"Vkontakte stole everything from Facebook": a boring myth

Posts on VKontakte and Facebook are often zaminusovany, and it is terrible to imagine what can happen with the fact that we are talking about both networks at once, and even criticizing the prevailing position on Habré. But to constantly see on the favorite site the same nonsense, each time it is actively added, so tired that it still decided to write a reasoned post about why this is nonsense. Since I have been administering a large group of VKontakte and a popular Facebook page for a long time, I have quite a lot of experience on both networks. I’ll say right away that I don’t praise VKontakte as a whole, this network has many flaws - I just think that they are not rooted in plagiarism.


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Stupidity, option 1: "VKontakte steals all his ideas from Facebook"
Even if we assume that it steals, we must admit that not all. At first glance, these two social networks may seem identical, but in fact there are enough fundamental differences - for example, Facebook “official pages” of companies and celebrities, which are absent as a VKontakte class, where there are only personal accounts and groups. This is a very significant thing, and if Durov had been aiming at copying all the successful finds of a competitor without exception, he would have adopted this long ago.

Stupidity, option 2: "VKontakte did not come up with anything of their own, non-facebook"
This is simply not the case. Their own steps are not revolutionary, but from what they were, do not go anywhere - and later Facebook repeated them, that is, Vkontakte independently thought out not to some nonsense, but to really useful things. A high-resolution photo, domestic currency, the implementation of chat and personal messages as a single system - all this appeared first on Vkontakte and then on Facebook (the latter will appear there only in the future as part of Facebook Messages). Moreover, they claim that the Facebook currency was introduced after Yuri Milner brought Durov to Zuckerberg and they talked - that is, Facebook did not come up with the idea, but borrowed it from Vkontakte. In addition to large-scale ideas, VKontakte also has many convenient little things that Facebook still doesn’t have - for example, sending messages via ctrl + enter.

Stupidity, option 3: "VKontakte steals stupidly from one competitor, and does not follow the market as a whole"
No, he clearly looks at other services. For example, Vkontakte can copy the status of a friend to itself with one button, and this is the closest thing to a Twitter “retweet”: on Facebook, you can click share next to the link you’ve given as a friend, but you can’t easily copy its simple text status.

Stupidity, option 4: "VKontakte steals ideas, so the user should switch to Facebook"
From an ethical and legal point of view, large-scale theft of ideas can be bad, but hardly from the point of view of what the user should do. If the site actively steals good ideas, then its users only get better from each of them. The thesis would be correct if Vkontakte would steal from Facebook alone and at the same time did not invent anything of his own: then he would really always lag behind. But, as already written, he takes on the functions of other services, and comes up with his own - and in such a situation you can, actively using other people's ideas, end up being more convenient for the user to the competitor, who often borrows them.

Stupidity, option 5: "Vkontakte steals ideas, unlike decent people"
In one degree or another, ideas are stolen by everyone. Once there was only one tabbed browser, only one multi-protocol messenger, only one social network with a widget for external sites. Now all this has become a common place, and all of this is only better. It is foolish not to copy any successful ideas of competitors - you will be proud and independent, but uncomfortable and backward from progress. I agree that VKontakte in this copying is particularly distinguished - but it is still not the only one, but just went further in what everyone is doing, including the same Facebook. According to Durov himself, “since the starting points of the projects are the same, in the end both there and there will be everything” - this seems to be true, and in this case it is really stupid to constantly rip and reinvent the wheel.

Stupidity, option 6: "VKontakte is so arrogant that even the design would be stolen, if only there would be ashamed”
I can’t give irrefutable arguments here, but I think that this is not arrogance, but honesty, frank recognition in copying ideas. After all, the design (at least the main color) could easily have been made by others, while depriving critics of their favorite argument - and, since they do not do it, it means that this has already become something like a statement: “yes, we copied a lot from Facebook - and you for some reason, talk about it as if it is something bad. ”

Stupidity, option 7: “If you write a comment on“ Facebook updates to the post on Facebook innovations, that's what Vkontakte will be waiting for us soon, it will be very witty ”
As can be understood from the previous points, in many cases, this comment looks simply stupid - for example, it was left to posts about Facebook functions, which Vkontakte had already been introduced for half a year. But even if VKontakte really acted as they say about him, the comment would still look awful - as if captain Obviousness suffers from sclerosis and does not just speak banality, but speaks the same banality every three days. Nevertheless, such a message appears under each new post of the form “appeared on Facebook ...”, and every time it is added. Sadness

In the comments to each of my great posts I encounter the fact that someone read it incorrectly, so I will write for those right here: the post does not say “Vkontakte is wonderful” , the post does not say “Vkontakte is better than Facebook” , the post does not say “ Vkontakte does not copy anything from Facebook . ”