And, wrt the article, it’s not VC that gave Facebook the BI they needed to know it is happening, but rather Onavo - a BI/Spying startup masquerading as a vpn/compression suite, which Facebook purchased and which gave them insight into what their mobile users do on the internet other then facebook
It’s not illegal, but it should have been.
It's also still the youngest one of them, but yes, for a company in the social networking space they've showed a lot of staying power (they could've already fallen to what could've become out of independent WhatsApp & Instagram). Facebook (and Google) only exist as they do today because an acquisition by Yahoo didn't happen, and I think they've internalized that.
Windows used to be at the very heart of Microsoft strategy. They seem to have successfully managed to pivot away from it, but I still call that being disrupted.
Microsoft at their core also wasn't disrupted by Google.
Google at their core also wasn't disrupted by Facebook.
They're all tech giants in the same (broad) industry, but they have widely varying products. Competitive BI certainly has its merits if you are trying to stay at the top of your field.