Facebook's dominance wasn't inevitable - it was biological.
Facebook's dominance wasn't inevitable - it was biological. When Mark Zuckerberg launched at Harvard in 2004, he understood what Friendster and MySpace missed: network effects obey the laws of preferential attachment. Universities provided natural clusters with high internal connectivity and clear boundaries, creating critical mass before competitors recognized social networking's exponential potential.
By the time the market understood the game, Facebook had already won it. The company's acquisition strategy - Instagram for $1B in 2012, WhatsApp for $19B in 2014 - illustrates predatory dominance: eliminate threats before they threaten. Notably, Facebook rejected Jan Koum and Brian Acton for jobs before they founded WhatsApp, then paid 19,000x more to acquire what they failed to recognize internally.
The lesson: in winner-take-all markets shaped by network effects, timing isn't about being first - it's about achieving critical mass before the power law locks in. Facebook understood that social graphs, like neural networks, strengthen through use. Every friend added made leaving harder.
Facebook Appears in 2 Chapters
Facebook rejected Jan Koum and Brian Acton for jobs before they founded WhatsApp, then acquired WhatsApp for $19B in 2014.
From rejected candidates to $19B acquisition →Facebook's university launch strategy created critical mass through preferential attachment before competitors understood network effects.
How Facebook locked in winner-take-all dominance →