Some thoughts after watching the interview:
Facebook's strategy - cooperation vs competition
It seems like most of the bigwigs in the tech industry are engaging in multiple fronts of war with some other company. Apple is having this iPhone/iPad war with Google/Amazon/Microsoft, and another dimension of this is the iTunes vs Google Market/Amazon. Google/Amazon/Microsoft is also into cloud computing, putting it in direct competition with Oracle, Salesforce, Rackspace. The list goes on and on. TechCrunch has a great article on the challenges faced by Google. It does seem that other tech giants face similar issues as they expand the ranges of their products and services.
Meanwhile, Facebook has really just stuck to one product/service as they grow. What we see here is a laser-sharp focus on their core competency. And rather than spend the resources to fight off the other tech heavy-weights, Facebook is making the effort to ensure they have their finger in every pie out there. Additionally, by opening up it's platform architecture to other developers/companies, it allows a rich user experience where users can not only socialize, but also to enjoy games, music, videos and services that they couldn't have otherwise. By enhancing the experience, it makes users find Facebook so much more addictive.
But while Facebook has no intention of getting into a fight, Google is taking the fight to them in the form of Google+. While Google hasn't been particularly successful with their social networking projects in the past, no one can really write them off given the amount of resources and talent they possess.
Employing talented engineers
Every company in Silicon Valley wishes to hire more talented engineers than there are available. Zuckerberg and Sandberg are pointing to both the US education system failing to produce enough engineers and immigration policies that restrict the number of engineers they can employ. As they said in the video, it's first, second and third on their priority list.
This is an interesting problem because companies in Singapore also have problems with finding enough engineers, and fewer Singaporeans study engineering or stay in the industry. Former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister's Office, Mr Ngiam Tong Dow is wary of Singapore becoming high-cost, low-tech. As he wisely notes, we cannot become a knowledge-based economy except through science and technology.
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