Agreed. When is a fad not a fad? I don't know. It might last 20 years from start to finish but I can't see them solving their core business problem which is they don't know how to make money any way other than ads and data collection. The pendulum is going to swing the other way eventually.
Out of interest woild you say the same for Google or do you think they will diversify more successfully? I think their ad/data business is more robust - I feel like it benefits me and Facebook's doesn't, but if the problem is only using ads and data that's a problem Google share.
Google has made giant piles of money that they are using to solve more and more problems re: organizing the world's information. Facebook is figuring out how to get people to upload more pictures? I guess there's Oculus and Instagram. I don't see Instagram as much more than chewing up a potential competitor. We'll see on Oculus.
I am not saying that making a self-driving car or a book-scanning machine or any of that in any way guarantees that they will hit other big markets. But they're trying on a pretty grand scale.
A VC who raises a fund and has some yearly burn rate for his operation will eventually go broke if he doesn't invest. Google definitely is investing. Facebook might be.
