And the Zuckerberg-Bashing Begins…
by Kara Swisher
Posted on December 4, 2007 at 2:12 PM PT
As inevitable as air, Silicon Valley likes to build them up and then tear them down.
Thus, the bell now tolls for Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg.
We at BoomTown have been consistent and persistent in voicing our various worries about the young entrepreneur, from one of our very first posts, questioning (we think fairly) the unproven business underpinnings of the hot social network, the juvenile nature of its much vaunted third-party widgets, the insanity of its $15 billion valuation, its inane legal fights and the problems with its worrisome ad efforts.
We’ve also taken (we think probably unfairly) shots at those flip-flops he wears. And we did call him a toddler CEO, also a low blow, we have to admit.
But now, it seems, a mob is forming, sparked by the issues around Facebook’s controversial Beacon ad program, which can track your purchases on some external sites and send the information back to your Facebook profile’s news feed.
While it made some changes in Beacon last week, Facebook has not given users a global opt-out of the controversial marketing system in which the social network is seeking to link behavior and advertising more tightly for supposedly bigger payoffs.
The mainstream media and blogosphere, which recently were feting him, have now turned and ire has been growing over Beacon, which seems to be focusing everyone on the inexperience of Zuckerberg and the challenges facing Facebook.
That was clear in a very cogent piece by Josh Quittner on his Techland blog for Fortune today, which was titled “RIP Facebook?”
He writes:
A lot of people say that Facebook has jumped the shark. That’s flat out wrong. In fact, Facebook is now being devoured by the shark. There’s so much blood in the water, it’s attracting other sharks. And if Facebook’s not careful, one of them is bound to come along and finish it off. I’ve never seen anything like it in the annals of fast-rising tech companies that fail.”
As Zuckerberg might say: That bites.
And here is a photo that was put on the Fake Steve Jobs blog, which was using the PhotoCrank service, where users can add captions:
Oh my.
As Quittner writes correctly, right now it is the press that has turned on Zuckerberg, which is sure to be followed by much more important advertisers, who shy away from controversy.
We’ll see how it plays out, but it is surely a flash point moment for Facebook.
Or in the immortal words of actress Joan Crawford: “Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.”
Feel the love, Mark.
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Comments
It seems like every other post is predictably contrarian. It’s like reading a Web 2.0 version of Christopher Hitchens.
Posted by Phil Edwards at December 4th, 2007 at 2:22 pmWhen the trust is gone, what’s left that matters?
Posted by John Minnihan at December 4th, 2007 at 2:47 pmHitchens! You realize being a boozy British crank is my goal in life.
Posted by Kara Swisher at December 4th, 2007 at 2:51 pm@Kara – we all have our aspirations…
Posted by John Minnihan at December 4th, 2007 at 3:12 pmI’m just an old man (38!) but where is the damage control. You can screw up, in fact it is inevitable, it is the recovery that matters. Geez…these kids these days!
I should get a Web 2.0 VC to fund me to make a widget that strips Beacon, I could get millions of users overnight and have a valuation of (pinky to corner of mouth) ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!
Posted by Robert LaBlah at December 4th, 2007 at 7:09 pmsorry, they may have faceplanted on Beacon, but josh’s post was way over the top and far from “cogent” IMHO.
I hardly think 50m users, 100%+ growth rate, & $300m in cash = “jumped the shark”.
bad hair day? maybe.
devoured by sharks? don’t think so.
Posted by dave mcclure at December 4th, 2007 at 11:25 pmRobert:
I do think there is already a Beacon stripper, Dr. Evil.
Posted by Kara Swisher at December 5th, 2007 at 2:09 amDave:
It was cogent!
As you are a cogent fanboy of Mark’s!
But bad hair day?
More like a naughty toddler put Nair all over his scalp.
Ooops!
Posted by Kara Swisher at December 5th, 2007 at 2:11 am@Robert, @Kara – Beacon can easily (for now) be blocked. Apparently, all the javascript that controls this is located behind a common URL: facebook.com/beacon
Using a URL-blocker with that in a rule should do the trick. Here’s where I learned about this:
http://tinyurl.com/2xjak6
Posted by John Minnihan at December 5th, 2007 at 6:41 am@dave mcclure – there are so many examples of companies in apparently dominant market positions rapidly losing share that I’ll remind you of just one: Netscape.
I have close friends at A-tier VC in the valley who are saying things like “Beacon is evil. Block it”. Friends talk, and you can be sure that everyone at Accel & Greylock understands the position they’re in now.
Posted by John Minnihan at December 5th, 2007 at 7:41 am@john minnihan:
Netscape faceplanted because they were trying to charge for something Microsoft gave away for free, and because they had no effing clue that a portal and/or search might be valuable. it certainly wasn’t because of privacy, hubris, or bad press.
if Facebook stalls it will be because of limited ability to monetize, not privacy issues.
while i admit there’s a reason to manage PR — and in particular, to manage bad PR — most of the time the press overvalues its own importance.
in general, the press REPORTS the news, they don’t MAKE the news.
there are exceptions, but this isn’t one of them.
Posted by dave mcclure at December 8th, 2007 at 6:44 pm