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posted by LaminatorX on Saturday February 22 2014, @12:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the It's-like-a-telegram-but-on-a-phone dept.

siliconwafer writes:

"Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp has generated a lot of noise in the financial and tech industries, with some calling the purchase price 'down-right silly' and 'jaw-dropping', and others have said the price is fair, but question the strategy. Is the purchase price evidence that we're entering entering another tech bubble reminiscent of the 1990s? Some say no, while others believe that a bubble may exist only in social media, given that the Global X Social Media Index ETF has outperformed the NASDAQ over the past year."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by hemocyanin on Saturday February 22 2014, @05:24AM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday February 22 2014, @05:24AM (#4754)

    Maybe, maybe not. Remember MySpace? Interesting graphs: https://blog.compete.com/2012/02/16/myspaces-one-m illion-users-is-more-really-better/ [compete.com]

    Or for that matter, how about GeoCities -- the only traffic they get now is on Way Back Machine. Yahoo paid 3.7 Billion 1999 dollars (5.04B 2012 Dollars) on GeoCities: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05 /20/185573937/yahoos-other-billion-dollar-bets-whe re-are-they-now [npr.org]

    Finally, DO NOT miss this link from that NPR article: http://www.wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/ [wonder-tonic.com]
    "Make Any Webpage Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year-Old In 1996"

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Koen on Saturday February 22 2014, @01:54PM

    by Koen (427) on Saturday February 22 2014, @01:54PM (#4884)

    Finally, DO NOT miss this link from that NPR article: http://www.wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/ [wonder-tonic.com]
    "Make Any Webpage Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year-Old In 1996"

    I could not resist (I briefly tried), I submitted Slashdot.org to the geocitiesizer... looks better than Beta.

    --
    /. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
  • (Score: 1) by acid andy on Saturday February 22 2014, @02:19PM

    by acid andy (1683) on Saturday February 22 2014, @02:19PM (#4901)

    Or for that matter, how about GeoCities -- the only traffic they get now is on Way Back Machine. Yahoo paid 3.7 Billion 1999 dollars (5.04B 2012 Dollars) on GeoCities

    I assume you know they shut GeoCities down?

    I abandoned Geocities long before that when the files I had on there became corrupted. I was seriously unimpressed.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by randmcnatt on Saturday February 22 2014, @05:06PM

      by randmcnatt (671) on Saturday February 22 2014, @05:06PM (#4953) Homepage
      Geocities was archived at geocities.ws [geocities.ws], and you can still get in and edit your page. Thousands, maybe millions of webpages were copied there. My old 'page' [geocities.ws] (I just used it to stash miscellaneous junk) is still there. If you ever had a Geocities account you might want to check it out.
      --
      The Wright brothers were not the first to fly: they were the first to land.
    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday February 23 2014, @04:15AM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday February 23 2014, @04:15AM (#5119)

      Of course -- the "way back machine" bit -- that was a joke predicated on understanding geocities is dead.

      • (Score: 1) by acid andy on Sunday February 23 2014, @06:20PM

        by acid andy (1683) on Sunday February 23 2014, @06:20PM (#5338)

        Ahh sorry bit of a whoosh moment. I wasn't sure.

  • (Score: 1) by Aighearach on Monday February 24 2014, @05:10PM

    by Aighearach (2621) on Monday February 24 2014, @05:10PM (#6182)

    Myspace was doing good work in that area, but they lost out because facebook had games, better messaging, better lots of things, that attracted a bunch of their friends who hadn't even heard about myspace until they were already on facebook. Those two sites fought it out in the early phase of that. Now, "everybody" who wants to stay in touch with their past is using facebook for that. Until facebook does something to drive them away, it is very hard to get whole social circles to move. People might like a new website, and use facebook less, but facebook will still be the only place they can go to connect with their legacy friends.

    A site would first have to be interesting to a large percent of facebook users, and have them signed up, before they can even attempt competition. Google+ can't be that, because so many of the people who like it are already using it for work. People don't want to mix their work and play messaging.

    Maybe in 15 years the teens of today will be using something other than facebook to keep in touch with their HS friends. That will be a Good Thing(TM). But todays 30-somethings on facebook would most likely be 40-somethings on facebook by then.