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A comment on Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore. Parent comment

Re:Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore by Legend2440 on Monday May 25, 2026 @08:10PM (#48273389)
This is why you never pay $1.8 billion for a social media company.

It never ends well for the new owner. Not just Stack Overflow but also Tumblr, Vine, MySpace, Twitter, and more. Instagram might be the only exception.

Good job on the founders for selling at the peak though.

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Re:Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore by slashdev on Monday May 25, 2026 @08:14PM (#48273422)
Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp seemed to work out well.

It’s always more complex than you think

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Re:Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore by colonelspace on Monday May 25, 2026 @08:46PM (#48273656)
Are YouTube and WhatsApp social media?
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Re:Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore by nicce on Tuesday May 26, 2026 @02:34AM (#48275866)
Yes, few of the prime examples?
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Re:Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore by kingstnap on Tuesday May 26, 2026 @10:12AM (#48280140)
You named the two biggest platforms [0], YouTube and WhatsApp are the social media.

This is kinda like asking if Saudi Arabia and Russia are petrostates lol.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_social_pl...

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Re:Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore by womble2 on Thursday May 28, 2026 @02:43AM (#48305465)
They were made into social media, but when they were aquired they were just video hosting and sms replacements with little (no?) social engagement aspect.
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Re:Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore by CuriouslyC on Monday May 25, 2026 @08:50PM (#48273690)
Insta and YT were bought fairly early on the ascent and then pumped hard with some resources and autonomy before being folded in completely. WhatsApp is a legit counterpoint though.
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Re:Nobody cracks open a programming book anymore by PixyMisa on Monday May 25, 2026 @11:01PM (#48274498)
And Google already had Google Video when they bought YouTube. They retired their own platform to go all in on the acquisition.
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