FB - Facebook

[DooDiligence]

As i was out walking yesterday I happened to walk past (overtaking) two women talking about another girl who recently got back into dating.

Women 1: “…so she opened the dating option on facebook and was inundated with 3500 requests”!
Woman 2: That’s a lot!!! Is there a dating thing on facebook?
Woman 1: “yeah apparently… so a girlfriend came over and they selected 300 potential suitors.
Woman 2: “that’s still alot”!!!

Two immediate lessons:
-facebook dating can’t be a total disaster
-women have more choices than men (I) can even comprehend! lol

The odds are good but the goods are odd...

[DooDiligence]

Does anyone have experience with Shops or know anyone that has used it (facebook or instagram)?

I have a neighbor who uses Facebook to do weekly vacation rentals of their place. They've been doing this for years now, and the property has stayed booked constantly.

When someone makes a rental request, they look at their feed and if they like it, they rent. If they see a bunch of craziness, no rental for you.

They live in Atlanta and have family members do the cleaning & a lawn service for the yard.

They have been refusing renters since hurricane Sally, which damaged the roof & resulted in water intrusion. They were here a week ago to oversee repairs, and told me the place is booked starting this Spring and through the end of the year. I see many of the same renters from year to year.

It's very high touch property management / marketing, but they save the commissions and more importantly, they never have damages from fools renting from them.

[Spekulatius]

Does anyone have experience with Shops or know anyone that has used it (facebook or instagram)?

I have a neighbor who uses Facebook to do weekly vacation rentals of their place. They've been doing this for years now, and the property has stayed booked constantly.

When someone makes a rental request, they look at their feed and if they like it, they rent. If they see a bunch of craziness, no rental for you.

They live in Atlanta and have family members do the cleaning & a lawn service for the yard.

They have been refusing renters since hurricane Sally, which damaged the roof & resulted in water intrusion. They were here a week ago to oversee repairs, and told me the place is booked starting this Spring and through the end of the year. I see many of the same renters from year to year.

It's very high touch property management / marketing, but they save the commissions and more importantly, they never have damages from fools renting from them.

The social feed tells anyone who looks at it a lot about who you are and it’s hard to fake. I have used the FB Market Place and found it to be much better than the anonymity of Craigslist for that very reason.

I thought the dating part of FB is not widely realized - did thet change? I don’t see a dating tab on my Facebook app and there doesn’t seem to be an app either. I am not looking at odd goods right now but they spurred my curiosity.

@Johnny - yes Trump getting the ban hammer in Twitter and Facebook is a watershed moment. I am not sure what to make of it. There is the argument that both platforms are still private property and there is a viewpoint there they are public utilities. Right now, the status is not well defined, Imo but that needs to change.

Google’s threatening to ban Parler for lack of moderation is even more far reaching.

[DooDiligence]

Does anyone have experience with Shops or know anyone that has used it (facebook or instagram)?

I have a neighbor who uses Facebook to do weekly vacation rentals of their place. They've been doing this for years now, and the property has stayed booked constantly.

When someone makes a rental request, they look at their feed and if they like it, they rent. If they see a bunch of craziness, no rental for you.

They live in Atlanta and have family members do the cleaning & a lawn service for the yard.

They have been refusing renters since hurricane Sally, which damaged the roof & resulted in water intrusion. They were here a week ago to oversee repairs, and told me the place is booked starting this Spring and through the end of the year. I see many of the same renters from year to year.

It's very high touch property management / marketing, but they save the commissions and more importantly, they never have damages from fools renting from them.

The social feed tells anyone who looks at it a lot about who you are and it’s hard to fake. I have used the FB Market Place and found it to be much better than the anonymity of Craigslist for that very reason.

I thought the dating part of FB is not widely realized - did thet change? I don’t see a dating tab on my Facebook app and there doesn’t seem to be an app either. I am not looking at odd goods right now but they spurred my curiosity.

@Johnny - yes Trump getting the ban hammer in Twitter and Facebook is a watershed moment. I am not sure what to make of it. There is the argument that both platforms are still private property and there is a viewpoint there they are public utilities. Right now, the status is not well defined, Imo but that needs to change.

Google’s threatening to ban Parler for lack of moderation is even more far reaching.

Some form of regulation needs to evolve, and that's an extremely difficult landscape to navigate. Whatever gets enacted will need to be able to morph in an intelligent fashion as mistakes get made and better methods are discovered. Attempts by extremists on the far sides to politicize legislation are, and will remain, huge.

https://stratechery.com/2020/twitter-responsibility-and-accountability/

IDK about calling search or social media "utilities". Maybe I'm just having trouble with a label that I've been accustomed to seeing define a specific set of businesses? Kind of like how some people think when they hear the words "liberal" or "socialism", but without the radicalized, dog whistle response. Take away FB & Google and you can still hydrate and then poop & pee in a nice warm bathroom. Now that's utility    (why is there no grunt & groan emoji?)

[bizaro86]

If you define utility as, "a natural monopoly that essentially everyone uses" then it's not such a reach. Those characteristics are why utilities have attracted regulation in the past.

[DooDiligence]

If you define utility as, "a natural monopoly that essentially everyone uses" then it's not such a reach. Those characteristics are why utilities have attracted regulation in the past.

Point well taken. I apologize for being obtuse and for the weak attempt at humor.

[bizaro86]

If you define utility as, "a natural monopoly that essentially everyone uses" then it's not such a reach. Those characteristics are why utilities have attracted regulation in the past.

Point well taken. I apologize for being obtuse and for the weak attempt at humor.

No apology necessary. I think utility style regulation is a potential risk here.

But I also think regulating speech is a potentially dangerous path. The two top contenders for the role (the government and big silicon Valley corporations) both seem like the potential start of a dystopian movie to me.

And yet, if you let a platform become lowest common denominator, then everyone but the lunatic fringe will leave. I don't know what the business solution is here - maybe algorithm changes such that you can say what you want with minimal limits, but the reach of comments that are tasteless is limited?

I dont know what the solution is, but it seems like an important question for FB.

I'd also be interested if anyone is seeing pushback on the whatsapp move to share data with FB. That wasn't previously required to use the service and now it is.

[patience_and_focus]

This is interesting and ironic
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/technology/whatsapp-privacy-changes-delayed.html

Also, I can confirm that move away from WhatsApp is real. Multiple of my colleagues with families in India (WhatsApp's biggest user base) were surprised that their parents and relatives (all over 60 years) were suddenly on "Signal" sending invites to them. Younger generation is switching faster. Now will they dump WhatApp completely remains to be seen.

Disclosure: Was invested in Facebook but sold all of the position end of July last year.

[Spekulatius]

This is interesting and ironic
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/technology/whatsapp-privacy-changes-delayed.html

Also, I can confirm that move away from WhatsApp is real. Multiple of my colleagues with families in India (WhatsApp's biggest user base) were surprised that their parents and relatives (all over 60 years) were suddenly on "Signal" sending invites to them. Younger generation is switching faster. Now will they dump WhatApp completely remains to be seen.

Disclosure: Was invested in Facebook but sold all of the position end of July last year.

I bought back in FB as I think this will blow over. The move from FB regarding privacy changes actually sense and doesn’t really affect the user privacy, but they have some PR work to do.
The backslash become viral and is real and needs to be dealt with, which is what thy are doing.

[ourkid8]

This is starting to get interesting at the current price.  My only concern is the upcoming iOS14 changes but overall its really cheap for it's growth.