Sean Parker: Google+ unlikely to topple Facebook

17.10.2011
For Google+ to unseat Facebook as social networking leader, Google would have to deliver a steady stream of innovations and Facebook would need to let its site deteriorate, Internet icon and Facebook shareholder Sean Parker said on Monday.

Unless those two things happen, it will be very hard for Google+ to become a viable threat to Facebook, Parker said at the Web 2.0 Summit, where he answered questions on stage from conference co-chairman John Battelle and attendees.

"Facebook would have to screw up royally and Google would have to do something really smart," said Parker, co-founder of Napster and Plaxo, and a Spotify investor.

As it is right now, there isn't enough of a motivation for a critical mass of Facebook users to switch their social graph over to Google+, as happened when Facebook knocked MySpace from the leadership position in social networking, he said.

"It's tough to compete with network effects," Parker said.

In his view, Facebook's biggest problem isn't privacy concerns, as many feel, but rather a lack of tools and features to help users manage the "glut" of content their friends broadcast to them.