[DS Notes] How Facebook Platform Became How It Is Today

Hamish McKenzie over at Pando Daily has published an extensive story on the history of Facebook Platform and how it failed to meet its expectations and potentials through a series of inconsistent changes implemented by Zuckerberg. While initially Facebook Platform, which was launched in 2007, was set to be an ecosystem of applications and services that leverage the power and reach of the Facebook newsfeed, Zuckerberg eventually felt threatened by these third party apps and made changes over the years which prevented them from competing with Facebook's own applications. In the end, Facebook as a company pales in comparison to Apple's mobile application ecosystem which is worth multiple times the value of Facebook.