There is a very old story about horse race in China.
A wise man was asked by the duke to design a horse race strategy.
So he shared his plan with the duke:
- Bet your worst horse against the opponent's best horse;
- Bet your best horse against his middle horse;
- Bet your middle horse against his worst horse.
1 will lose for sure. But the duke will win 2 and 3. So in the end, it is a 2:1 victory.
The morale of the story: A good strategy starts with what not to do.
We are building niche communities. Facebook inspired MooSocial. It is also our perennial threat and competitor especially with its latest push to focus on Facebook Groups. We need to find out what Facebook will not do to avoid any head on competition first, as Peter Thiel once said "competition is for suckers".
An attempt to copy Facebook will go nowhere. If we deliver a me-too community with less performance to Facebook, there is little reason for anyone to join.
Yes, what Facebook does well in user experience, we should copy and steal without shame. When Facebook is pouring billions into Virtual Reality, we need to pay close attention to.
But there are things Facebook does, it may not be the best idea to totally replicate.
So what are the things MooSocial should not focus on?