back to article Facebook's dabblings in TV suggest Zuck isn't actually a genius after all

Mark Zuckerberg is the world's fifth-richest man on the basis that stock markets think he's pretty smart. That's not the entire reason for Zuck taking his place alongside Gulf oil sheikhs – but it's certainly a big factor in Facebook's astronomical evaluation. But this week's Facebook strategy insights make you wonder how smart …

  1. R Soles

    The answer is ...

    Take as much of the billions of advertising dollars that are currently going to standard TV companies as they can

  2. Mage Silver badge

    Genius

    It was pure luck.

    He's a one trick pony that copied other people's trick. (Social Media).

    He's been buying up other companies and breaking privacy laws even before that. (Instagram)

    Also

    http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38834867

    1. gv

      Re: Genius

      It's amazing how much serendipity and luck are actually involved in these successful businesses, or indeed a top performing sports team. Human life is intrinsically stochastic, but it doesn't seem to stop people trying to emulate their 'heroes' by blithely copying their habits/practices.

      1. cosmogoblin

        Re: Genius

        It's called a cargo-cult.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Genius

      That's not it.

      Zuckerberg is just the face of an organization bankrolled by venture capital front companies of the CIA, and in Google's case also the NSA and INSCOM.

      The whole "starting a company from your garage or dormroom" is American dream propaganda. The reason his crappy PHP forum took off, and yours didn't, was the full backing of the US surveillance industrial complex.

      1. Rich 11

        Re: Genius

        Did you know that tinfoil is now manufactured with tiny transmitters embedded within it? It's all orchestrated by the surveillance-aluminium industrial complex.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Retard

          The connections between CIA/In-Q-Tel, DoD/Sequoia Capital, Google, and Paypal, are a matter of public record. Granted the Facebook connection is a little more obscured.

          After Snowdon there are no conspiracies. Just our mass surveillance reality.

          1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

            Re: Retard

            "After Snowdon there are no conspiracies. Just our mass surveillance reality."

            Snowdon? I'm sorry, but I really can't see how he is supposed to fit in here.

        2. Stevie

          Re: Genius 4 Rich 11

          Sweet Azathoth on an enormously large and nebulous bike!

          Please tell me the chip-infested foil still deflects psychotronic mind-control rays!

        3. VinceH
          Joke

          Re: Genius

          "Did you know that tinfoil is now manufactured with tiny transmitters embedded within it?"

          WHERE WILL THIS IOT NONSENSE STOP!?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    "Pray tell me, dear reader, what a "Facebook TV" box could give you that a Firestick or an Apple TV or a Now TV box doesn't?"

    It will give me sweet FA but it will give Zuckerberg et al my personal data

    1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

      that whole article seemed like a click bait zuck-bashing festival invite!

      not that reg readers need any encouragement for that!

  4. Neill Mitchell

    I will give me the ability to "Like" TV again?

  5. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Seems to me he's off where he is

    It costs a lot of money to make TV programmes that people want to watch, at the moment he's gets the advertising revenue anyway as everybody's second screen while they watch the TV.

    1. Dabooka

      Re: Seems to me he's off where he is

      Everybody?

      You sure about that? And no, I don't mean just me, I mean just how many people do you think actually sit there glued to FriendFace© whilst watching Ant and Dec?

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Seems to me he's off where he is

        Everybody that counts.

        If someone's not glued to FaceFriend while watching, they're probably not going to watch FaceFriend TV either.

        1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

          Re: Seems to me he's off where he is

          I think large amounts of (fb) people are doing that , especially if they wernt the ones who chose the ant & Dec channel.

      2. Missing Semicolon Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: Seems to me he's off where he is

        It's the new way to experience Event Telly. Offspring 1 watched the most recent Sherlock series with phone, open on a FB chat with her mates who were watching the same show.

        Effectively, they watched it together, in their separate living rooms/bedrooms/kitchens.

        1. Wensleydale Cheese

          Which would you prefer?

          "Effectively, they watched it together, in their separate living rooms/bedrooms/kitchens."

          While that might sound like a Grim Future, it's probably better than being forced to watch whatever my parents wanted (and/or putting up with their moaning when we got our own way).

          On balance, a second telly in the house would have sufficed.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "either creating great content"

    Where's the great content? <G> I should have missed it. I saw mostly marketing-driven content probably based on some big-data analysis of preferences of those people who live watching TV.

    Facebook could easily move its business model to TV: Social "contents" - think the stupid reality/contests we see everywhere, tied to its "social network" to allow Facebook "users" interact somehow and believe they're "part of the show". And there's many ways to insert ads in such shows.

    Given the actual world status, I can't see why it shouldn't be a success...

    1. PTW

      Re: "either creating great content"

      Quite agree, TV is now a camel rather than a horse. Designed for/by a committee of millions, now lowest common denominator sludge. Can't we have Play for today* back? Christ, even Crown Court* would knock 90% of today's drivel into a cocked hat.

      *Sorry to Left Pondians/rest of the World for the obscure 70's UK TV references.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: "either creating great content"

        Have an upvote for mentioning 'Play for Today'.

        The last thing the world needs is YABSSTB (Yet Another Bloody Stupid Set Top Box).

        Facebook is obviously well behind the times unless I was wrong in thinking that streaming was where it is hip to be today?

      2. Duffy Moon

        Re: "either creating great content"

        British TV is certainly not what it was in the 60's/70's/80's, but there's a good amount of excellent US TV these days.

        1. Nosher

          Re: "either creating great content"

          Stuff like "The Missing" and "Sherlock" is every bit as good as US output, and nobody does wildlife like "Planet Earth II". Don't forget that for every popular show that makes it over here, there's a ton of dross that doesn't.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "either creating great content"

          There's some really top UK stuff that's come out in the last few years. Especially BBC miniseries such as that thing with Gillian Anderson set in Northern Ireland, the name of which escapes me.

          Oh, and Bake Off :)

      3. Pliny the Whiner

        Re: "either creating great content"

        "Sorry to Left Pondians/rest of the World for the obscure 70's UK TV references."

        Your obscure '70s UK TV references have been forgiven. Go and make obscure '70s UK TV references no more.

        The picture accompanying this article is easily among the creepiest stock photos that El Reg uses. They make Marky Mark look like he sharpens his canines (which he may well do).

        Goddamned vampires.

    2. Rich 11

      Re: "either creating great content"

      tied to its "social network" to allow Facebook "users" interact somehow and believe they're "part of the show".

      Great. A world full of Linda Montags.

    3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: "either creating great content"

      "Facebook could easily move its business model to TV: Social "contents" - think the stupid reality/contests we see everywhere, tied to its "social network" to allow Facebook "users" interact somehow and believe they're "part of the show"."

      Fahrenheit 451 (1966) - Futuristic Interactive TV

      "The future is now, but it's all going wrong." - The The, Perfect

  7. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "the collision of telcos and media companies is propelled by the optimistic idea that people prefer billing simplicity over choice."

    Surely it's the companies that prefer this. The people's preference comes down to take it or leave it.

  8. tr1ck5t3r

    Tying peoples Digital Rights to a platform and advertising revenue. Lets face it, once you have bought lots of music on iTunes, or been buying TV series to watch on your TalkTalk player, you soon realise that you cant move your music, films or TV series to another platform.

    Suckmyberg is just following the crowd, having exploited peoples Ego's with Facebook.

    1. Julz

      If you buy content, keep it locally. If the content is in the cloud, rent it. Buying content and keeping it in the cloud is a schmucks game.

    2. John Lilburne

      What music I've bought via itunes sits on my LAN and I can copy it to where ever I want. However, I mostly buy CDs and those play on TVs, computers, stand alone HiFi equipment. and can be ripped to whatever device I like. Now I have no interest in Apple Music, spotify, Google whatever, or any other streaming/subscription malarkey because those things are truly rip offs.

  9. handleoclast
    FAIL

    Somebody EVER thought Zuck was a genius?

    This article stands with others along the lines of "Does gravity make you fall?" "Is water wet?" and "Is Trump insane?"

    Farcebook is a pile of poo. The UI sucks big time. Want to read the most recent comments on a post when there are a lot of comments? Chronological order seems like a good way, until you realize it puts the newest posts at the bottom, not the top where you want them.

    It's a pile of shit catering to narcissists. It took off because some people are so self-obsessed they'll put up with a really shitty interface as long as they can post their banal, trite, masturbatory crapfest.

    Zuck isn't a genius, he was just lucky that the pile of shitty garbage he put together was slightly more popular than similar piles of shitty garbage that were around at the time and that positive feedback kicked in. Without Zuck we might have had something a lot better.

    1. GingerOne

      Re: Somebody EVER thought Zuck was a genius?

      "Without Zuck we might have had something a lot better."

      Without Zuck this would be an articale about Tom and Myspace. You may not like facebook but the billions of people who use it at least think it's the best for their needs. FriendsReunited, Myspace, Bebo, many tried before Facebook and many since but like it or not, facebook has survived and grown because it is very good at what it does.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "because it is very good at what it does"

        Being the "Internet for dummies"?

  10. Tom_

    Set Top Box

    "Pray tell me, dear reader, what a "Facebook TV" box could give you that a Firestick or an Apple TV or a Now TV box doesn't?"

    Oculus Rift support.

    In Zuck's plan, when you want to watch your sports in VR this will be the default hardware and service.

  11. Tikimon
    Devil

    Wishful thinking among tech companies and journalists?

    There's a shortsightedness in the tech world these days. When someone hits the jackpot, the past is ignored and forgotten, the inconvenient bits shuffled out of sight. In the quest for a bite-size article, important details are omitted until nothing is left but "Person does something and got rich! It must be genius!" Cue bright lights and cultlike worship.

    The truth is rarely like that. I suspect tech folks desperately want to believe in the Next Huge Thing, trying to forget about the myriad of tech startups that went utterly bust. They want to ignore the role that luck and being in the right place at the right time have played in many tech successes. They want to believe that these poster kids justify Silicon Valley et al's inflated sense of importance. Have you ever seen a bigger mutual-admiration society?

    If Farcebook were first released now, it would not reach the heights it has. It arrived as people got tired of Myspace and was easier to use. These days, "everyone else is on FB so I have to be" keeps their numbers high, not that "people think it's the best".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wishful thinking among tech companies and journalists?

      Myspace was awful and waiting to be taken over. Letting people make slightly more modern versions of Geocities pages was a terrible idea.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But this week's Facebook strategy insights make you wonder how smart he really is.

    I'm not wondering. But I do wonder about FaceBook users - some seem reasonably intelligent, but.....

  13. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    video clips "upward of to 10 minutes in length"

    What does that even mean? Setting a "cap" of 10 minutes then indicating it could be more?

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