Social Media Scare.

As Halloween quickly approaches I wasn’t thinking too much about getting into the spooky spirit. As a UGA student my Halloween celebration mostly consists of a trip down to Jacksonville for the Georgia v Florida game. Due to several New York blizzards, I honestly hadn’t dressed up or celebrated Halloween in easily 5 years. So it’s safe to say this Holiday wasn’t top of mind, but this year I suddenly find myself taking part in many Halloween activities. The urge to dress up, carve pumpkins, and visit haunted houses has returned and I can’t help but question why.

As any Millennial does, I spend a fair amount of time on Social Media. I’ve definitely noticed a push, much larger this year than in the past, of Halloween centered posts across several platforms. On my Facebook I’ve seen several “Tasty” food videos with pumpkin flare, persuading me to roast pumpkin seeds. Snapchat has started to include scary Halloween filters and featured stories increasing the urge to get into the spirit. My Instagram explorer page is filled with videos of make-up artists creating scarred and bloody looks, inspiring me to purchase liquid latex to create the most extreme Joker look on my friend.  

Now here I am with full costumes planned for local Halloween events occurring around Athens. I spent 3 hours of my past weekend in line at Netherworld haunted house, and have pumpkin seeds pouring out the window of my apartment. Where did this urge come from, was it from years of deprivation or did snapchat make me do it? 

One site to rule them all?

Facebook has been an online leader since its start. Quickly driving out MySpace, the site (and now app) has continued to grow and find ways to knock out competitors. Even as time goes on and people claim that its popularity is waning, but Facebook has had the most consistent high number of users and retained them overtime. To ensure their success, Facebook has continued to make intelligent purchases buying out other high performing competitors, i.e. Instagram, to ensure they retain the biggest share of the Social Media market. But as more competitors appear in this online and mobile social space each day, does Facebook really have the capability to continue to run this all out? Is it possible for Facebook to create a monopoly of the Social Media space and potentially the entire online space?

As mentioned Facebook showed its power in 2012 when they purchased Instagram. The two social platforms together collected a large section of millennial users and have continued to hold them ever since. In the most recent turn of events we saw a power play from Instagram trying to drive out a competitor they couldn’t convince to buy, Snapchat. Although it hasn’t taken off yet, Instagram’s live stories just goes to show Facebooks fueling need to possess it all.

This may have gone unnoticed by many users but at one point Facebook  paired up with another online engine struggling against competitors. Facebook had integrated Bing into their site graph search feature, changing the way Facebook users search and the information they can find from just their sites search bar. Bing had been pulling in external information for users while the search. After some back lash Facebook removed Bings external pull. But Facebook graph search continues to thrive and be edited, allowing you to search things like restaurants or events around you but also see what your friends recommend. 

Lastly, and most recently, Facebook has restructured their site for the new Facebook marketplace. A new place where people can buy and sell their goods, they can name their price and find interested people in their area. Using the Facebook messaging feature people can contact each other to discuss prices and purchases without ever have to exchange personal phone numbers or emails. Wondering how sites like Craigslist and EBay are feeling about this…

In the end Google reigns supreme among search and unless Facebook creates something spectacular, and beats Google to it, I don’t see them ever ruling the internet. But as far as Social Media they may have a chance. There will always be companies, for example Snapchat who turned down a billion dollar offer from Facebook, who will be determined to hold their own. However, if Facebook continues to buy out fast growing apps as they did Instagram they have an opportunity to create a large portfolio of “flanker brands” if you will. Owning these apps but keeping their original name could give Facebook the opportunity to run the social circle without the majority of consumers even realizing it.