new-version</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostrademons</author><text>&amp;quot;Every moment in business happens only once.&amp;quot;  -- Peter Thiel&lt;p&gt;The success of the old Facebook was very much rooted in a particular time and place.  The leading edge of the Millennial generation (which was raised to be both more social and more trusting than previous generations) was in college.  The Internet was new, and people were figuring out what it was for.  The economy was humming along, and recovering from the dot-com bust, and people had few concerns that basic needs like housing and food would be taken care of.  A website where the point was to throw sheep at each other was a nice idle diversion for that time surplus.&lt;p&gt;It also helped that Facebook was started in one of the highest social-status dorms, in the highest social-status college, among the highest social-status demographic (college students), in a generation that was tightly socially connected.  I&amp;#x27;d remarked to a coworker, when Google was just starting Google+, that we were replicating all the technology in Facebook (and many good ideas &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; in Facebook that had been pioneered by LiveJournal), but we were missing the particular social moment in time that Zuckerburg capitalized on.&lt;p&gt;In short, yes, consumer preferences have changed.  Consumer preferences are &lt;i&gt;always&lt;/i&gt; changing.  The new Facebook is messaging, or hanging out in person, or &lt;i&gt;maybe&lt;/i&gt; TikTok.  Replicating the old Facebook won&amp;#x27;t give back the moment in time that lead to its ascendance.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>threeseed</author><text>Also it was before many parents were on the internet.&lt;p&gt;Now young people know from experience that little good comes from their parents and extended family being on the social network as them. And so they instead prefer messaging apps for these relationships.&lt;p&gt;And then for communicating within their age group it&amp;#x27;s much more about trends and what is new and different as every young generation is enticed by.</text></comment>