Why Didn't They Do It?
Zuckerberg: One of the things I've thought about is — why were we able to build Facebook and some other company didn't? It wasn't a super novel idea. Friendster was before. MySpace. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo all had versions.
It's not that they had a lack of talent. We were like a ragtag group of children. They had all these serious engineers and serious infrastructure.
We were a ragtag group of children. They had serious engineers and infrastructure. Why didn't they do it?
People Doubt New Ideas
Zuckerberg: I think the reason is because people doubt new ideas before they come to fruition. The narrative with social networking — 'it's just a college kid thing.' OK, maybe not just college kids, but it's probably a fad. OK, maybe it's around for a while, but it probably won't make money. OK, it's making money, but mobile is going to be hard.
By the time we figured all that out, it was too late for anyone. The companies had lost their advantage.
It's a college kid thing. It's a fad. It won't make money. Mobile will kill it. By then, it was too late for anyone.
The VP With the Sand Bucket
Zuckerberg: There's probably some team buried deep inside those companies that believed in it. And probably some VP who was like — eh, that's probably not the biggest priority. And they just poured sand in the gears.
Even for things that look like they belong to large companies, I would guess big companies are going to fumble two-thirds of those.
Some VP says 'probably not the biggest priority' and pours sand in the gears. Big companies fumble two-thirds.