Comments on: Do Social Media Solutions Stagnate After Acquisition?

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:14:55 +0000

Andrea Hill » I think the entire problem is that acquisition didn’t change the site. Actually, I don’t remember the screen caps for del.icio.us2.0, so I am going to have to look at those. And yes, they have not embraced conversational tactics, which is what has ALWAYS made bookmark sites fun, from back in the day of Slashdotting, wherein the comments ruled, and one could accrue karma and become a God of Slashdot. Same with Fark and digg and reddit and down the line…

Mind you, all of my personal web bookmarks are saved to my del.icio.us account so I am a heavy-user…

By: Andrea Hill

Andrea Hill — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:54:24 +0000

I don’t think del.icio.us’ problems are due to acquisition directly. They’re probably the best example of how acquisition didn’t change the site (compare to flickr, where I need to have a yahoo! login as well as a flickr one).

Their bigger problems were related to
a) not meeting expectations (remember the screen caps for del.icio.us2.0?)
b) not embracing ‘conversational tactics’.

I still use del.icio.us for my own reference, but if I want to engage and share and learn, I use other services.

By: Steve Nimmons

Steve Nimmons — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:21:18 +0000

I think this is certainly always a risk with acquisition. The problem can arise when visionaries depart (the acquired company) or the purchaser hasn’t got clear plans to execute, or indeed has to focus elsewhere due to competing business imperatives. Acquisition can also be about neutralisation or ‘capturing’ of a new user-base. Sometimes those have less than wonderful results. Some companies are excellent at this and some fall short. I’m watching with great interest what Nokia do with Plazes and on a slight tangent what Microsoft do with Powerset.

Let’s hope it’s something interesting!