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A comment on Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy. Parent comment

Re:Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop ... by threatofrain on Thursday January 28, 2021 @09:41PM (#25953038)
It's much better to argue that FB is a monopoly than a natural monopoly. It's not at all obvious why FB cannot instantly die like all social media companies before. I'm not sure what inspiration is hoped by linking to Wikipedia on a fiercely discussed issue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop ... by Const-me on Thursday January 28, 2021 @10:04PM (#25953252)
> It's much better to argue that FB is a monopoly than a natural monopoly.

Many laws and public discussions related to monopolies in general, as opposed to natural monopolies, are focused on pricing. FB can argue by saying "that's not applicable because our product is free for users".

> It's not at all obvious why FB cannot instantly die like all social media companies before.

About 35% of global population use facebook at least once a month. Global population counts newborn babies, and 10-15% of adults who can't read or write.

None of the prior social media companies achieved that size of their network.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop ... by wvenable on Thursday January 28, 2021 @10:06PM (#25953262)
The question is, what is Facebook a monopoly of? If you say "social media" it's almost self-referential. Facebook's customers are advertisers. Facebook is ultimately a media company competing with other media companies for eyeballs.
[ Parent | on HN ]