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Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Friday, June 27, 2025

When Both Apple And Facebook Are Trying To Buy You, The Best Thing To Do Is ........ Go Raise Money

 


Reports indicate that Apple and Meta (formerly Facebook) have shown interest in acquiring Perplexity AI, a San Francisco-based startup valued at $14 billion, known for its AI-powered conversational search engine. According to Bloomberg, Apple executives, including Adrian Perica (head of mergers and acquisitions) and Eddy Cue (services chief), have held internal discussions about a potential bid for Perplexity to bolster Apple's AI capabilities, particularly for Siri and Safari, as a strategic move to reduce reliance on Google amid antitrust scrutiny. These talks are in early stages, and no formal offer has been made to Perplexity, which stated it has "no knowledge of any current or future M&A discussions."

Similarly, Bloomberg and other sources report that Meta Platforms attempted to acquire Perplexity earlier in 2025 but failed to reach an agreement, opting instead to invest $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI. Meta's interest was driven by a desire to integrate advanced conversational AI into platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. While both tech giants have explored acquiring Perplexity, no deal has been confirmed, and discussions with Apple remain preliminary. Perplexity’s rising popularity, with 780 million monthly queries and a 20% monthly growth rate, makes it an attractive target, but the company is also in talks with Samsung for potential integration, which could complicate acquisition efforts. The information suggests interest from both companies, but without conclusive evidence of active, ongoing negotiations, the situation remains speculative. Always consider that such reports could be influenced by market strategies or leaks to boost Perplexity’s valuation or negotiating power, as some X posts suggest.



Perplexity AI, valued at $14 billion and boasting 780 million monthly queries with 20% month-over-month growth, is at a pivotal moment. With Apple and Meta reportedly eyeing acquisition, the temptation to sell might seem strong—cash out, integrate with a tech giant, and leverage their resources. However, staying independent and raising capital to fuel rapid expansion is the smarter play. Here’s why Perplexity should resist acquisition and instead pursue strategic partnerships, like Google’s early deal with Yahoo, to maximize its long-term potential. 1. Retain Control and Capture More Value
Selling to Apple or Meta risks diluting Perplexity’s vision and autonomy. Acquisitions often lead to integration challenges—cultural clashes, product pivots, or even shelving core innovations to fit the acquirer’s ecosystem. Apple might fold Perplexity into Siri or Safari, while Meta could repurpose it for social platforms, potentially stifling its broader potential as a standalone AI search engine. Google’s early days offer a lesson: instead of selling to Yahoo in 1998, Google raised $25 million from Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, retained control, and built a $2 trillion empire. Perplexity, with its conversational AI and growing user base, is positioned to dominate the AI-driven search market, which could be worth hundreds of billions. Selling now would cap its upside. Raising capital—say, another $500 million to $1 billion—would allow Perplexity to scale its infrastructure, hire top talent, and accelerate R&D. This path preserves its ability to dictate terms and capture the full value of its growth trajectory, rather than handing it to a tech giant for a fraction of future potential. 2. Strategic Partnerships Over Acquisition
Perplexity can emulate Google’s 2001 deal with Yahoo, where Google became Yahoo’s default search engine for a significant payment, gaining massive exposure without surrendering ownership. Perplexity could strike similar deals with Apple and other players like Yahoo (now under Apollo Global Management) or Samsung, which is already in talks for integration. For example:
- Apple: License Perplexity’s AI to enhance Siri’s conversational abilities or power a smarter Safari search, in exchange for a hefty licensing fee or revenue share. This gives Apple the AI boost it seeks without Perplexity losing its independence. - Yahoo: Partner to integrate Perplexity’s search capabilities into Yahoo’s platform, which still attracts millions of users. This could include exclusive features or co-branded AI tools, providing Perplexity with scale and revenue. Such deals would give Perplexity access to massive user bases, distribution channels, and cash flow, all while keeping its brand and technology intact. Google’s Yahoo partnership didn’t just bring revenue—it validated its technology and drove adoption, paving the way for its dominance. Perplexity could similarly use partnerships to accelerate growth and market penetration. 3. The AI Search Market Is Still Wide Open
The search market is ripe for disruption. Google’s dominance is under pressure from antitrust lawsuits and user dissatisfaction with ad-heavy results. Perplexity’s conversational, answer-focused AI search is gaining traction, with 250 million monthly active users and a model that prioritizes accuracy over ads. This is a rare opportunity to challenge incumbents, but acquisitions often derail disruptors. Look at DeepMind: acquired by Google, it became a cog in Alphabet’s machine rather than a standalone leader. Perplexity, by staying independent, can double down on product innovation—expanding into enterprise search, verticals like healthcare or finance, or even multimodal AI (text, image, video)—to capture a larger share of the $200 billion global search market. Raising capital would fund aggressive expansion: more servers to handle query volume, localized models for international markets, and marketing to steal share from Google and Bing. A partnership-driven approach, like Google’s with Yahoo, avoids the risks of acquisition while providing the scale needed to compete. 4. Leverage Competitive Interest for Better Terms
Apple and Meta’s interest signals Perplexity’s strength, but it also gives the startup leverage. By playing the two against each other, Perplexity could secure better partnership terms or higher valuations in funding rounds. Venture capitalists, seeing the bidding war, would likely pour money into Perplexity to keep it independent, betting on its potential to rival Google. For instance, a new funding round at a $20 billion valuation could provide the war chest needed to scale without ceding control. X posts have speculated that Perplexity’s talks with Samsung and others could be a strategic move to boost its valuation—staying independent maximizes this leverage. 5. Avoid Antitrust and Integration Risks
Both Apple and Meta face antitrust scrutiny. Apple’s $20 billion Google search deal is under fire in the DOJ’s antitrust case, and acquiring Perplexity could draw further regulatory heat, potentially delaying or derailing the deal. Meta’s acquisition attempts, like its failed bid for Perplexity, also face skepticism due to its history of swallowing competitors (e.g., Instagram, WhatsApp). An acquisition could trap Perplexity in legal limbo or force it to compromise its product to meet regulatory demands. Partnerships, on the other hand, are less likely to trigger antitrust concerns and allow Perplexity to maintain flexibility. Counterargument: Why Sell?
One could argue that selling to Apple or Meta offers immediate financial security, access to their vast resources, and integration into ecosystems with billions of users. Apple’s 2 billion active devices or Meta’s 3 billion monthly active users could supercharge Perplexity’s reach. But this assumes smooth integration, which is rare. Acquired startups often lose their edge—look at Siri post-acquisition or WhatsApp’s privacy controversies under Meta. The short-term gain of a $14 billion payout pales compared to the potential of building a $100 billion+ independent company in a market poised for transformation. Conclusion
Perplexity should raise capital, double down on expansion, and pursue strategic partnerships with Apple, Yahoo, Samsung, or others to gain scale and revenue without sacrificing control. Google’s Yahoo deal in 2001 shows how a young company can leverage partnerships to catapult growth while staying independent. With the AI search market heating up and Perplexity’s momentum surging, now is the time to bet on itself, not cash out.



Tuesday, July 04, 2023

Threads



Threads: Instagram owner to launch Twitter rival on Thursday . Screengrabs show a dashboard that looks similar to Twitter. Meta describes Threads as a "text based conversation app"........ Meanwhile, Twitter has said that the popular user dashboard, TweetDeck will go behind a paywall in 30 days time........ It appears from Meta's Threads app that it will be a free service - and there will be no restrictions on how many posts a user can see. ........ It being a Meta app, Threads will also hoover up data on your phone, including location data, purchases and browsing history. ........ Several apps that bear a striking resemblance to Twitter have sprung up in recent years - such as Donald Trump's Truth Social and Mastodon. Another similar app, Bluesky claimed to have seen "record" traffic after Mr Musk's move to restrict usage at the weekend. ......... Threads could be the biggest threat faced by Twitter to date. Mark Zuckerberg has a history of borrowing other company's ideas - and making them work. ...... Meta's Reels is widely seen as a TikTok copy, while Stories looks similar to Snapchat. .

Meta’s ‘Twitter Killer’ App Is Coming Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, teased a new app called Threads that is set to take on Twitter for real-time digital conversations........ Mark Zuckerberg has long wanted to dislodge Twitter and provide the central place for public conversation online. Yet Twitter has remained stubbornly irreplaceable. ............ On Monday, his company, Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, teased a new app aimed squarely at Twitter’s territory. .......... The app appears to function much like Twitter, emphasizing public conversations, with users able to follow people they already do on Instagram. Some techies have referred to the coming app as a “Twitter killer.” .......... Then over the weekend, Mr. Musk imposed limits on how many tweets its users would be able to read when using the app. He said the move was in response to other companies taking Twitter’s data in a process called “scraping.” Twitter’s users were soon met with messages that they had exceeded their “rate limit,” effectively making the app unusable after a short amount of time viewing posts. Many Twitter users became frustrated............ “If there’s ever been a more self-destructive owner of a multibillion-dollar enterprise who resents the very customers who determine the success of that enterprise, I am unaware of it,” Lou Paskalis, founder and chief executive of AJL Advisory, a marketing and advertising technology strategy firm, said of Mr. Musk and Twitter............ The latest turbulence at Twitter appears to have given Mr. Zuckerberg an opening for Threads. .......... Meta’s executives have discussed how to capitalize on the chaos at Twitter since last year, including by building a rival service. “Twitter is in crisis and Meta needs its mojo back,” one Meta employee wrote in an internal post last year, according to a report in December by The New York Times. “LET’S GO FOR THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER.”............. Meta remains the most credible competitor to Twitter, with deep pockets and an audience of more than three billion people who use Facebook, Instagram or its other apps. Other platforms trying to capitalize on Twitter’s weakness — such as Tumblr, Nostr, Spill, Mastodon and Bluesky — are all much smaller than Meta.......... In Twitter’s earliest days, Mr. Zuckerberg offered to purchase the company, but was rebuffed .

SCO summit: Putin says sanctions making Russia stronger The 2023 SCO summit is taking place virtually under India's leadership. ...... "Russia counters all these external sanctions, pressures and continues to develop as never before".......... He added that more than 80% of trade between Chinese and Russian people was in roubles and yuan, and urged other SCO members to follow the same process. .......... China, Russia and four Central Asian countries formed the SCO in 2001 as a countermeasure to limit the influence of the West in the region. India and Pakistan joined the group in 2017.



America’s Foes Are Joining Forces Iran is helping to manufacture drones for Russia. China operates a spy base in Cuba. ......... until the late 1940s, Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese nationalist leader, believed the United States “could be the champion of his cause” of independence from France. During World War II, Mr. Minh’s rebel army, the Viet Minh, worked alongside the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the C.I.A., in America’s fight against Japan. ......... But as Cold War tensions rose, the Truman administration disregarded its Asia experts — many of whom considered the Viet Minh a primarily nationalist rather than Communist movement — and backed French efforts to preserve its empire. By 1950, the Viet Minh were receiving arms from Communist China. ...... U.S. animosity, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev observed, pushed Cuba toward the U.S.S.R. “like an iron filing to a magnet.”

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Top Tech CEOs Go To Washington



I believe the anti-trust angst is valid. The big tech companies do seem to be stifling competition with their sheer size. The Google argument that their competition is just one click away belies the fact that search is a hugely capital intensive effort. It is more expensive to build a search engine than it is to build a Boeing jet plane. That huge cost is a moat around the Google castle. The same is true for the other big tech companies. 

But the lack of competition is not true only in tech. Their size makes it obvious but the US economy has a major lack of competition problem in many sectors. 

I do think many next big companies are dying too early in the presence of these big tech companies. 

But anti-trust is the smaller of my concerns. 

Saudi Arabia had oil, but it was undiscovered and it was underground. Western companies swooped in to dig it out. Those companies did not and do not get to take all of the oil money. Data is the new oil. But individual consumers are not getting any pay. There ought to be a 70-30 split. The individual should get 70% and the company that harvests and monetizes the data should keep 30%, which would still be a lot. Especially since the oil wells are about to get huge. 

This has to be established as a right. Taking that political step will necessarily bring up legitimate issues of data privacy and security. And in favor of innovation, we could put a floor underneath the arrangement. Small companies would not have to pay. Only after you cross a certain size you pay up. 

This would have to be a global understanding. This means the tech companies have an obligation to together offer up the digital equivalent of a Social Security number and online bank accounts to all their users. They can. 

Something is amiss. The US Congress does not have jurisdiction over the planet. What we need is a global parliament

Makes me wonder, though, why is Microsoft missing? Does Congress feel like it already grilled Microsoft back in the days!? 

The UBI is infrastructure for the global knowledge economy and is in the best interests of these tech companies. They should bring it about. 

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google And Facebook Make Up A Record ...

Monday, September 16, 2019

Libra And The "Global" Financial System







Will Facebook’s Libra Change the Way the World Banks? The Templars were originally a Catholic military order that took up residence in Jerusalem, where they pledged to protect Christian pilgrims. They created the economic infrastructure for the Crusades, writing promissory notes in France or England that were redeemable in the Levant. A cipher based on the shape of the cross ostensibly guaranteed the notes’ security. In other words, the Templars created a variant on modern international transfer services, five hundred years before the first central bank......... Today, the demand mounts for a similar system, but on a global scale. Billions of people have no access to banks. Countless others endure high fees and slow transactions, especially when sending money across borders. What we consider a global financial system is, in reality, hardly global. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Bank of International Settlements, and the Financial Stability Board provide little more than a multilateral veneer over relationships that are primarily bilateral and dominated by commercial and central banks. Even within borders, moving money involves costly processes of settlement and exchange........... A blockchain-type network creates a public ledger, a universally trustworthy account of who owes what. Just as the Templar cipher verified an otherwise forgeable piece of paper, cryptography will ensure that Libra cannot be spent twice or otherwise duplicated. Such technologically guaranteed, artificial scarcity allows cryptocurrencies to operate as money........ Libra will be redeemable at a fixed price for certain established currencies (such as dollars, euros, and yen). Members of the association will deposit assets in the Libra Reserve as backing any time someone wants to buy more Libra. As a result, whereas Bitcoin fluctuates wildly in value, Libra should remain relatively stable. That stability makes Libra potentially useful not only as a store of value but as a medium of exchange. Users will, Facebook argues, be able to send money around the world as easily as they send messages and videos........ In addition to banking the unbanked, Libra could replace traditional intermediaries in cross-border transactions, such as remittances, which amount to more than $600 billion per year. Libra could also end up reducing the power of central banks in countries with weak currencies or strong capital controls, because it will allow people to move their money out of these countries more easily. ......... Facebook is already in the crosshairs of governments around the world, and the stakes are nothing less than the stability of the global economy....... Much of the current financial system is antiquated below the surface. ........ The country with the most to lose from Libra also has the most to gain from a revolution in the global financial system. That country is China. China bans Facebook and forbids trading in cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) that could circumvent its capital controls. China is also home to the world’s biggest digital payments systems. WeChatPay and AliPay together process as many transactions in a day as the United States does in nine months. They operate only with China’s own currency, the renminbi, and they are centrally controlled, which makes payments easy for the government to access or limit. Facebook’s argument to regulators is that if an American company doesn’t move aggressively into blockchain-based payments, China will. The truth is that Facebook’s entry has accelerated China’s movement in this direction.........

No country is more interested than China in displacing American hegemony over global financial institutions. Cryptocurrency serves that objective.

........ There is also the IMF, whose director, Christine Lagarde, has already hinted at a possible “IMFcoin” based on the IMF-sponsored assets known as Special Drawing Rights......... Money transfer helped the order become one of the wealthiest institutions in medieval Europe—a sprawling financial empire and powerful creditor to kings. After the crusaders were pushed out of the Levant, however, the Templars languished. And then the order collapsed abruptly at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

The French King Philip IV, deeply in debt to the Templars, arrested and tortured many of its members on trumped-up charges of heresy. He eventually convinced the pope to ban the order, coincidentally canceling his debts.

The Templars’ power and wealth were their undoing. Facebook should take heed.





Sunday, August 11, 2019

My Blog Posts About Facebook




The Unfacebook (on August 28, 2007)
Microsoft, Google, Facebook: NY Tech MeetUp Has Arrived (on November 07, 2007)
What Should Facebook Do (on March 05, 2009)
Twitter And The Time Dimension (on March 06, 2009)
I Talked To Google Through Twitter And It Worked Like Magic (on March 26, 2009)
The Search Results, The Links, The Inbox, The Stream (on March 30, 2009)
Peter Thiel: Primitive Mind In The Tech Sector (on April 28, 2009)
Define Social Media (on April 29, 2009)
Stand Up Comedy: Thinking On Your Feet: 2.0 (on May 03, 2009)
Facebook Faceoff Firefox (on May 10, 2009)
Facebook's Ad Space Is Different (on May 23, 2009)
Is Google Wave Social Enough To Challenge Facebook, Twitter? (on June 02, 2009)
Facebook And Mashable: Social Media And Social Media Blog (on June 09, 2009)
Facebook Landgrab: A Friday Midnight Call (on June 13, 2009)
Twitter Should Hand Over Search To Google (on August 22, 2009)
The FriendFeed, Facebook Merger (on August 26, 2009)
The Next Big Thing In Social Networking (on October 14, 2009)
Google, Bing And Social Media (on October 22, 2009)
Time, Facebook Connect, And Comments (on December 18, 2009)

Why Will Facebook Itself Not Do Facebook Enterprise? (on April 15, 2010)
Graphic Reality (on April 23, 2010)
Zuckerberg Has Stature (on June 06, 2010)
Facebook Doing Location Is Like Google Doing Social, Almost (on August 17, 2010)
The Web Lifestyle And Company Cultures (on August 17, 2010)
Dennis Crowley, Facebook, And The Location Ecosystem (on August 22, 2010)
I Was In Chicago? Facebook Places Messing Up (on August 22, 2010)
Apple Trying To "Get" Social Now? (on September 02, 2010)
The Facebook Search Engine (on September 06, 2010)
Links And Likes (on September 06, 2010)
StartUp Anxiety For FourSquare? (on September 08, 2010)
Zuck In New Yorker (on September 16, 2010)
Google's Social Efforts (on September 17, 2010)
Adoption And Missed Opportunities (on September 30, 2010)
The Social Network: Before Seeing The Movie (on October 01, 2010)
I Gave In: Facebook: The Movie (on October 01, 2010)
Paradise City (on October 02, 2010)
To Make Sense Of The Facebook Movie (on October 04, 2010)
Facebook Needs To Revamp Email Next (on October 06, 2010)
Facebook's Location Patent (on October 07, 2010)
A Sophisticated Like Button (on October 13, 2010)
David Kirkpatrick: "Zuck Is Not An Asshole" (on October 13, 2010)
Google Under Attack? (on October 15, 2010)
Eduardo Saverin: Roommate Does Not Mean Best Friend (on October 15, 2010)
A Facebook Browser? A Facebook Operating System? (on October 21, 2010)
Social Graph, Social Concentric Circles (on October 28, 2010)
Unique URL For Facebook Updates (on October 30, 2010)
Dropio Acquired (on November 01, 2010)
Facebook Alternative? Dave McClure Is Full Of It (on November 01, 2010)
Facebook's Aggression (on November 03, 2010)
Facebook And Twitter: The Only Two That Count (on November 05, 2010)
Brazil On Orkut (on November 09, 2010)
The Idea Of A Social Browser (on November 09, 2010)
If You Could Take Your Data Center With You (on November 11, 2010)
Facebook's Gmail Killer? Wow (on November 12, 2010)
Should FourSquare Be Scared Of Facebook? (on November 14, 2010)
Facebook's Gmail Killer Email: The Expectation Is In The Air (on November 15, 2010)
Does Path Stand A Chance? (on November 15, 2010)
Facebook Messaging: Awesome (on November 15, 2010)
Facebook Messaging Event: My Favorite Question (on November 15, 2010)
Google, GroupOn: Facebook Needs To Go Public (on November 30, 2010)
Zuckerberg On CBS (on December 06, 2010)
Congrats Zuck (on December 16, 2010)
Mark Suster: The Social Network: Facebook To Fragmentation (on December 05, 2010)

The Twins Were Rowing Boats (on January 01, 2011)
FoodSpotting's Social Graph: FoodSpotting Day: January 15 (on January 04, 2011)
Facebook Could Do Well In Search (on January 04, 2011)
I Am On Facebook Messages Now (on January 07, 2011)
Facebook Going After Disqus Now? (on February 01, 2011)
Facebook Going Into Blog Comments Is Huge (on February 02, 2011)
When Zuck's Facebook Account Got Hacked (on February 14, 2011)
The Google/Facebook Of Microfinance (on February 14, 2011)
Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, FoodSpotting: Sharks (on February 18, 2011)
Facebook Comments To Go: Facebook Nailed It (on March 01, 2011)
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn (on March 02, 2011)
Facebook Comments: First Impressions (on March 07, 2011)
Farmville's Got Competition (on March 07, 2011)
Facebook Location (on April 07, 2011)
9400 Workers In Six Years? Facebook Is Not Seeing Right (on April 27, 2011)
Facebook Getting Smarter With Social Ads (on April 27, 2011)
Facebook Valuation: Up And Up (on May 03, 2011)
Google's Social Search (on May 19, 2011)
Social Concentric Circles (on May 19, 2011)
Apple Going After Google's Cloud? Facebook Going After Apple With HTML5 (on June 16, 2011)
Path + Instagram + Color (on June 16, 2011)
Facebook's Next Major Breakthrough (on July 01, 2011)
Sheryl Sandberg: New Yorker Profile (on July 04, 2011)
The Facebook Skype Integration Is Huge (on July 06, 2011)
Facebook Videocalling: I Am On Now (on July 06, 2011)
Facebook Beats Google Plus On Design (on July 07, 2011)
Plus, Face (on July 15, 2011)
Finally Facebook Lets Me Reach Out To Non Friends (on September 14, 2011)
HTML5 And F8 (on September 19, 2011)
The Facebook Revamp Is Heartwarming (on September 24, 2011)
Sean Parker: Mystery Man (on September 30, 2011)
Sean Parker's 2009 Email To Spotify (on October 08, 2011)
Google Plus: What Went Wrong? (on October 18, 2011)
How To Recommit Facebook To The Power Users (on October 25, 2011)

Facebook And Big Data (on January 15, 2012)
So Facebook Went IPO (on February 02, 2012)
A Facebook Supported Online Parliament (on February 11, 2012)
Google Plus Is Google's Bing (on April 08, 2012)
Instagram: A Billion In Two Years (on April 09, 2012)
Now That Instagram Has Been Bought By Facebook (on April 10, 2012)
The Facebook IPO Fiasco (on June 27, 2012)
Facebook And Money (on July 11, 2012)
The Facebook Like Button: Not Working Right Now (on July 11, 2012)
Fred Wilson, Mark Zuckerberg And Mobile (on July 15, 2012)
Asana Just Like Facebook (on July 23, 2012)
The Facebook Phone (on July 25, 2012)
Facebook's Money Problem (on July 26, 2012)
No Facebook Phone (on July 27, 2012)
Facebook At $25: This Is Not A Glitch (on July 27, 2012)
The Commandos Behind Facebook's Growth (on July 30, 2012)
Facebook Eating Into Its Ecosystem (on July 31, 2012)
Facebook Doldrums (on August 02, 2012)
Facebook In 2022 (on August 05, 2012)
Facebook's Financial Woes Are Unnecessary (on August 13, 2012)
Facebook's Proposed Campus: Lots Of Open Space (on August 25, 2012)
Facebook's Search Option (on September 17, 2012)
Yahoo Facebook Search Alliance Would Be Interesting (on November 18, 2012)
Off Season April Fool Joke On Yahoo Facebook Search Deal (on November 19, 2012)
Facebook Search Can't Be Bing (on December 29, 2012)

Snapchat, Poke And Facebook (on January 01, 2013)
A Social Graph Can't Last 10 Years (on January 01, 2013)
Facebook's Graph Search: A Long Time Coming (on January 16, 2013)
Facebook Graph Search: The Alternative View (on January 23, 2013)
The Facebook Phone (on April 01, 2013)
A Case For A Facebook Phone (on April 04, 2013)
Snapchat (on December 14, 2013)
Facebook Drones: Super Exciting (on March 28, 2014)
Pinterest Dwarfing Facebook? (on October 18, 2014)

Facebook's Out On Free Internet Could Be A Mobile Browser (on January 08, 2016)
In Defence Of Facebook (on November 22, 2018)
Facebook's Blockchain Push: Libra (on June 19, 2019)


For more: http://technbiz.blogspot.com/search?q=facebook


Bits And Pieces (Of Me)

Being Called Sean Parker
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2011/06/white-male-conspiracy-to-drive-me.html
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/06/paul-graham-brad-feld-me-bbc.html
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/09/netizen-has-arrived-link-from-avc.html (This blog post by Fred Wilson where he hyperlinked to my blog post was his most popular for the year)
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2012/02/top-influencer-during-social-media-week.html
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2011/06/robin-hood-my-german-nickname.html



CNN: Inside the partnership of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg


Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Facebook's Blockchain Push: Libra

Facebook has taken a public relations beating since 2016. A lot of people blame Facebook for Trump.

There are serious privacy and security issues that the entire sector of tech needs to address. 5G is so promising, but one major line of attack on Huawei has been to do with privacy and security.

But tomorrow is not going to wait. And of the tech giants - Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook - looks like Facebook has made the boldest move on the biggest of the next big things: The Blockchain.

Taking banking to the unbanked is a noble goal. They say poverty is a lack of cash. Direct cash to the poorest two billion would eliminate poverty. I am all for it.

A Libra is like a dollar, or a euro, or a yen, or renminbi. The worth of one Libra likely will be pegged to a basket of all those major currencies. This is something the governments of the world should have long done but never did. That's the first part. The second part is anyone anywhere on the planet will be able to move money as near or as far as they want for zero costs. That's revolutionary. The best use case scenario would be where direct deposits are made into the accounts of the two billion poorest. That is the best way to fight poverty. Poverty is lack of cash. Inject cash.

What Facebook should do next - and I said this years ago - is add a voting feature to its Groups, and a book-keeping feature.

Libra will be governed by a body where Facebook will have only 1% of the vote. Calibra will be a Facebook app, but then anyone else is free to build a Calibra competitor, including the other members of the Big Five.















Libra: White Paper



Bitcoin’s digital gold, but Facebook’s Libra is the digital dollar—here’s why that matters there are some crucial differences between Libra and a cryptocurrency like bitcoin. ....... what Libra is doing is creating a digital version of the U.S. dollar, yen, euro. It’s like a stablecoin, but you still have all the characteristics of a fiat currency ...... With Libra, Facebook users will be able to exchange their dollars for Libra tokens, thus entrusting Facebook and its fellow backers with building a reliable ledger of all transactions ....... Libra users will have to trust the company that has perhaps been most plagued by issues around trust and privacy: Facebook. ...... it’s like the AOL moment: AOL got you online, Libra’s going to get you into crypto

The Senate will hold a hearing next month on Facebook’s Libra currency “Facebook is already too big and too powerful, and it has used that power to exploit users’ data without protecting their privacy,” Brown said yesterday. “We cannot allow Facebook to run a risky new cryptocurrency out of a Swiss bank account without oversight. I’m calling on our financial watchdogs to scrutinize this closely to ensure users are protected.”

FACEBOOK’S LIBRA REVEALS SILICON VALLEY’S NAKED AMBITION a comprehensive, borderless economic system for its platform, which is based on a new cryptocurrency, Libra. ....... The company plans to sit ostentatiously on its hands when it comes to governing the project, just one member of the so-called Libra Association, with a total of 28, to emphasize the separation between the currency—which will have a record of your every purchase—and the company ........ whatever scandals may trail the big Silicon Valley companies they are not scaling back, whether that means studying how to eavesdrop on people’s brainwaves to read their minds or building a currency to circumvent borders and national regulation ....... Move fast and break things may have destroyed civic institutions and jeopardized our democracy, but the opposite should be downright scary: Move slow and they break you up. ........ “Libra holds the potential to provide billions of people around the world with access to a more inclusive, more open financial ecosystem,” he said, adding, “We know the journey is just beginning, but together we can achieve Libra’s mission to create a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that will empower billions of people.” ...... spoke of the high fees for transferring money back home, the inefficient requirements of traditional banking, and, most sweepingly, of bringing financial services to the “unbanked” across the far corners of the globe. ......

Libra Quotes we should be able to send money as quickly and securely across borders as we send photos and email. ........... e frictionless commerce for hundreds of millions of people around the world ....... We are committed to ensure that the Internet of
Everything comes with the inclusion of everyone. ........ we know how important it is to promote financial inclusion. We are
committed to developing solutions that are efficient, innovative, and cheap. ...... a new, global digital currency, built on blockchain technology. ....... creating a world without financial borders, where everyone can prosper. ...... Libra has the potential to be one of the most impactful financial innovation opportunities of our time ........ there is an
opportunity to better reach Spotify’s total addressable market, eliminate friction, and enable payments in mass scale. ......... The Libra Association has the potential to significantly expand access to the global economy ........ Sending money to your friend shouldn’t be harder than getting them an Uber ride home. ....... Union Square Ventures has always looked to back platforms that will bring cryptocurrencies to mainstream consumers at scale. Libra is exactly that type of effort, and we look forward to participating in its development and governance. ......... In Digital Societies people should be able to access financial services regardless of where they live or how much they have. ......... This has the potential to be truly transformative and will benefit those who have never used, or are struggling to access, financial services around the world. ....... We are particularly enthusiastic about the potential of Libra’s programming language, Move. Thoughtfully designed smart contracts operating on a widely accessible and stable global currency platform will unlock never-seen-before gains from trade, benefiting society at a meaningful scale. ....... Kiva is focused on addressing the systemic barriers impeding access to financial services for 1.7
billion unbanked individuals around the world. We’re proud to serve as a Founding Partner of the Libra Association and excited by the potential for new technologies to create a more inclusive financial system. ....... More than 1.7 billion people today are financially cut off from the world, with no access to a bank account- a poverty trap that could deepen as the rest of the world becomes ever-more connected. A global digital currency has the potential to spark financial inclusion for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, connecting them to the local, national, and global economy ......... Libra has the potential to level the playing field for the 1.7 billion people who remain unbanked and excluded from formal financial services – over half of whom are women! This may be the pivotal moment in time when we look back and recognize we had the key that unlocked the door for billions of people! ....... What we’ve found in almost two decades of work with the financially vulnerable is that when provided with
the right tools, people make good financial decisions. We’ve all read that blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. Financial exclusion and insecurity are clearly problems, both globally and in our home here in the U.S. If a blockchain-based stable cryptocurrency can make a lasting dent in this problem - by offering underserved people critical tools: a stable, secure, convenient place to store and move funds - we should do all we can to understand and explore the opportunity. ....... By simplifying access to the financial transactions that so many of us take for granted, these tools help build resilience and opportunity for the underserved. ....... It represents a highly disruptive step change not just for the cryptocurrency industry, but also for the broader financial system.


Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra aims to 'put the currency back in cryptocurrency' While the “founding members” of Libra include some very big names in payments and commerce—like Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Stripe, Coinbase, and eBay—many still see the entire project as a Facebook venture, considering the simultaneously coordinated announcements and that Facebook executive David Marcus oversaw the Libra launch. ...... It really is designed to be a unit of purchase and a unit of daily transactions, as opposed to a speculative asset—which is, candidly, where many cryptocurrencies have stood. ...... eventually, when the Libra blockchain launches, it aims to have 100 founding members, with no one member having more than 1% say in the governance.

Bitcoin Faces Technical Hurdle as Libra Steals Crypto Spotlight

Welcome to the official White Paper a new decentralized blockchain, a low-volatility cryptocurrency, and a smart contract platform that together aim to create a new opportunity for responsible financial services innovation. ...... 1.7 billion adults globally remain outside of the financial system with no access to a traditional bank, even though one billion have a mobile phone and nearly half a billion have internet access. ...... All over the world, people with less money pay more for financial services. Hard-earned income is eroded by fees, from remittances and wire costs to overdraft and ATM charges. Payday loans can charge annualized interest rates of 400 percent or more, and finance charges can be as high as $30 just to borrow $100........ We believe that many more people should have access to financial services and to cheap capital. ...... global, open, instant and low-cost movement of money will create immense economic opportunity and more commerce across the world......... people will increasingly trust decentralized forms of governance. ........ a global currency and financial infrastructure should be designed and governed as a public good. ...... the promise of “the internet of money.” ...... Moving money around globally should be as easy and cost-effective as — and even more safe and secure than — sending a text message or sharing a photo, no matter where you live, what you do, or how much you earn. ....... people need to have confidence that they can use Libra and that its value will remain relatively stable over time....... Unlike the majority of cryptocurrencies, Libra is fully backed by a reserve of real assets. A basket of bank deposits and short-term government securities will be held in the Libra Reserve for every Libra that is created, building trust in its intrinsic value. ........ any consumer, developer, or business can use the Libra network, build products on top of it, and add value through their services. ...... The goal of the Libra Blockchain is to serve as a solid foundation for financial services, including a new global currency, which could meet the daily financial needs of billions of people. ....... “Move” is a new programming language for implementing custom transaction logic and “smart contracts” on the Libra Blockchain. Because of Libra’s goal to one day serve billions of people, Move is designed with safety and security as the highest priorities. ......... We believe that the world needs a global, digitally native currency that brings together the attributes of the world’s best currencies: stability, low inflation, wide global acceptance, and fungibility. ..... anyone with Libra has a high degree of assurance they can convert their digital currency into local fiat currency based on an exchange rate, just like exchanging one currency for another when traveling. ....... will be backed by a collection of low-volatility assets, such as bank deposits and short-term government securities in currencies from stable and reputable central banks......... the ability to send money quickly, the security of cryptography, and the freedom to easily transmit funds across borders. Just as people can use their phones to message friends anywhere in the world today, with Libra, the same can be done with money — instantly, securely, and at low cost.......... success will mean that a person working abroad has a fast and simple way to send money to family back home, and a college student can pay their rent as easily as they can buy a coffee.














Friday, April 26, 2019

Kara Swisher: Journalista





What Should Facebook Do (2009)
Facebook's Ad Space Is Different (2009)
Discovering LinkedIn In 2019
In Defence Of Facebook (November 2018)


Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Discovering LinkedIn In 2019

I discovered Twitter in 2009, and JP Rangaswami was a big reason why. His blog Confused Of Calcutta that a friend pointed out to had many posts where he shared his enthusiasm for Twitter. I got infected. Within a year I became a top followed in NYC on Twitter. And I was no Ashton Kutcher. I worked hard at it.

It is not like I had not heard of Twitter. I had. But at first, I thought it was ridiculous. (I was also in attendance at the NY Tech MeetUp where FourSquare first presented, and I was unimpressed with what the two Founders called "check-in") I had been an avid blogger for years. And I thought Twitter was for people who can compose full sentences, but full paragraphs are beyond their reach. I was not going to stoop down.

LinkedIn I signed up for not long after it was launched. I have been a keen reader of tech news since the late 1990s, and so I seldom missed developments. But until this year, I never really used LinkedIn. I updated my profile and kept it current, but that was just because.

This year LinkedIn has become my favorite social network. I have become an avid user. I have been using it for hours a day. It keeps running in the background. It has become more like an Operating System.

When I was living in the city (now I live 90 minutes out, more depending on your mode of transportation) I went to numerous tech events. And often you exchanged business cards. The idea would be to try and connect with those people online.

Now I realize I was doing it in reverse and wasting a lot of precious time. You meet people online. You try to connect with them. They might, they might not reciprocate. Which begs the question, did you have a good enough reason to connect, did you write a relevant enough first email?

After you connect, you can have so much communication online. LinkedIn messaging might not be the best messaging out there, but it works fine. And if you connect with someone enough, you might even want to meet. But that is a rather high threshold. What will you talk in person that you can not over email and voice chat? Especially when a meeting is so hard to arrange. For both parties.

I continue to use Twitter and Facebook, pretty much daily. And although I don't blog as regularly as I used to, my blogs are still active. Now I also blog on LinkedIn itself. But that is deliberately few and far between. If people decide to read my articles, let them be few enough that they might actually read them. That is what I have thought.

The LinkedIn profile is an excellent format. If you have only a few minutes to get to know me, reading my LinkedIn profile might be how you ought to spend your time. The kind of work people have done over the years gives you a pretty good picture of who someone is as a person. Even if your interest in them might not be work-related.

And so I have been networking on LinkedIn like crazy. I don't miss the city. I quite like the clean air around where I live. And I don't much miss the networking tech events either. LinkedIn is far superior an experience.

It feels like for the first time I am building a company (two, actually) in earnest. And LinkedIn is the Operating System I am happily using.

LinkedIn trending topics has also become my favorite place online to go for news. Although I go many places on a daily basis.

And to say I have actually seen Reid Hoffman in person. Mike Bloomberg threw a party. I don't know how I got invited. But that is where I got to meet and know Arianna Huffington also. Hoffman was the featured speaker.





Thursday, November 22, 2018

In Defence Of Facebook

It feels like 1999 for Facebook. Microsoft did not split, but all the DC harassing was a hint it was no longer on the cutting edges of innovation. Facebook feels like on a standstill. It has taken quite a beating. There is a backlash.

Facebook is not the next Facebook, and Google is not the next Google, although some of Google's so-called moonshot projects are quite impressive, and in the pipeline.

Today I make free video calls to my parents in Nepal, thanks to Facebook Messenger, although it is true there are others like it. When I showed up for college in Kentucky, and the Internet was the new kid on the block, I had to pay something like two dollars per minute to call my parents. The college phone service was a monopoly. VOIP was unheard of. So when a few years later I came across 20 cents per minute deals, it felt like rocket science to me. Also, at that work study college, you were legitimately paid way below minimum wage. Which meant a week's wages could easily be spent on one conversation. :)

In my home village in Nepal, one of my failed initiatives was to launch a library. It did not fail. We did collect a few books. I donated most of it. But it did not take off as envisioned. Well, in that village today you can get a phone with a data plan. And, boom, there is a library called Google.

The tech giants are subject to public criticism, sure, why not. But let's maintain perspective.



The Big Four -- Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook --- have collected a lot of data on each of us. True. But what would be the best next step? I think data portability. The data around each person is a personal oil well. It will pay for Universal Basic Income

FACEBOOK BOARD DEFENDS HOW ZUCKERBERG, SANDBERG HANDLED CRISIS

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Could IBM Have Bought Microsoft?

Not likely. Microsoft did try to buy Google, "at any price." And Google did try to buy Facebook. But the Blockchain is not just the next Google or Facebook, it is an entirely new platform, it is the next Internet. There is no buying the Internet.

It would be hard, perhaps impossible, for a company like Google to also be big on the Blockchain. It is an Internet company. 
Brave is a web browser that competes with Google’s Chrome. Instead of running targeted ads, Brave uses blockchain technology to pay websites when people spend time there. BitClave lets people perform searches online, and get rewarded for seeing ads. Another project, Presearch, is also using blockchain to try to compete with Google’s search engine


A Small Sales Tax Makes Sense

It makes sense for the giant tech companies to pay something like a 3% tax to local jurisdictions globally, why only Europe? It goes beyond purchases. If data is the new oil, the people sitting on the oil wells, those billions of people, ought to have a say.


Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Facebook Is Facing A Backlash

And that is putting it mildly. Facebook sure is facing a major backlash. The global darling app is seen using nefarious means. This is kind of like when Microsoft came under the gun in the late 1990s with monopoly accusations. The beating created space for other tech companies that became big. Facebook might have hit its high point. It is hard for one company to ride multiple technology waves. Although I have thought Facebook might also have some interesting VR applications in mind.

Here is Zuck's latest missive. He is on the defensive.

Employees have begun to worry that the company won’t be able to achieve its biggest goals if users decide that Facebook isn’t trustworthy enough to hold their data. At the meeting on Tuesday, the mood was especially grim. One employee told a Bloomberg Businessweek reporter that the only time he’d felt as uncomfortable at work, or as responsible for the world’s problems, was the day Donald Trump won the presidency.