Comments on: Facebook, Microsoft: When Goliath fears David

What is that makes market leaders suddenly frightened of much smaller competitors? Is it something they know about their competitors? Or is it something they know about themselves?

[demecles]

So, in your opinion, it is better to just ignore the competition? Lots of successful business just close their eyes and hope they go away.

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

@demecles,

Nope. I'm simply asking the question: What is it they know, or think they know, that makes them react in such a way that, some might say, makes the competition look bigger than they are?

Chris

[curiousobserver]

This article is great! Seriously, Microsoft and Facebook need to chill out.

[jonathan0766]

Andy Grove said it best: only the paranoid survive

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

@jonathan0766,

But it is one thing to be paranoid. Isn't it another to act paranoid?

Chris

[t8]

Ha ha. True. Microsoft's paranoia doesn't paint them in the best light. When you lose confidence, others lose confidence in you.

[Perry_Clease]

Just because someone has been diagnosed as paranoid doesn't mean that "they" are not after them. :)

[2nd_KS]

Microsoft isn't afraid to buy out the competition anymore, they just tried a hostile takeover of TomTom didn't they? Reminds me of when they funded SCO's lawsuits to defeat GNU/Linux, another wasteful proposition. Just because most Internet servers run Linux is nothing for MS to worry about....right? Why are they so worried about Linux?

[zelrik]

Because Linux will eventually kick their ass. They cant do anything but slow it down with FUD campaigns and using their money to break Linux-based startups.

[t8]

Microsoft should just buy Facebook out. They were willing to buy Yahoo for $44 billion, so they could buy Facebook for much less. Then Microsoft could offer services such as search from there. Most people search with Google and there is no reason to use Microsoft's Web properties. But 200 million users of Facebook means 200 million or less users that they can up sell to other services.

[bhushan bhaagii]

Question is does Microsoft know what to do with what they acquire? Take a very old example: Hotmail.
How many million subscribers do they have? Tens of millions. Are they able to leverage this huge base?
Internet Explorer: It still holds the major share of market; but what does it get Microsoft?
Ditto for IM, something which a Microsoft-friendly administration helped gain marketshare by nudging
AOL's AIM in the ribs to open up.

[AlbertoPlantilla]

I don't think its paranoid to bring paint your competition in a certain way. Microsoft needed to point out that hey our value proposition is that you can have a great computer with a solid OS in a plethora of ways. Need a big screen, but don't need a super high res or huge processing power there's an OEM for that. You want a screaming gaming machine, and don't worry about making home movies there's an OEM for that. The point they're making is that Apple keeps their cool factor by dictating the taste to the consumer, and for many folks that's what they were looking for. Microsoft simply reminded them the value they bring with their software and allowing multiple hardware vendors to build for it.

Facebook should be afraid of twitter because the media has absolutely fallen in love with it, in the same way that the media fell in love with Facebook as it ate away MySpace users. The reality is people don't want to research tech and what would be the best tools for them, they listen to the news and friends and then do it.

[incendy]

They are a business so any marketshare they do not own in a sector they are invested in, naturally they will try to get it.

[nixermac]

I agree with the author. MS and Facebook must realize that parroting what is bad in others does no good to them. They must find qualities within.

Frankly the whole Facebook and MS saga makes me wonder whether it is worth my time to even bother about these two companies. I do not use MS products because I abhor their low quality. Yes I mean it. No that other developers have do not have problems, MS Windows for me is a ballon with too many holes. All that MS has done is put tape on them. Too bad the holes don't shut.

From day one I have always wondered whether Facebook is something that I really need. Why would I spend my time making friends when I have such a wonderful list of people I already know - my friends and family. They are in the real world and I am in touch with them when I want to to or they want to. I never feel that a million connections on Face book will be able replace one real (flesh and blood) good friend. I don't use Facebook.

[neighborhoodcomentator]

"I don't use Facebook." if you don't use it, then you don't know why people use it. If you knew why people used it, you'd recognize that people use it so they CAN keep in touch with their friends in family. not everyone is a phone call away, and not everyone deserves a phone call, but its nice to know that so and so is in this place and such n such are in that place, and if i'm ever headed to those places, i can call them up(not to mention it has their phone numbers incase they've changed). People use facebook to keep in touch with people.

when something comes along that does that better then facebook, facebook will die. When something comes along that runs computers and software better then windoze, MS will die.

twitter keeps people in touch in a real time basis, apple makes more cohesive products then MS, both companies have reason to be scared.

[mouseclick]

I?m not sure why CNET and other publications have devoted so much attention to an advertisement. Studies have shown repeatedly that the vast majority of TV or radio ads are largely ineffective at grabbing the attention of viewers or listeners. It is why the ad industry has resorted to turning up the volume so much during such ads. TiVo and other DVRs are such a success because of the ability to record so easily and skip the commercials, and the ad industry knows and hates this because they too know in their hearts how ineffective ads are. TV ads have changed so much over the years from straightforward facts about a product to mini-dramas or an attempt to create some lasting character to win ad awards instead of actually doing what an ad was originally intended to ? sell products. Ads are of minimal importance to the bottom line?

[Gabh]

It's a bit weird when you consider that Apple and Microsoft aren't really direct competitors, and Tweet isn't by any means a Facebook replacement. One can run Windows on Macs.

[drevas2528]

I applied for a job with Microsoft about a year ago. The last thing the MS rep asked me was "who do you think is the biggest threat to Microsoft"? The fashionable answer at the time was Google.

I told him Apple
.
The whole idea of achieving Digital Convergence in the consumer space is something a number of technology companies have aspired to. Apple is achieving it and growing their business at a phenomenol rate as a result. As a consumer you can cover virtually all of your technology needs with an iBook and an iPhone.

As Apple's hardware market share grows, particularly in the mobile arena, the vendors who Microsoft serves, such as HP, Sony, or Dell,have their share shrink. They ship fewer units, MS sells fewer Windows licences.

Microsoft should be concerned.

[rdegner]

That was a great way to put into context how Microsoft is in competition with Apple.

[bhushan bhaagii]

@drevas2528: Did you get the job at Microsoft? Care to elaborate...

[Inconnux]

Microsoft and Facebook ... the two evil empires.

[Native5280]

For years, the #2 market leader would compare himself to the #1. Pepsi always poking at Coke. Burger King and Wendys comparing themselves to McDonalds. Avis' "We're #2 so we try harder."

When was the last time you saw Ronald look into the camera to pitch his fries over BK's? McDonald's only runs commercials baring their logo without really pitching the food. Why? Because they don't have to.

And Campbell's, who clearly owns 90%+ of the shelf space at my local grocer, used to use the slogan "Soup is good food" because if you're buying soup, chances are you're buying their brand.

MS could easily run an ad campaign saying "Personal Computers improve your life" because for every 10 new computers sold, 9 would run windows (only).

But, as Bob D. once said, "The times, they are a-changing."

[artstate]

well... twitter is just absurd. status updates have been a part of facebook forever... so i don't know what the big deal is about twitter, unless i just don't get it. so facebook should be mad at the consumers who make a big deal of such small things (bad for facebook's image, hence forces the company to really go at twitter), not twitter. Well Microsoft just has to advertize, like any other company. I'm glad they're finally make new ad campains. How come apple is allowed to advertize the smallest upgrades and when microsoft finally puts out 3 ads they're supposedly "freaking out"?