I think, in retrospect, they made a mistake in launching quickly before having core features. There was a desire to capitalize on twitter technical issues.
> Mr Zuckerberg [...] described the situation as "normal" and said he anticipated retention to improve as new features were added to the app.
I think if it was normal, they wouldn't have publicly spiked the football after the admittedly incredible signup numbers. They would have been a bit more humble, said they expected most users to leave soon after, but that this is an encouraging sign (or something to that effect). Maybe a bit more celebratory, but playing with expectations a bit more. They started off with INCREDIBLY humble talking points about likelihood of failure and then I think just got too excited.
None of this is to suggest they have no chance. They still have a ton of users and I'd still consider the launch a success overall.
It'd be a lot more compelling to me if it had a "people I follow" feed. I get that they didn't want it to be empty on launch, but at least giving me the option would mean I could at least have a chance of seeing mainly people I know on there.
> Mr Zuckerberg [...] described the situation as "normal" and said he anticipated retention to improve as new features were added to the app.
I think if it was normal, they wouldn't have publicly spiked the football after the admittedly incredible signup numbers. They would have been a bit more humble, said they expected most users to leave soon after, but that this is an encouraging sign (or something to that effect). Maybe a bit more celebratory, but playing with expectations a bit more. They started off with INCREDIBLY humble talking points about likelihood of failure and then I think just got too excited.
None of this is to suggest they have no chance. They still have a ton of users and I'd still consider the launch a success overall.