Re:Facebook cuts off friend data from 'competing' startup Voxer
by happywolf on Saturday January 19, 2013 @05:59AM
(#5083110)
When a company feels its user is using its data for commercial purposes and has shown some threats to its business, the company would restrict the access to its APIs and/or services. Names that I can recall now are Apple, LinkedIn, FB, MS, and Google.
The irony is no matter how nice a company plans (or fakes) to be, business rationale usually triumphs all other things. Do no evil anyone? ;)
Re:Facebook cuts off friend data from 'competing' startup Voxer
by edouard1234567 on Saturday January 19, 2013 @12:50AM
(#5082755)
"Facebook later told TechCrunch that it won’t give access to data to any company that doesn’t share much back". Is that documented anywhere? I never heard about usage restrictions based on sharing. This is going to get a of lot startups worried...
Re:Facebook cuts off friend data from 'competing' startup Voxer
by mbesto on Saturday January 19, 2013 @10:56AM
(#5083702)
This is going to get a of lot startups worried
I find it really silly that a startup wouldn't be worried to begin with. Think about this for a second: building a network effect is extremely hard. Extremely hard = lots of time = lots of money. All of the sudden, a company (like Facebook) is giving away access to their massive identity database away FOR FREE. Let me rephrase, they are giving away something they've spent massive amounts of money to create for free.
If someone can't compute that, then I feel no sympathy for your startup that goes tits up.
Re:Facebook cuts off friend data from 'competing' startup Voxer
by magic_haze on Saturday January 19, 2013 @01:12AM
(#5082777)
I'm pretty sure I've seen this restriction discussed on HN before, especially around the time g+ was introduced. I think they ran into this well, but I'm not sure what the resolution was.
Re:Facebook cuts off friend data from 'competing' startup Voxer
by shoopy on Saturday January 19, 2013 @04:09AM
(#5083006)
IIRC This was Google's rationale in disallowing FB from importing contacts programmaticaly - FB wants to hoover contacts from everywhere but refuses to give data back.
The irony is no matter how nice a company plans (or fakes) to be, business rationale usually triumphs all other things. Do no evil anyone? ;)
I find it really silly that a startup wouldn't be worried to begin with. Think about this for a second: building a network effect is extremely hard. Extremely hard = lots of time = lots of money. All of the sudden, a company (like Facebook) is giving away access to their massive identity database away FOR FREE. Let me rephrase, they are giving away something they've spent massive amounts of money to create for free.
If someone can't compute that, then I feel no sympathy for your startup that goes tits up.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/3/3832250/facebook-messenger-...