I attended my mom’s high school reunion last night and what I thought to be a really boring gathering (for a 19 year old) turned pretty interesting as I noticed that they’re talking about facebook and how it connected a bunch of 40 to 50 year olds.
And that’s when a the light bulb kicked it as to why no one (for me anyway) can replace facebook. Other social networks may come and go (except Google+ (I spend a lot of my time here), twitter and maybe linkedin) but social media is more than just putting an input box and a share button. There’s always a benefit to getting that niche first and Facebook has that advantage. It doesn’t need to one-up every new update of a competitor (the Hangout – Video chat anyone?) because there’s a chance that the public may actually hate it (which will lead to user jump-ship), for a few days, weeks or months anyway but it will pass.
But it doesn’t mean that we’ll go on declaring that some obscure social network from your perspective will die sooner or later because whether you like it or not, these guys are here to stay and I think they can actually coexist. Facebook will continue to be the leader of the social space unless it makes a really, really big mistake. What Mark created is more than a product. His simple dorm project relegated to a culture that both the young and the young at heart will embrace in their lifetime.