Facebook Inc.

Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy?

The caricature of Zuckerberg is that of an automaton with little regard for the human dimensions of his work. The truth is something else: he decided long ago that no historical change is painless. Like Augustus, he is at peace with his trade-offs. Between speech and truth, he chose speech. Between speed and perfection, he chose speed. Between scale and safety, he chose scale. His life thus far has convinced him that he can solve “problem after problem after problem,” no matter the howling from the public it may cause.

At a certain point, the habits of mind that served Zuckerberg well on his ascent will start to work against him. To avoid further crises, he will have to embrace the fact that he’s now a protector of the peace, not a disrupter of it. Facebook’s colossal power of persuasion has delivered fortune but also peril. Like it or not, Zuckerberg is a gatekeeper. The era when Facebook could learn by doing, and fix the mistakes later, is over. The costs are too high, and idealism is not a defense against negligence.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/...ocracy/amp

Mark Zuckerberg stuck me as someone more authentic than Sheryl Sandberg, even though she is generally regarded as the more media savvy of the two.

Zuck feels like a nerd, engineer, tech enthusiast turn reluctant social science, psychology, politics, media, business magnate. At the end of the day, he just want to make cool products and to "dominate" whatever he does (games or business or otherwise). 

In general, I trust him more than most to do the job that he is doing (moderating Facebook). It just seems like he doesn't have much desire for material gain (he is giving away most of it) or hidden agendas. I may be wrong of course.

(vested)

Co-founders of Instagram Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger to leave the company "in a few weeks".
1 hour ago
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoIvH_Fgdxm/?hl=en&taken-by=kevin

Quote:kevin@mikeyk and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team. We’ve grown from 13 people on the team to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over one billion. We’ve loved learning to scale a company and nurture an enormous global community. And we couldn’t have done it without our amazing Instagram team, and the support of @zuck, @sherylsandberg, @schrep, and @chriscoxat Facebook - we’ve learned so much from all of you. Now, we’re ready for our next chapter.

We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again. Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.

We remain excited for the future of Instagram and Facebook in the coming years as we transition from leaders to just two users in a billion. Thank you for being part of Instagram’s community. It’s been (and will continue to be) an honor 🙌🏻

---

Not a good sign. Kevin Systrom is one of the reasons I can stay vested and sleep well at night. Facebook may still be fine for now, but this will spell a change in direction in Instagram's future.

And I don't understand why would Kevin leave amidst the roll out of 2 important IG products: IG Marketplace and IGTV.

Unusual. But the fact that he stayed with Facebook so long after having sold his company is also unusual. 

(Vested in Facebook)

Tim Berners-Lee tells us his radical new plan to upend the World Wide Web

Last week, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, asked me to come and see a project he has been working on almost as long as the web itself. It’s a crisp autumn day in Boston, where Berners-Lee works out of an office above a boxing gym. After politely offering me a cup of coffee, he leads us into a sparse conference room. At one end of a long table is a battered laptop covered with stickers. Here, on this computer, he is working on a plan to radically alter how all of us live and work on the web.

“The intent is world domination,” Berners-Lee says with a wry smile. The British-born scientist is known for his dry sense of humor. But in this case, he is not joking.
This week, Berners-Lee will launch Inrupt, a startup that he has been building, in stealth mode, for the past nine months. Backed by Glasswing Ventures, its mission is to turbocharge a broader movement afoot, among developers around the world, to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it. In other words, it’s game on for Facebook, Google, Amazon.

A new revolution for developers?

Berners-Lee believes Solid will resonate with the global community of developers, hackers, and internet activists who bristle over corporate and government control of the web. “Developers have always had a certain amount of revolutionary spirit,” he observes. Circumventing government spies or corporate overlords may be the initial lure of Solid, but the bigger draw will be something even more appealing to hackers: freedom. In the centralized web, data is kept in silos–controlled by the companies that build them, like Facebook and Google. In the decentralized web, there are no silos.

Starting this week, developers around the world will be able to start building their own decentralized apps with tools through the Inrupt site. Berners-Lee will spend this fall crisscrossing the globe, giving tutorials and presentations to developers about Solid and Inrupt. (There will be a Solid tutorial at our Fast Company Innovation Festival on October 23.)

Later this fall, Berners-Lee plans to start looking for more venture funding and grow his team. The aim, for now, is not to make billions of dollars. The man who gave the web away for free has never been motivated by money. Still, his plans could impact billion-dollar business models that profit off of control over data. It’s not likely that the big powers of the web will give up control without a fight.


When asked about this, Berners-Lee says flatly: “We are not talking to Facebook and Google about whether or not to introduce a complete change where all their business models are completely upended overnight. We are not asking their permission.”


Game on.


https://www.fastcompany.com/90243936/exc...d-wide-web

I have to admit, i have this halo effect on John Huber.

Facebook Is Undervalued

Warren Buffett wrote those words in an op-ed during the fall of 2008, which was certainly a time of fearfulness. The simple philosophy has been a foundational part of his investment approach for his entire career, and regardless of how often it gets repeated, it remains as useful and as valuable today as it was when Buffett first coined the phrase decades ago. Human nature doesn’t change, and the stock market continues to provide opportunities to be greedy when others are fearful.

As I’ve outlined before, there is no informational edge in most large-cap stocks, but there absolutely is a time-horizon edge for those who are willing to thoughtfully analyze what most people want to avoid out of fear of what the next year might look like.

Currently, fear is creating an opportunity with Facebook. The stock, at $140 per share, is currently trading around 18 times earnings (16 P/E excluding net cash). This is a company that grew its revenue by 49% last year, and while growth will obviously slow from that level, Facebook is one of the most profitable businesses in existence and still has a very long runway ahead. If you have the ability to look out two or three years, this is the time to be capitalizing on that fear.

http://basehitinvesting.com/facebook-is-undervalued/

(08-12-2018, 11:43 AM)weijian Wrote: I have to admit, i have this halo effect on John Huber.

Facebook Is Undervalued

Warren Buffett wrote those words in an op-ed during the fall of 2008, which was certainly a time of fearfulness. The simple philosophy has been a foundational part of his investment approach for his entire career, and regardless of how often it gets repeated, it remains as useful and as valuable today as it was when Buffett first coined the phrase decades ago. Human nature doesn’t change, and the stock market continues to provide opportunities to be greedy when others are fearful.

As I’ve outlined before, there is no informational edge in most large-cap stocks, but there absolutely is a time-horizon edge for those who are willing to thoughtfully analyze what most people want to avoid out of fear of what the next year might look like.

Currently, fear is creating an opportunity with Facebook. The stock, at $140 per share, is currently trading around 18 times earnings (16 P/E excluding net cash). This is a company that grew its revenue by 49% last year, and while growth will obviously slow from that level, Facebook is one of the most profitable businesses in existence and still has a very long runway ahead. If you have the ability to look out two or three years, this is the time to be capitalizing on that fear.

http://basehitinvesting.com/facebook-is-undervalued/

I am keen with facebook with this current pullback. Even more so after I read this analysis. Another savvy investor has said that the current pullback is an opportunity. I like its economics and the fact that EPS grow consistently at rate of more than 30% easily.

I am a shareholder at US$140, sold a put and got assigned. Looking forward to growth in their Whatsapp in India and Direct-to-shop initiatives.

(08-12-2018, 11:43 AM)weijian Wrote: I have to admit, i have this halo effect on John Huber.

Facebook Is Undervalued

Warren Buffett wrote those words in an op-ed during the fall of 2008, which was certainly a time of fearfulness. The simple philosophy has been a foundational part of his investment approach for his entire career, and regardless of how often it gets repeated, it remains as useful and as valuable today as it was when Buffett first coined the phrase decades ago. Human nature doesn’t change, and the stock market continues to provide opportunities to be greedy when others are fearful.

As I’ve outlined before, there is no informational edge in most large-cap stocks, but there absolutely is a time-horizon edge for those who are willing to thoughtfully analyze what most people want to avoid out of fear of what the next year might look like.

Currently, fear is creating an opportunity with Facebook. The stock, at $140 per share, is currently trading around 18 times earnings (16 P/E excluding net cash). This is a company that grew its revenue by 49% last year, and while growth will obviously slow from that level, Facebook is one of the most profitable businesses in existence and still has a very long runway ahead. If you have the ability to look out two or three years, this is the time to be capitalizing on that fear.

http://basehitinvesting.com/facebook-is-undervalued/

Any idea where this 18 P/E comes from? Because form Facebook's 2017 results EPS is $5.39, while the latest it traded at is $137, which gives it a P/E of 25 and not 18.

(10-12-2018, 12:46 PM)Kaimin Wrote:

(08-12-2018, 11:43 AM)weijian Wrote: I have to admit, i have this halo effect on John Huber.

Facebook Is Undervalued

Warren Buffett wrote those words in an op-ed during the fall of 2008, which was certainly a time of fearfulness. The simple philosophy has been a foundational part of his investment approach for his entire career, and regardless of how often it gets repeated, it remains as useful and as valuable today as it was when Buffett first coined the phrase decades ago. Human nature doesn’t change, and the stock market continues to provide opportunities to be greedy when others are fearful.

As I’ve outlined before, there is no informational edge in most large-cap stocks, but there absolutely is a time-horizon edge for those who are willing to thoughtfully analyze what most people want to avoid out of fear of what the next year might look like.

Currently, fear is creating an opportunity with Facebook. The stock, at $140 per share, is currently trading around 18 times earnings (16 P/E excluding net cash). This is a company that grew its revenue by 49% last year, and while growth will obviously slow from that level, Facebook is one of the most profitable businesses in existence and still has a very long runway ahead. If you have the ability to look out two or three years, this is the time to be capitalizing on that fear.

http://basehitinvesting.com/facebook-is-undervalued/

Any idea where this 18 P/E comes from? Because form Facebook's 2017 results EPS is $5.39, while the latest it traded at is $137, which gives it a P/E of 25 and not 18.

hi kamin,
For the last 3 quarters of 2018, FB has already earned ~USD 5.1. The consensus estimate for FY18 earnings is in the range of USD 7.XX.

https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/fb/earnings-forecast

With earnings of USD 7.XX, it gets closer to PE=18. So i reckon John Huber is using 2018 expected earnings to do the calculations.

Google, one of Silicon Valley's best with its deep pockets and talented engineers, is unable to bring down Facebook on its own turf?

We do have alot of other examples like Kodak trying to move into printers/instant photography (challenging Xerox, Polaroid), Xerox trying to move into office automation (challenging AT&T, Microsoft etc) and IBM moving into software (challenging Microsoft)..all of them failed to use their size to erode the moats of the incumbent - I think it is pretty granted FB's moat is quite insurmountable for new challengers. It will probably take a new disruption.

New bug prompts earlier end to Google+ social network

Google+ failed to gain meaningful traction after being launched in 2011 as a challenge to Facebook.

A Google spokesperson cited "significant challenges in creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets consumers' expectations" along with "very low usage" as reasons for pulling the plug.

The social network allows users to download and share data such as pictures and videos.

Meanwhile, Google planned to add new workplace-oriented features to enhance the appeal of Google+ as a "secure corporate social network" to be used inside business operations.

"Our review showed that Google+ is better suited as an enterprise product where co-workers can engage in internal discussions," the California-based internet firm said.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/technol...al-network