Facebook and eBay downplay Google threat

Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster stated Facebook would have to screw up in a huge way for Google to steal its crown. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images

SILICON Valley star Sean Parker stated this day that Facebook would have to blunder in a huge way for Google’s social network to steal its crown.

“Facebook would have to screw up royally and Google would have to do something really smart,” Parker stated during an on-stage interview that opened a Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Parker co-founded controversial music-sharing service Napster in the 1990s and his role in Facebook’s rise was woven into the hit Hollywood film The Social Network.

“It is tough to compete with network effects,” Parker stated when asked his thoughts on the threat posed to Facebook by Google+.

Google needs to get Facebook users to switch allegiances, then do the same with those people’s on-line friends, and those people’s friends, and so on, explained Parker, who owns part of Facebook.

A threat to Facebook is “power users” behind attention-grabbing content turning to rival on-line venues to escape drowning in the flood of posts, according Parker.

“I do not think privacy is Facebook’s biggest problem,” Parker said, touching on a topic for which Facebook has been criticised.

“The biggest problem is the glut of information that power users are overwhelmed with,” he continued. “Maybe the threat to Facebook is the power users have gone to Twitter or Google+.”

He supported Facebook ramping up ways for its approximately 800 million users to more selectively share posts, photos or other information with one another.

Online auction powerhouse eBay and its thriving financial transactions service PayPal also see strong “network effects” providing defence from Google’s growing commerce platform.

“I concur with Sean, network effects are powerful things,” eBay chief executive John Donahoe stated during an on-stage interview at Web 2.0.

Google has a tremendous on-line search and advertising platform and Facebook a widely embraced social platform, while eBay has an entrenched “e-commerce” platform, according to Donahoe.

“The wall between e-commerce and retail is crumbling amazingly fast,” Donahoe said. “The massive retailers are banging down our doors and saying ‘The world is changing; we need help’.”

More Source:

Facebook and eBay downplay Google threat
Facebook and eBay downplay Google threat - The Economic Times
Facebook, eBay downplay Google threat ‹ Japan Today: Japan ...
Rachel Harraway (@rachelharraway) on Twitter

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Submited at Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 at 7:00 pm on Technology by Gillan
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