famebook™

US | Innovation vs. Popularity - What matters most?

I had a 'Called Out Comment' to an article on Forbes by Haydn Shaughnessy the other day and thought I'd repost it to my blog. (Why Facebook Town Hall Shows Obama is Missing the Point on Innovation) I watch with admiration as guys like Steve Case champion innovation with Start Up America and as an entrepreneur have always wanted to build a business in the US; but what value is all that effort if you erode the trust of your foreign markets by turning a convenient blind eye to increasing abuses of digital power or at least allow the implication that your are beholden to those abuses for re-election? Anyway my comment with great sadness was:

"America’s innovation is reliant on sustaining a demand from the global market. On current balance and with Obama stating at Facebook that he doesn’t want bright Chinese kids building the next Intel in China, but coming to the US to build it I believe that innovation isn’t your problem, rather your global public image is what really needs massive investment. Given that Facebook state that 70% of their users are outside the US and they show little or no respect for their rights as digital persona or their privacy, Apple are now found to be stalking every iPhone and iPad owner and Google also not squeeky clean, then it does look a bit like brand US and screw the rest of you whatever the moral cost.

I recognize that innovation is at the heart of growth, but when 70% of users wake up and realize that they are feeding an attitude of domination not free market globalization and integration, then they and the rest of your world markets are going to start ‘unfriending’ you at a staggering rate.

I love America, but what Facebook, Google and now Apple are doing would, in the days of a free media and unfettered journalists, be the stuff of Pulitzers and ‘….gates’ and for your President to stand next to them and imply his endorsement because he’s beholden to the machinery for re-election makes many of us around the world both anxious about the future and very disappointed with brand US. And rest assured we will also innovate twice as hard against it!"

America as the 'beacon of the free world' used to have a nice ring to it, but the light for me is fading... 

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Why Facebook Town Hall Shows Obama is Missing the Point on Innovation

Zuck to Blodget - "You can't handle the truth?"

Prompted by the fact that nearly 800,000 people have read this refreshingly 'against the grain' article by Henry Blodget - "The Guy Who Says He Owns 50% Of Facebook Just Filed A Boatload Of New Evidence -- And It's Breathtaking" (Linked to my take on it in the comments) this amusing image also came into my mind and I thought I'd share it...

Taken from 'A Few Good Men'...

Zuck: *You want answers?*
Blodget: *I want the truth!*
Zuck: *You can't handle the truth!*
[pauses]
Zuck: Son, we live in a world that has privacy walls, and those walls have to be destroyed by stealth. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Obama? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Privacy, and you curse the facebookers. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Privacy's death, while tragic, is the only way we can make money with our current business model. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, makes that possible. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you like connecting with people. We use words like fail forward, opt out, plunder. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent building our valuation. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a global population who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the connectivity that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a keyboard, and hack away. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
Blodget: Did you steal people's ideas and trample over our privacy?
Zuck: I did the job I...
Blodget: *Did you steal people's ideas and trample over our privacy?*

to be continued... (Fill in Zuck's answer via the comments below):

Zuck: ..............................................

*Note: This is my own personal opinion and does not imply statements or comments actually made. I don't hate Facebook, I just think their business model is all wrong and believe their actions on many things are reprehensible and in the absence of evidence to the contrary just don't trust them or the press who are becoming beholden to them. If you read the comments on any articles relating to Facebook, it would seem to me that roughly 60-80% of their users don't either. That's a shame when it's our content which is underpinning it! To that end, I make no apology for poking a little fun at them above!