<ol> <li>MySpace = King in 2005.</li> <li>Facebook = now kicking MySpace's %#@, taking names, and juicing-up one-legged ostriches.</li> </ol> <p>What %$#%$# happened?<br />The people happened.<br /><br /><strong>While MySpace focused on maintaining its community, the Facebook management team focused on recruiting the most talented engineers and executives to grow its freakish sleeping giant.</strong><br /><br /><strong>Facebook recruited a revolving door of highly talented Google alumni, the best undergrads available, and top experts within their respective fields.</strong><br /><br />Facebook brought in:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Better </strong>viral experts</li> <li><strong>More efficient </strong>programmers</li> <li><strong>Stronger </strong>usability coders</li> <li><strong>More influential </strong>public relations teams</li> <li><strong>Faster </strong>HR personnel</li> </ol> <p>For instance:</p> <ul> <li>Facebook recruited Sheryl Sandberg, the <strong>head of sales at Google</strong>.</li> <li>Facebook also got Jonathan Heiliger, the former <strong>engineering head at Walmart</strong>.</li> <li>Facebook then recruited David Ebersman, the former <strong>CFO and VP of Genentech</strong>.</li> <li>Facebook got Elliot Schrage, the former <strong>PR head at Google</strong>.</li> <li>etc.</li> <li>etc.</li> <li>etc.</li> </ul> <p>It became like the New York Yankees vs. the local high school baseball team.<strong></strong></p> <p><strong>When you have a position filled with better talent than your competitor, you kick your competitor's boo-tay in that position; for example, if you have a better marketing executive, you'll have stronger/smarter/better marketing.</strong><br /><br />Yet, in Facebook's case, it had Positions A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. filled to the brim with more talented people than its rival.<br /><br />While MySpace tried to maintain its status quo, the Facebook team invested in a team that would annihilate&nbsp; any social network in its path.<br /><br /><strong>Ultimately, like how Google overtook Yahoo, more talented people will find a way to kick #%@ of Competitor X in every facet of buisness.</strong><br /><br /><strong>Great, enduring, and thriving businesses fill their organizations with great talent.</strong></p> <h2>The People.</h2> 2009-11-01T12:26:40-08:00 true 836 how-facebook-overtook-myspace 0 2009-11-06T21:45:49-08:00