Dangerous Signs of Hubris at Facebook

Facebook logoSee this Portfolio piece for background. But quotes like the following are representative of an attitude of infallibility and invulnerability:

“There is no opting out of advertising,” Zuckerberg said (of the new Facebook Ads program)

“Once every hundred years media changes. The last hundred years have been defined by the mass media. The way to advertise was to get into the mass media and push out your content. That was the last hundred years. In the next hundred years information won’t be just pushed out to people, it will be shared among the millions of connections people have. Advertising will change. You will need to get into these connections…” (quoted in TechCrunch).

If I were Mark Zuckerberg I might be feeling pretty powerful right now (at 23, probably worth $5B). But there’s tremendous danger for the company in believing that the curve only goes one way: up. Ask Friendster. Admittedly Facebook is a different animal and thus far the company has done most everything right.

But hubris and grandiosity always bring eventual nemesis (in the Greek sense) — a fall. And hubris is clearly on display now at Facebook.

3 Responses to “Dangerous Signs of Hubris at Facebook”

  1. Beacon, Hubris and Nemesis « Screenwerk Says:

    […] Facebook’s Beacon’s “opt-out” policy was a clear example of hubris on the part of the folks at Facebook: “There is no opting out of advertising,” Mark […]

  2. Bubble 2.0 « A Fuller View Says:

    […] think the top of this bubble was the Microsoft investment in FB and the following hubris and poking of fun on the Facebook’s valuation. We won’t really start to feel the air […]

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