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Ask HN: Can Facebook (or Google, Apple, Amazon) Live Forever?

4 points by jmole ↗ HN
The Bloomberg article [0] had me thinking.

Can a dominant internet company (Facebook for example, since most people here seem to think they are more vulnerable than the others) prevent its ultimate demise simply by buying competitors and building a Berkshire-Hathaway-style holding company?

If not, what are the confounding factors? Antitrust? Company culture? Lack of vision?

Is big business necessarily the future of tech?

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-17/mark-zuckerberg-s-manifesto-for-facebook-offers-a-social-dystopia

8 comments

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gokaygurcan
They will adopt. As an example, Zuck explained this one of the previous F8 conf. I guess, FB was about sharing texts in the first place, then people started to communicate with images/pictures, they've adopted. Then it changed to gifs or videos, they've adopted. Then it's becoming VR/AR and these kind of things, and they're planning to adopt.

So, yes, in one way or another they'll live forever.

simplehuman
*Adapt and not adopt
gokaygurcan
oh sh.t. i was in a hurry. thanks!
fanpuns
I like the first one better. Like the Japanese companies that just keep adopting sons to keep continuous operations. The bigger question, of course, is would Google make you call it Daddy.
bsvalley
Who ever dominates the AI space first, will dominate everyone else. If amazon cracks deep learning before google, they'll be able to move a billion times faster, instantly.

I'd say anything can happen within the last 10-20 years.

tuyguntn
For me probably yes, unless "digital thing" will be superseded by another type of commodity. Look at Shell, Exxon (Standard Oil) and any other >100 years old company, some of them are still dominant, Facebook will be too (IMO).

How about Google? probably yes too

Amazon? again yes

Microsoft/Apple? They have enough R&D power to adapt new tech if anything comes out in hi-tech space, probably yes too

znpy
IBM was founded in 1911 so it's more than 100 years old. In computer science such a time span is basically "forever".

Of course 1911 IBM has nothing to do with today's IBM or 1950 IBM. IBM used to sell typewriters.

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