I feel: Google and Amazon are strongly positioned. Microsoft will end up becoming IBM v2 - relevant but not elite. Facebook will die in the next 4-5 years. Apple will continue to be on top provided they keep designing high quality products and innovating. Else they'll become RIM v2. What are your thoughts?
Facebook will be relevant. They will be a big player in the communication/social space. They own WhatsApp and Instagram, which are behemoths in their own world.
Social networks catch on, then die off. History repeats itself. Orkut, MySpace. Facebook is dead with teenagers. As soon as one new social network takes off, all of Facebook's products will die. It's not a question of whether, rather when.
There's never been a social network of Facebook's scale aside from society itself, so the MySpace argument doesn't have much traction. I think of Facebook's position kinda like Windows' position - in theory something better could come along, but it's way too difficult to get 2 billion people to switch because people want to be connected to as many people as they can, making the transition period difficult. I think of Google+, which at the time, was more feature rich. I tried to stick it out but just went back to FB eventually. As for your argument of teenagers - (a) it doesn't matter, (b) not really, and (c) saw something somewhere that the younger you are, the more likely you are to use multiple social networks. But as long as old people who just want one platform are around (and that is most of the world), it will be very difficult to get everyone to switch. Combine that with Facebook's forward thinking, and I am pretty sure they'll be around for a good while.
IMO Google will keep its dominance, Amazon will be key player due to their cloud services, Facebook unless they can come up with something innovative or gamble in oculus and VR works will become Twitter like media. Yup Msft seems to be heading IBM V2 for sure I think Apple will be a massive loser in next few years. They consistently lacks innovation on their products. No one is happy with them investors , stakeholders and consumers. Some startups may take a massive bite of their share
All of them are going to keep doing stuff. The one I worry about slipping is Apple, but they have a LONG time based on their size to figure out a next big move. As for us, I'm a bit optimistic about Google in the AI space which is looking like it could be a revolution like the internet was. Culturally, it is pretty MS already.
"Culturally, it is pretty MS already." 😔
They said the opposite about MySpace... Facebook stays cutting edge and has psychologists studying trend to appease different audiences. It's going nowhere.
What a bunch of bs this thread.
You said next 4-5 years for FB, so let's consider that time frame. Your guess is as good as mine, but trying to predict the future is fun. So here goes! 1) Google stays on top with things like search and YouTube. There are other areas I can see them dominating, like autonomous vehicles, but I'm not sure what plans they have to monetize that. 2) I don't see Amazon's retail businesses going anywhere, unless they're broken up as a monopoly. I don't see that happening in our current pro-corporate political environment. (I'm not saying they should be broken up, just mentioning it as a possibility.) However, their cloud business is starting to face a real threat from Azure. That could impact their bottom line, but I don't see them disappearing any time soon. 3) Speaking of Azure, I give Microsoft a 50-50 chance at staying relevant. I work in Azure and see first hand how we're starting to give Amazon a real run for their money in the cloud. On the other hand, Satya has gone all in with it. He's staking the future of Microsoft with the cloud. He'll win big or lose big. 50-50 I'd say. 4) Facebook is the most precariously positioned company right now. Something like 5 billion people are predicted to be on the Internet by 2020. There's no reason to think that Facebook will be able to dominate those new markets. Just look at Weibo and similar companies in China and Russia. FB also faces the problem of state censorship, which makes it much harder for them to gain a lot of market share in repressive regimes. Again, look at China and Russia. IF Facebook can get into these new markets fast, maybe by being the ones who provide the Internet for the region) yay drones!) then I think they'll be fine. If not, I can see them dying very quickly. 5) I don't agree with you at all on Apple. Innovation has stagnated since Jobs died. They're living off of upgrading products that people have already brought into. I think they'll go the way of Microsoft under Ballmer--staying profitable but becoming increasingly uncompetitive.
My bet is on microsoft. I put money where my mouth is, so I joined msft :)
My guesses: Google will continue to stay on top due to having a presence in nearly every space but will eventually slowly become more corporate. They will also continue to harvest the world's information and I fear may someday attempt to take over the world. Amazon will stay where it is, as the lead provider of cloud stuff with AWS and its e-commerce that just keeps growing. I doubt the culture will change though. Microsoft will become like IBM but with a gaming sector that retains some of its "cool factor". Facebook is looking to expand outside of social media. Their next stops are VR and politics. I don't know what they're going to do but I think eventually battle Google for control of the world via data. Apple is gonna be IBM v3 at some point. They're already very corporate and they're just trying to reinvent the wheel at this point. (wow new camera mode /s) What's RIM?
RIM was the corporate name of Blackberry. Research in motion
RIM is dead baby , RIM's ded
I feel Amazon and Facebook will dominate. Google will be Microsoft v2 (if not already)
Not with Android and Search, the two places those two aren't in. Honestly, I think Netflix is the most at risk here. With Hulu, Amazon, HBO, and now Apple entering the scene they have a lot of work to do to stay relevant.
Amazon isn't in Android? You mad bro?