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Ask HN: next big site in the social network niche?

6 points by webgambit ↗ HN
With all the privacy concerns, bugs, etc. that have plagued Facebook lately, I'm thinking it's time to move on to a different social network site. Was wondering what the HN community thought would be the next big site in this area. Is there a Facebook killer out there?

5 comments

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bgnm2000
My guess is no. Like there isn't really a google killer out there (for search), I wouldn't expect there to be a facebook killer out there any time soon.
jaddison
While there will no doubt be a few attempts to shake up the social networking clique with new entrants, Facebook has a pretty good grip on it at the moment. The recent privacy concerns being discussed here on HN might make people consider switching to elsewhere, but will they actually do it?

The thing with moving to another social network and leaving the old one behind is that you won't find it to be too social without your existing network of friends/family moving over as well. It's a bit of a Catch-22 situation, really.

Of course, it's possible to use your existing networks to invite people to a new network, but in reality, unless people see value in the new vs the old, they will at best politely decline. In Facebook's case, you'll need people's concerns with privacy to outweigh the inconvenience of switching and building a new network.

I've been invited to about 5-10 new 'networks' from people on Facebook or LinkedIn over the last couple of years. I haven't moved partly because some of them look kind of dodgy to be honest but most because I'd simply have to start over again. That's the 'lock-in' that online social/business network tools have.

People need to be convinced that the inconvenience of switching outweighs the existing concerns.

webgambit
It's true that getting your sphere of influence to adopt a new social network is a pain. But that said, years ago I started off on Friendster, then moved to MySpace, and now I'm at Facebook. I would expect that Facebook's fame will cool just like the others did. Surely Facebook isn't as untouchable as Google is in the search market. Is it?
newobj
I think Facebook is a lot more defensible than Google. I think you seriously underestimate how inertial the relationships it now harbors are. Someone just has to build a better, cheaper, Google, and it will slowly start to leak market share. It's a lot harder for Facebook to spring a leak, because I'm not interested in jumping onto something where only 10% of my friends are going to follow me.

Facebook is the first thing, the ONLY thing, that's gotten hundreds of people I know (I mean, really know) to all be in the same "place" at once.

I abandoned Friendster and MySpace long before Facebook showed up. Neither of them ever truly reached the critical mass that Facebook did IMHO. If you remember what Friendster and MySpace were like in earlier days, you kind of just friended people and sat there. The engagement on Facebook is MUCH higher.

eliot_sykes
How about just social without the network? Where being anonymous is part of the attraction and so privacy is at less of a risk - think omegle and chatroulette.