The arguments for why the market tends towards concentration are based on about 50 years worth of nobel prize winning economics research. The reason facebook defeated my space is because it grafted itself on to a clustered set of network relationships that began in college. Facebook adopted a different go to market strategy where they on boarded college after college, then office after office, and high school after high school,. so when you joined, it felt safe and all your friends were there. It wasn't because of a u x design or the blue of the facebook masthead.
Whether we call it Facebook or the recently coined Meta, the Silicon Valley tech giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg has rarely been out of the headlines since its inception over a decade ago and rarely have those headlines been good news. From Cambridge Analytica to the United States Capitol attack, the company's utopian ideals of connecting up society seem to often have the opposite effect. However, millions of people use it to lead their daily lives, from staying in touch with each other to building businesses on its networks. Is it time to break up Facebook? To find out, economist and broadcaster Linda Yueh is joined by Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project and author of Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy, and Sinan Aral, Professor of Management, IT, Marketing and Data Science at MIT, and author of The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy and Our Health – and How We Must Adapt.
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