I keep running into this in the US in large cities. Really well regarded restaurants or music venues do everything through FB and insta. I don't have either of those apps, and I don't remember my passwords from a decade ago. Isn't there a service somewhere, where you give someone some pictures of your food, and restaurant, and you get a container and credentials for a webpage that handles reservations, takes pickup or delivery orders, and lets you update the menu? Why do people do this?

Because Facebook is simple. Any one can update it, and it doesn't go down, and it doesn't cost anything.

I've many times seen web presences fail for small organizations, when the only person that understands the web set up leaves. With Facebook, that doesn't happen.

I'm sure there are services such as you describe, and probably many restaurants use them, and it's not obvious. But Facebook is the default.

No, because facebook is free and they are cozy with the mexican government and this allows them to operate in a country without net neutrality. Therefore facebook, whatsapp and instagram are included for free in most if not all cellphone plans and pay per month options.

Yeah, sadly. Tbh, if you don't have a separate page for your establishment, then you are a joke. Facebook pages are just horrible.

I've seen that too. Or when the framework chosen goes away. If the person at a small restaurant or non profit who understood the page goes away you can at least find someone to come up to speed. But sometimes it relies on stuff that just isn't there anymore and you have to start over. I'm not in web dev, or whatever its called, but is there some technology in the space that is the equivalent ofba T-shirt and blue jeans, or a charcoal suit, that will be fine for a couple decades with only informational updates?

WordPress is my first thought.

You have to constantly install updates for it to stay secure, then every second update your theme breaks, you find out it's not updated for the new version and have to redesign the whole page.

I guess he's referring to WordPress.com which means no updates needed...at least for simple sites

I've made excellent experiences with GravCMS across 5 different websites since 2015.

It is a failure of our industry that this is the best option for a lot of small businesses.

I’ve wondered this too. I don’t know any young people (at least nobody my kids’ ages between 17 and 26) who use Facebook. It seems like they might be missing a large part of their target audience.

In the UK we have OpenTable which does exactly that very well

> Why do people do this?

Others have pointed out the simplicity of it. Just use an existing platform, doesn't take much IT skill at all.

The other answer is that this is where the people are. Why waste time building your own website when only those searching you will visit it? Interacting with the various social media platforms instead gives you far more options on discoverability.

If you must maintain a presence on those platforms anyways, it becomes even less compelling for a small non-tech company to maintain their own infrastructure.

Is there much of a market, given that they already use the tools mentioned?

Genuinely curious. I've always hated sales but would love to work on making existing solutions better.

Facebook marketplace is as trustless as you can get. It's 2010 version of Kijiji/Craigslist with built-in picture upload.

Right now depending on how much effort you want to spend, you can get a place for $2000 usd a month or $600 a month, for relatively similar unit maybe 20min of walk distance apart. Simply because information does not flow freely.

Airbnb fixed the trust issue and dominated rental market in the last few years. But hefty fees + taxes are making them less and less viable for travelers.

I honestly see a big opportunity to just improve the overall experience. Especially considering Riviera Maya is the fasted growing realestate market in Mexico.

If you're serious about working on something like this, email me (check my profile), let's connect.

Interesting, definitely down to talk about this more!

I'd also be quite interested in working on this.

Whatsapp, Facebook, even Twitter are free in most Mexican Carriers.

That is what not having proper net neutrality is in Mexico.

As a Mexican who travels plenty to the US and works for an American company and has worked for another top-tier software company from the US, I believe this statement is false.

E-commerce platforms, “sharing economy” apps, neo-banks, dating apps, real estate platforms, etc. are all used every single day by millions of people.

Ok I can be wrong. Mexico is a big place.

How would you typically find a place to rent where you live?

Mexican living in México, ~95% of the population use Facebook, word of mouth or driving around where you want to find a place to rent. Of course there are many sites that you can use to find a place to rent, but the best deals and more options are available on Facebook.

Yeah. My experience been this too.

Facebook doesn't act as the central trust authority. So as an expat, most realtor is telling me to avoid FB and use them because scams. But as a user it's inefficient to talk to 20 Realtors for 20 listings.

I just want something in between that doesn't inflate the actual price by 40%