Black Mirror: The Devil’s Advocate of Future Technology.

7

October

2020

5/5 (4)

Every millennial has experienced the time-consuming and exhausting moments wherein you have to explain to your (grand)parents how to send a proper WhatsApp message, use google maps, or what to and not to post on social media. The technological innovation cycle has shortened at such a pace that even we as millennials struggle to cope with the newest developments. As de benefits of these developments are very clear, the fast innovating tech-industry might cause a blind spot for some of the dark sides on these developments. The Netflix series Black Mirror plays the devil’s advocate towards future technological developments, and some examples of episodes even show their power of prediction.

Dating apps are completely hot these days and should help us to find “the one”. Based on our preferences, algorithms can find people who might be the best fit. According to the people you like or not like, machine learning will become better in finding the perfect match for you. In Black Mirror’s S4E4, dating apps are taken to another level. When two individuals are matched, the system brings them together and gives their relationship a due date. After that due date, they both move on to the next relation up till the perfect match is found. In the meantime, the system analyses behavior and uses machine learning to better predict the perfect match. However, the dark side of the story is in the fact that whenever your relationship has a due date, people start to behave differently and the system decides whether you can stay together. Imagine yourself falling in love but a system is not sure about the match and forces you to leave. What does love even mean then?

Another perfect example of the dark side of technology is to be seen in S3E1. This episode illustrates a social media system wherein everyone can rate (scale 1 to 5) each other based on their interaction. Your average score decides the way of living. The idea is that high average ratings give you perks in your daily life. This would stimulate people to improve their life by working out, being kind, and reach their personal goals. However, this also works the other way around. If you interact with very low-rated people or act inappropriately to people, it will be hard to get access to places where high-rated people live together. This episode might seem a bit over the top and unrealistic, but guess what?: we are already living this life.

Take Instagram as an example. The number of likes, comments, and followers influences the lives of people on a daily basis. It is no coincidence that whenever there is a conversation about someone, people first ask to show them their Instagram profile. Social media has become a platform of justice and impressions, causing people to pretend to have a great lifestyle while all they do is editing photos and interact with people online.

Besides the part of self-awareness and judgment of social media, rating systems are already a fact of society. A couple of years ago, some places in China started to work with social credit systems. Starting with a certain amount of credits, people could gain or lose credits based on their behavior monitored by public cameras. Yes, the cameras have face recognition and record every step and move the inhabitants make. Losing credits could be a result of public scandals like polluting public areas, but could also derive from not visiting your family enough or hanging out with people who are having low credits themselves. Having a low amount of credits can exclude you from buying airplane tickets or usage of public transport. In the region of Xinjiang, this system has already led to increased surveillance and discrimination towards the geographical minority of Uighur people.

It is time for us to wake up and become aware that the fast-evolving tech industry does not only give us benefits, but also has some really dark sides. Is this a new field of expertise? Should we be educated on the dangers of technology? Who is responsible for writing ethical codes or laws? It is for humanity to decide whether we use technology as a tool or that we are falling short in our expectations.

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/11/black-mirror-episode-dystopian-tv

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/episodes?season=4&ref_=ttep_ep_sn_pv https://theconversation.com/black-mirror-the-dark-side-of-technology-118298

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/arts/television/black-mirror-netflix-interactive.html

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/asia/china-surveillance-xinjiang.html

https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2019_rip/33/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444815604133

NIke’s SNKRS App: Driving Sales via Digital Community

18

October

2019

No ratings yet.

After the recent decline in sales of Nike, the company decided to change its strategy by focussing its distribution on direct-to-consumer channels (Karwatka, 2018). This has proven to be a successful strategy as digital commerce sales went up 35% for 2019 fiscal year (Nike News, 2019). By establishing a direct relationship with the customers, and building emotional consumer experiences, Nike creates a loyal customer base that drives up the sales.

At the moment, Nike owns several distribution channels: physical stores, its website, and apps – Nike+ and SNKRS. SNKRS app represents a digital platform centered around sneakers community. It is not just another digital store, but a platform that offers insider access and content about the latest sneakers. According to Ron Faris, CEO of s23nyc, the studio behind the SNKRS app, the digital community consists of 20% of Hyperbeasts, people that are extremely knowledgeable and fanatical about the community, and 80% of Styleseekers who are interested to learn more (The Next Web, 2018). And the key to driving a digital community and creating a powerful social network is to make those that have the most knowledge to share with those who have the least.

In the case of SNKRS, it offers consumers a platform to share their enthusiasm for Nike shoes, and creates immersive experiences for a chance to access limited edition styles. It creates a digital community of people that are crazy about sneakers, and uses this community to share and drive sales and engagement better than any advertising campaign as it allows to scale up without much investment.

In order to energize such a community and create virality, the app is based upon three components: product, story and experience (The Next Web, 2018). By providing its key product, high-end shoes that are surrounded by a folklore story through a special and unique experience, it can make customers very emotional, enticing them to share and grow the community by means of which the product sells through.

For sneaker community, the experience of buying sneakers as is important as sneakers themselves (The Next Web, 2018). Thus, another component of SNKRS’ strategy is gamification of the purchasing process. The company uses technology, in particular augmented reality, to revolutionize the buying experience by creating a sense of competitiveness fuelled by the adrenaline. For example, SNKRS Stash is campaign that allows users to purchase limited edition sneakers only from a certain location in their city (Karwatka, 2019). With this feature, online shopping can reach another level as virtually everyone and everything can become a Nike store: a poster in a metro, a menu in a restaurant or a concert of a celebrity.

Thus, Nike is redefining online shopping by engaging with customers directly and creating emotional experiences through the use of technology.

References:

Karwatka, T. (2018). Nike just shaped the future of retail with mobile-first commerce. [online] Divante.com. Available at: https://divante.com/blog/nike-just-shaped-future-retail-mobile-first-commerce/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

Nike News. (2019). NIKE, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2019 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results. [online] Available at: https://news.nike.com/news/nike-inc-reports-fiscal-2019-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-results [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

The Next Web. (2018). Ron Faris (Nike) on The future of retail and digital community | TNW Conference 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXLwzm2292U [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019]

How Waze uses Crowdsourcing in its best Waze

13

October

2019

No ratings yet.

Have you ever peacefully driven down the road, when suddenly a huge wall of cars hit you? You quickly try to switch lanes, or you try to take the first turn, however, no matter what you try to do soon you are completely stuck in all the traffic. In recent years, traffic congestion has become a major problem in cities due to the booming concentration of population and activities in urban areas. Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this number is expected to reach 65% by 2050 (United Nations, 2018). Navigating through the maze of traffic congestion is for many people one of life’s biggest headaches, unless you use the ‘Waze’ application.

waze

Waze is a free, real-time, crowdsourced traffic- and navigation application empowered by word’s largest community of drivers. By using GPS navigation software, Waze calculates routes to help drivers navigate to their destination, warns about potential traffic congestion on the road and suggests the optimal, shortest or fastest routes to this destination (Harburn, 2016). Furthermore, Waze enables users to alert each other about road situations, accidents, police control or other route details (Parr, 2009). On top of that, Waze gathers real-time data from its users (drivers in this case) to monitor and relay traffic information for its maps in more than 185 countries around the globe. This data is collected from the crowd in three ways: 1) users actively report on live events that occur on the road; 2) users passively relay information about driving speed and traffic conditions when they actively make us of Waze, or when the app is open in the background of their mobile device; 3) Waze contains a network with volunteers who continuously edit the maps that is used in the app (Muller, 2018). By doing so, Waze collects the most accurate and latest information from drivers who are currently on the road and helps other drivers of the community to save time for being stuck in traffic jam, money spend on gasoline (Harburn, 2016) as well as it may save you a fine.

Although Waze may sound as a promising solution for the rapidly increasing population and traffic in urban areas, we should also critically ask ourselves about potential risks or downsides that may occur. Since Waze redirects drivers to avoid traffic jams or cut travel times, they often suggest more dangerous alternative side roads. Can Waze be held responsible if accidents or dangerous traffic situations happen when drivers use the Waze application? Also, as Waze subtracts large amount of data from its users around the globe, we have to think about the consequences of Waze’ data collection. What can be the impact of gathering so much data (e.g. driver, drive style etc.) on our privacy and the law? Moreover, what could be the consequences if Waze misuses the data?

Sources:

Muller, K. (2018). How crowdsourcing is changing the waze we drive. Digital HBS. [Online] Available at:https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/how-crowdsourcing-is-changing-the-waze-we-drive/

Parr, B. (2009). Waze Uses Crowdsourcing to Bring You Real-Time Traffic Info. Mashable. [Online] Available at: https://mashable.com/2009/05/18/waze/?europe=true

Harburn, L. (2016). One of the best waze to use crowdsourcing. Social Media for Business Performance. [Online] Available at: http://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/2016/06/one-of-the-best-waze-to-use-crowdsourcing/

United Nations. (2018). 68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, says UN. United Nations. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html

Using AI to Build Smart Cities

6

October

2019

No ratings yet.

According to data presented by the UN it is estimated that the world population will grow to approx. 9.7 billion people by 2050. We are also seeing an increasing movement towards cities and it is estimated that almost 70% of the population will be living in urban areas (Medium, 2019). The cities must, therefore, be able to host a large number of inhabitants and additional amounts of commuters. The cities need to be able to provide energy and resources to all these people, whilst also removing waste and wastewater. Traffic is another issue. Furthermore, it is anticipated that these cities, many of which will house 10 million people, will consist of mixed nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds (Medium, 2019). Administration and management are therefore also focus-areas to create peaceful, prospering cities.

Many of these problems can be tackled using AI. This blog post will present some ideas discussed by Medium (2019) that might help battle the challenges presented by the large crowds of future cities.

Smart Traffic Management: Smart traffic solutions can be used to control the traffic flow and, consequently, avoid congestion. This can consist of road-surface sensors and cameras that will collect data in real-time, and a data system that is analyzing this data and offering recommendations to commuters to limit congestion issues.

Smart Parking: Again, road sensors will collect data and further notify the users of available parking spots nearby. Imagine finding a parking spot on your app and reserving it before you leave for your destination instead of aimlessly searching around the city for a parking spot for hours – wasting time and releasing emissions for every minute.

Smart Waste Management: Waste collection and disposal is an increasingly difficult challenge for the cities. Not only are they faced with more trash, but there is also an increasing public concern about proper disposal and recycling as the majority of people get more aware of climate issues. An example of a city in the foreground of smart waste management is Barcelona, where sensors are fitted on the trash bins which notifies the collection trucks when they are being filled. AI can also be used to design smarter routes for trash collection, or even automate the process with the use of robots.

Smart Policing: This is a rather controversial topic, where cities could use data-driven strategies to predict and catch criminal actions. This has already been implemented in Singapore, where a network of cameras and sensors monitors and notifies the authorities if criminal actions are happening. This might be difficult to implement in certain cities, as many populations are more skeptical towards surveillance and has a larger focus on privacy. The idea is still interesting, though.

As most people will find themselves living in cities in the future, the authorities of the cities will be extremely important in the development of our future world. The politics in the cities might in many cases be more significant than the politics countrywide. Cities should cooperate and share their smart solutions with other cities and create a positive loop which will contribute to creating a better world for humans and the planet.

Could you think of other smart initiatives that can help cities be more sustainable and liveable?

References:

Medium. (2019). Artificial Intelligence for Smart Cities. [online] Available at: https://becominghuman.ai/artificial-intelligence-for-smart-cities-64e6774808f8 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019].

The Rise of Messaging Apps

13

October

2018

No ratings yet.

The way we use social networks is continually changing: just 10 years ago, MySpace was on the rise. Back then, the idea of disappearing messages used by Snapchat and Instagram wouldn’t make much sense to anyone. Lately, a new pattern has emerged: it seems like social networks as we know them are taking a step back, while various messaging apps are on the rise. In 2016, four most popular messaging apps (WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger and Viber) surpassed four most popular social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter) in popularity ( Business Insider Intelligence, 2016). In response, more and more social networks started integrating and transforming its messaging functions, like Instagram introducing its direct messages or Facebook separating Messenger from its main app.

But can messaging apps replace social networks? In short, yes, at least for some people. It is easy to understand those who decide to give up traditional social networks. These networks often force you to keep up with people you would otherwise take no interest in. They create so-called ‘information bubbles,’ which can result in bias confirmation and political polarization. In contrast, messaging apps allow you to have full control over the information we receive and in what volume. This makes communication more personal, and, to look at it from the utilitarian perspective, more valuable.

So, what is the future of messaging apps? According to the report from Business Insider Intelligence (2016), we already witnessed the first stage of the chat app revolution: rapid growth. The next stage would involve monetizing this growth ( Business Insider Intelligence, 2016). More and more companies will integrate services into the messaging apps: the way that WeChat started offering functions that allow users to order food delivery and pay bills – all in one integrated app (Mittal, 2017). Soon, more marketers will shift their focus on messaging apps, which, in turn, will give messaging apps an even greater boost ( Business Insider Intelligence, 2016).

Sources:

Business Insider Intelligence, 2016. Messaging apps are now bigger than social networks. [Online]
Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-messaging-app-report-2015-11?r=US&IR=T&IR=T
[Accessed 13 Oct 2018].

Mittal, M., 2017. WeChat — The One App That Rules Them All. [Online]
Available at: https://medium.com/harvard-business-school-digital-initiative/wechat-the-one-app-that-rules-them-all-38a876d04f3b
[Accessed 13 Oct 2018].

Image: atebits.com

4.5/5 (8) 50k views and counting, how to get MASSIVE views!!!

9

October

2017

Hello fellow BIM students,

Some of you might have noticed that certain posts are getting massive amounts of views.

all time high

The first thing that pops into your mind might be that these guys are actively sharing their content on social media. This is unlikely though because getting this many unique views on one post in one day (see images below) is really really hard to accomplish through that method.

13k views one day

The next possibility you might think about is that they are hiring a group of people through some view boosting website like the one below.

viewbotwebsite

However, we are all students, meaning that we have low budgets and would rather spend our money on partying, Netflix/Spotify subscriptions and other more rewarding activities. So I don’t consider this option viable in our situation.

So how do the top posts get their crazy amount of views? Did they press F5 non-stop for a couple of weeks in order to reach the top?

f5 broken

There must be some sort of secret method to their success. In this post, I would like to share my easy method with you guys to help boost YOUR view count up to 5k, 10k or even 50k! Let’s go!

Step 1: Decide the post that you want to boost!

This is obviously a very basic step, in order to get views on a post, you need to have posted at least some content. In this example, I use a very basic article I wrote about IBM’s supercomputer Watson (check it out: http://bit.ly/2y71SxK).

IBM watson article 2

Step 2: Download the Opera browser and open the blog post in multiple tabs!

Viewbotting on 5 tabs

Step 3: This is where the magic comes in, download the Super Auto Refresh extension for Opera!

Super Auto Refresh extension Opera

Step 4: Start the Extension and make it run on all tabs at a speed of 30 seconds!

Super refresher extension Opera browser

Why do I give you guys the advice to run it on 5/6 tabs max at a speed of 30 seconds? Because I encountered many many errors on the first days using this method running it at faster speeds. These error messages, see below, cause not only me but every other user trying to access the website to experience problems.

Internal Server Error

Service Unavailable

So if you don’t want a group of angry students chasing you because they couldn’t upload their blog posts please take this advice.

IS blog troubles

Step 5: Get some spare laptops, plug them into their chargers and don’t touch them for a couple of days/weeks!

This will help you feel like a real hacker and boosts the feeling that you can join Anonymous because you know your computer stuff.

3 laptops setup

Step 6: Watch your article reach some magic milestones! You are finally reaching the top of the list!
1000 views mark

2000 views mark

9999 views

20000 views

30k views

WAIT FOR IT…. 50k VIEWS WOAH!

50k views

Step 7: Sit back and relax, you did some really awesome hacking and can now enjoy your success for the rest of your life! You will always be remembered as that BIM student that knew how to reach the top!

all time high

As much as I enjoyed abusing the view count system behind https://digitalstrategy.rsm.nl// I would like to give some quick advice to the website admin. As soon as I realized that F5 views were counted as unique views although they came from the same IP-Address I started to look for ways to maximize my view count. I think that this in no way reflects the quality of my blog post and can actually destroy the intention of this web page. So to prevent things like this happening in the future please try to cap the number of views per IP-address or find some other way to achieve this.

Thanks for reading guys and enjoy your road to success!

Your Romance Is So Boolean…

8

October

2016

3.89/5 (19)

Chances are big you have ever tried an online dating application. Or at least considered one. It no longer is a taboo if you met your fiancée through the world wide web. Online dating applications such as Tinder, OkCupid and Match have millions of users per day. They range from testosterone driven adventure seekers to incurable romantics. Nonetheless, they are all searching for the perfect match.

In the quest of finding this perfect match, users have many conversations and look at even more profiles. This creates an enormous amount of valuable data. But how can we use this data? Will data analysts become the new Cupids and brew love potions? Is it even possible to catch abstract concepts such as love and romance in algorithms, in order to find a perfect match?

According to Christian Rudder, founder of OkCupid, the problem is not in the algorithms, but in the data itself: “My intuition is that most of what users enter is true, but people do misunderstand themselves.” That is where big data comes into play. Why would we ask people to fill in questionnaires, would it not be better to find this data statistically?

Nowadays, we know so much about a person through analysing their behaviour on the internet. On a dating profile, one can easily state he loves classical music. However, his Spotify-history or iTunes purchases could reveal he actually listens to pop music most of the time. Everyone knows how important a first impression is. If you are not into snobs, why would a dating applications even bother to show people with a Ralph Lauren loyalty card?

Big data offer enormous opportunities to online dating application. At the same time, these opportunities raise serious issues. What about privacy concerns? How will such an influence affect people’s social skills? Would you like to be introduced to your future wife by your computer?

References:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26613909

Marktplaats and eBay, brace yourselves!

4

October

2016

5/5 (2)

Most of you have probably seen the ‘For sale’ pages on Facebook, where people offer and buy second hand items. Believe it or not, these pages are being visited 450 million times each month, so Facebook decided to respond to this demand. ‘Facebook Marketplace’ is a marketplace inside the Facebook app that launched yesterday in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand on mobile devices. In these countries, the ‘Messenger’ icon in the Facebook app will be replaced by the ‘Marketplace’ icon. If it proves to be a success, Facebook will continue to expand their marketplace to other countries and also to the web platform. Should eBay, Marktplaats and other large players brace itself?

Nowadays when people want to sell a second hand item, they do not just place it only on eBay or Marktplaats, they also share it on Facebook. Does Facebook offer more advantages than the existing platforms? There are several advantages to Facebook Marketplace that could make users choose for Facebook Marketplace instead of for example Marktplaats or eBay:

Buyers and sellers can easily communicate through the already existing Facebook Messenger.
Posting items for sale is free, which is not the case on other platforms for some product categories.
Fraud can be reduced, as buyers can check the profiles of the sellers to see whether they are ‘real’ people.
Facebook can show their users second hand items based on their interests because Facebook knows these.
While on eBay or Marktplaats people search for specific items, Facebook users might go through Marketplace simply because they’re bored and could find something they like (spontaneous shopping). This could increase the range of potential buyers.

Besides aforementioned advantages, Facebook has the advantage of a strong brand name and the large amount of users. It’s hard to place any predictions about Facebooks new feature, but I believe that Facebook Marketplace has strong advantages and will therefore be a big threat for platforms such as eBay and Marktplaats. However, we will see what future will bring us.

Sources:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/facebook-marketplace-sell-old-junk/

http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/10/introducing-marketplace-buy-and-sell-with-your-local-community/

https://www.iphoned.nl/nieuws/facebook-marketplace/

Facebook launches Marketplace, a friendlier Craigslist

[GONE WRONG] 13 SECRET HEADLINES FACEBOOK WANTS TO STOP. NUMBER 5 WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! 5/5 (1)

1

October

2016

The art of clickbait.

You clicked on the link, didn’t you? How do you attract clicks on your post in a world that is moving so fast that you don’t have time to read everything? Create a title for you article that is too good not to click. Enter clickbait, fishing for your clicks by creating purposely false titles. Clickbait can be described as “web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, […] relying on sensationalist headlines or eye-catching thumbnail pictures to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social networks.”¹ Clickbait is probably one of the most hated categories of posts on social media.

BuzzFeed and Upworthy are known to use clickbait titles to drive in views and ad revenue. (Screenshot of BuzzFeed taken on October 1st, 2016)

Facebook recently introduced a new algorithm that aims to stop these kind of ‘headlines’ to appear in your newsfeed. They already tried to limit the amount of clickbait appearing in your newsfeed in 2014², but apparently those clickbait sites still found a way around it. In 2014 Facebook announced that they would start looking at the amount of time spend reading the article, and the amount of likes given, to determine whether the article is clickbait or not. The new algorithm will will weed out misleading and exaggerated headlines the same way that email spam filters weed out fantastic offers to help Nigerian princes recover their lost fortunes. The new algorithm will de-prioritize posts with headlines that “(1) withholds information required to understand what the content of the article is; and (2) exaggerates the article to create misleading expectations for the reader.”³. Facebook employees analysed tens of thousands of headlines, and flagged those that intentionally withhold important information and those that use exaggeration to mislead the reader as “clickbait”. From there, they built a system that looks at the set of clickbait headlines to determine what phrases are commonly used in clickbait headlines that are not used in other headlines. This is how many self learning systems work. You show them a set off correct items and a set of incorrect items and the software itself can figure out if a new item is correct (no clickbait) or incorrect (clickbait).

Facebook wants to get rid of the clickbait articles in order to show people the stories most relevant to them. When your whole timeline is full of clickbait this ruins your user experience and you will probably not return to Facebook very often anymore which is bad for Facebook.

So hopefully no more:

in the future.

¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait

²https://www.cnet.com/au/news/facebook-nixes-click-bait-headlines-in-users-news-feeds/

³http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/08/news-feed-fyi-further-reducing-clickbait-in-feed/

Technology of the week – Platform mediated networks Facebook versus Myspace

30

September

2016

5/5 (2)

Platform mediated networks are overtaking the way business is done. In this blog and in our video, we want to elaborate on why Facebook has become the winner that took it all in comparison with a comparable platform, Myspace.

Myspace was founded in 2003, before Facebook even existed. It is, at first sight, a very similar platform as Facebook. People can subscribe and they have their own page and can connect with each other. Myspace was very popular and the company News Corporation purchased Myspace. Professional managers were assigned to develop a strategy for Myspace and lead the platform to more growth.

In the meantime, five Harvard students were thinking of the same kind of platform and Facebook was born. How come that Facebook eventually took over the market and Myspace failed to do so?

On first sight, Facebook and Myspace look like they are quite alike. They are both platform-mediated networks where advertisers and users are connected. Users can benefit from their free subscription and the advertisers are happy as long as the number of users is growing. Network effects have the chance to create a lot of value.

However, there are many differences between the platforms. The three main differences are the newsfeed, the use of real names versus nicknames and the customization of the newsfeed. The newsfeed of Facebook is interactive; you can see the updates of your friends immediately. On Myspace, you have to visit your friend’s page to see their posts and update. Next to that Facebook uses a layout that you cannot change, only your profile picture. Myspace offered users the freedom to customize their page, all fonts, backgrounds, and HTML included.

On a more business perspective, the both platforms differ significantly. Facebook followed the market needs and Myspace was managed in a stricter way, with strategy plans and set rules and goals. Next to that an important point was the introduction of mobile technology. Myspace was rather slow with launching a mobile app, while Facebook already introduced a mobile app a year earlier. Facebook kept a close eye on the trends and moved fast when apple introduced the iPhones. The result was that Facebook got a lot of subscriptions through mobile technology and Myspace was running behind.

Finally, both platforms have different privacy settings, on Facebook, everything is private at first and you can make it public, and Myspace is the other way around, you get encouraged to connect with people you don’t know. Facebook had a more positive reputation on the privacy topic, and users trusted the platform more. Eventually, Facebook created a better name for themselves, and the number of users kept growing. Increasing popularity and positive word of mouth diminish the privacy issues, research has shown, and Facebook benefited maximally. Currently, the privacy of Facebook is more questioned.

Overall, Facebook chose a more proactive strategy, they differentiated themselves on features like the news feed, the real names, and the privacy topic. When introducing the mobile app on the right time they gave Myspace the last push over the edge. And in the end, Facebook was the winner that took it all.

.Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., and Van Alstyne, M.W. 2006. Strategies for Two-Sided Markets. Harvard Business Review 84(10) 92-101.

Li, T., and Pavlou, P. 2016. What Drives Users’ Website Registration? The Network Externalities versus Information Privacy Dilemma.

(https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/)

(http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2011/01/14/why-facebook-beat-myspace/#4bd2b7dc7023)

(http://www.diffen.com/difference/Facebook_vs_MySpace)

(http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/6-lessons-learned-from-the-demise-of-myspace/)

(http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/former-myspace-ceo-reveals-what-facebook-did-right-to-dominate-social-media/)

http://www.pymnts.com/news/2012/pymnts-daily-roundup-august-1-2/

http://platformsandnetworks.blogspot.nl/2011/07/business-model-analysis-part-2.html

Making sense of Internet Platforms: Network Effects and Two Sided Markets