[ad_1]
This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally got off to a flying start that many were hoping Congress would hand over in April.
The share price of the social media giant plunged Thursday after a slowdown in the rate of registration of new users. Analysts believe that Facebook's weak response to digital privacy laws recently promulgated by the European Union has shattered investors over its short-term financial future.
During the first half of 2018, Zuckerberg listened but did not really hear Facebook's complaints. it's a good bet that he's listening right now. All told, Thursday's trading vaporized $ 119 billion of the market value of Menlo Park, California. This is roughly the equivalent of Kuwait's gross domestic product.
The public's patience with Zuckerberg's often unconvincing statements, sometimes misleading, about the heroic length of Facebook to protect user data seems to have come to an end. A wave of revelations this year over persistent privacy breaches has eviscerated Facebook's credibility on the issue. People have disconnected en mbade.
Facebook has long claimed that its mission is to develop social infrastructure and – * gag * – build community. It does not pbad the test of laughter anymore. What they really want to do is follow people on the internet, collect and organize what they learn and sell this information to the highest bidder.
To three people who do not realize it already: Facebook does not think of you as a customer; they think of you as the product.
Congress raked Zuckerberg through the coals this spring. He did for satisfactory viewing but eventually came to nothing. No one in Washington is up to the task of regulating the waste of America's favorite time.
Now the market has done what the government has not done: disciplining Facebook for its bad behavior. This is the biggest stock decline of a day and the most epic price correction in the history of Silicon Valley, an industry that knows one or two things to make disappear money from investors.
Facebook is far from the only technology company to have illusions of grandeur
Zuckerberg himself took a $ 15.4 billion coup at his net worth. The general attitude seems to be that he made it come. Someone, somewhere, had to reduce to size the 34-year-old hooded jacket.
Like all the most respected entrepreneurs in the digital economy, Zuckerberg has never had a lot of time to question his motives or intentions. From the beginning, he cultivated a culture of rules – not to apply to us. Whether it 's sudden and impromptu changes to the site layout or frequent sneaky changes to your privacy settings, Facebook seemed to have a policy of ignoring any criticism and d & # 39; to go from the front. Their motto said everything: move fast and break things.
The Facebook team was smarter than the crowd. They were more productive and could see further. They could imagine a future that most people were not creative enough to create or fussy enough to design. Speed was an inestimable badet and the destruction the price of progress. That the public adhered to their particular vision of the future was not a concern.
Facebook is far from the only technology company to have illusions of grandeur. "We do not believe in limits," said Apple CEO Tim Cook. "Apple has been making products for years that people did not know that they wanted and now they can not live without them." It's certainly true and impressive, but you do not need it from an MBA to see how an industry with this attitude could end. a little too convinced of his own invulnerability.
The success story of Silicon Valley is as familiar to us today as a Greek myth. The hero, also known as the founder, goes to the desert to meet his destiny. Everyone tells him that the task he has set is unworkable – it can not be done. He does it anyway and is rewarded with fame and wealth beyond the imagination.
To prove that cynics are wrong is an integral part of the technological visionary hero's journey. But the Greeks knew what the founding cult of Silicon Valley apparently did not take into account: pride goes before the fall. The road is exhausting for everyone.
Move around quickly and break things that have been worked on for a long time. It stopped working on Thursday.
Facebook is often what happens to companies who perceive their mission as grander than simply delivering a good product at a fair price.
As economist Milton Friedman put it, "the social responsibility of a company is to earn as much money as possible while complying with the fundamental rules of society, both those that are incorporated in the law and those incorporated into the ethical custom. " Mark Zuckerberg should make Facebook's new motto.
Matthew Hennessey is editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal. His book "Zero Hour for Generation X: How the Latest Adult Generation Can Save America's Millennia" (Encounter Books) comes out on August 14th.
Source link
