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# On Platforms and Friends
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/on-platforms-and-friends/
- Published: 2012-04-18T10:18:41.000Z
- Updated: 2025-12-30T03:06:00.000Z
- Description: Allowing you to connect with your friends is not the same as being your friend.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Platforms, Strategy, Facebook/Meta, Frenemies, The Age of the Platform

![](https://i.imgur.com/kXjUVCY.jpg)

Roy O'Connor is right: [Facebook is not our friend](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rory-oconnor/facebook-privacy%5Fb%5F1426807.html?ref=philsimon.com).

My question: So what?

Would we ask our "friends" to spend millions of dollars building data centers, hiring employees, and doing other things that a proper business would do?

*Allowing you to connect with your friends is not the same as being your friend.*

Building a platform costs money and Facebook charges its users nothing. The Age of the Platform is different on many levels. The need to make money is not one of them.