Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, is calling the world to regulate social media and broad internet. He is a brilliant man because regulating the web practically means Facebook dominance is assured in the social media space. This is the deal: if you have a privacy-focused law that says that Facebook cannot share data with another company, you have simply given it a passport to stand unopposed, legally. Yes, everyone will then have to fold inside Facebook since it will not share. If you make a law that platforms will be responsible for what their users post, on their ecosystems, only cash-rich companies like Facebook can live; startups cannot even try to build platforms anymore.

Mark Zuckerberg called for internet regulation. In an op-ed, the Facebook founder and CEO made the case (paywall) for new government rules around harmful content, election integrity, privacy, and data portability. It’s a sign that Facebook acknowledges such regulation is now inevitable and wants to shape it (paywall). (Fortune newsletter)

So, when you read these ICT utilities asking for regulations, do not be fooled: if you indeed regulate them as the politicians’ desire, you will take down all potential competitors for a long time. Of course, any regulation will only affect the American part of the Internet since China has its own part. Possibly, depending on how you do the regulation, the Chinese can, over time, expand into the American part. Not many American leaders will smile over that.

So, if U.S. breaks Facebook, one of those pieces can emerge to fill that void. Or another product from say China or India can emerge and become the world’s leader. It is a web business running on the aggregation construct. They are not structured to have 20 banks in Lagos. You expect to have one popular social media in Lagos for a specific sector. That one leader is what matters. If you break, the one that is best will grow (and win) because network effect will make it easier to attract users to it.

This is my take: U.S. will not regulate Facebook or its web companies at the level many are expecting [I expect nothing to change except cosmetics reporting of violations] because it knows that Chinese competitors which are also well-funded will go after Facebook users across the globe. And even if U.S. regulates Facebook by breaking it, the best surviving part will grow to dominate over time because of network effect where the best gets better and bigger. We just have to agree that Facebook is an ICT utilitiesand I was very happy when my editors in Harvard allowed me to use that against the company. You negotiate with your utilities [ electricity, water] because you have no alternatives. That is where we are with Facebook.

All Together

This is the deal: While it makes sense to regulate Google and Facebook and toughen privacy, we would make it legally possible for these entities to NOT share. And if they do not have to share, they have built a competitive moat which no one can overcome. Facebook’s suppliers are its users. It has been doing the external planet a favor by sharing their data. Now, it can keep ALL under the law, claiming privacy protection.

We would have the best user privacy but we would kill competition. Yes, Google and Facebook would continue to mine and collect all the data they want. The world of web belongs to Google robots. It has access to it. But now what it gets, it can easily keep inside.  The implication is that everyone would have to converge in their worlds. Why? They have the best data and the network effects work in their favor.

The old web has been bidirectional system where Google and Facebook collect data and then share with others in their ecosystems.

We need to be careful what we ask for as we march on this web regulation thing.

No Person or Government Can Effectively Regulate Facebook

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Comment #1

1. Data monopoly – Facebook will effectively have hoards of data which only it can exploit. Others will starve and sell their firms for less cents per the Dollar. Facebook continues to optimise its offerings and platforms.

2. Platform efficacy – Facebook’s platform is already primed to meet such regulations. Others are.focused on features and light years away from meeting serious regulations reform standards – they shut down or sell off or go for scarce funds to scale to a regulatory compliant platform. Competition wise, Facebook dominates the landscape.

3. Processes & People – as an add on to no.2, unlike smaller firms, Facebook definitely has these 2Ps ready & good to go.

Comment #2

Mark simply wants to rope the politicians in, so that they can have first-hand knowledge on what it’s like to regulate the web. How many governments can deploy enough resources to police what people share on the web, without practically shutting down the web, in an effort to filter what qualifies as decent speech? Not an easy thing to do, because opinions vary; so Facebook wants the politicians to have a taste of it… The other day, one of the presidential hopefuls said she would ‘break’ the tech giants, if got elected. It simply showed her lack of understanding of how these digital natives operate.

In platform world, there is nothing like “fair competition”, not at all; you only have category-kings for each domain, because most users simply congregate on the ‘best’, with those lower on the ladder feeding on crumbs. The best they can do is change of name, in the name of ‘breakup’, because the next best one will still become a behemoth within a short time.

Air Peace is serving Nigeria; people should support Allen Onyema (chairman of Air Peace), and his team, to continue to serve the nation. His interview in Tribune does not make Nigeria look good. We need more business leaders like him.

A report from the Johns Hopkins University’s Steve Hanke just listed Nigeria, Venezuela, Iran, and others among the most 10 miserable countries in the world with Nigeria assuming the sixth position. Yet, when we find success, we harass people. We try to destroy our own.

It is painful to read Onyema describe how Nigeria is making things hard for him: “Deliberate falsehood, some of them even said we have four of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in our operations. We don’t have 737 Max 8 in our fleet”. FAAN, Nigeria’s aviation regulator, has confirmed this and yet Air Peace is suffering because coordinated evil people want to take this man down. Air Peace should not die because Ethiopian Airlines suffered with Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. We need to do better in Nigeria and make some fake news punishable!

People should stop thinking about where I come from and stop treating me as “this Ibo man”. Have they bothered to ask that if this man should shut down Air Peace tomorrow what would become of the fate of Nigeria at large? You cannot just pick up an aircraft immediately because it’s not like a car. To set up an airline is not easy. Something happened with Ethiopian Air and Air Peace is suffering it in Nigeria. What is our own business there? Initially, they said they were using old planes; those aircraft are junks, etc. When we bought new ones, they said our aircraft is unsafe and they are now calling for my head, as if the incident happened to Air Peace.

Deliberate falsehood, some of them even said we have four of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in our operations. We don’t have 737 Max 8 in our fleet. Last year, we ordered for 10 of it and we should be applauded for buying 10 brand new planes. However, our order can only be actualised in about four years time, not now. We don’t have Max 8 aircraft in Air Peace.

So why are they trying to de-market us? More worrying is the ethnic angle, with them saying;”greedy Ibo man. He bought dangerous aircraft to kill Nigerians and has refused to send the planes back”. Meanwhile, we don’t have such planes. We are becoming a wicked county where success is not appreciated.

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It used to be “success has many friends, failure – an orphan”, actually that was then. The new normal is ‘success has many haters (enemies), failure – fake sympathisers’; welcome to the new world!

Just check around you, from your immediate environment to across the globe, the most hated are actually the successful folks, not really because they committed more evil than the wretched folks, but because a lot of people simply cannot withstand seeing others being successful.

And when you find yourself in the midst of low information public, it becomes even more complicated, because not many people have the intellectual capacity to verify what they hear or read, so any misinformation or falsehood is equally treated as though it’s credible.

Mr Allen Onyema shouldn’t worry so much, all he needs to do is to continue to deliver excellence, when haters are angry, let him know that he’s doing something right; so he can even ramp it up more, to increase their miseries…

This world is not for the fainthearted, they will simply crush you any time you waiver.

Tecno sponsors Manchester City Abu Dhabi Cup 2019 . Can we have Manchester City Nigeria Cup 2019? This is the second time that TECNO Mobile, the official handset and tablet partner for Manchester City, is coming in as the tournament sponsor of Manchester City Abu Dhabi Cup 2019 after a successful partnership in 2018.

Tecno Mobile likes football. And it is playing its favorite position – attack. Across Africa, as the football season begins, it will be wearing Camon CX Manchester City Limited Edition Smartphones jersey.  Guardian describes it elegantly thus: “Tecno Camon CX flagship is the latest in a line of photo-focused smartphones of the Tecno Camon series; best known for its premium camera upgrades and pocket friendly price tag. The Camon CX Manchester City Limited Edition features the City blue colour and includes the official crest on the reverse”

Press release

I will be in Nigeria this June to deliver the Special Message on a major event in the nation. While in the nation, I plan to speak in 3-5 churches, on business masterclass, bringing our seminars to the domains. Tell your church to email my team; we will work out scheduling for the remaining spots.

The seminar mirrors our typical works for banks, telcos, and startups, except that instead of using Aliko Dangote and Warren Buffett as case studies, we now use biblical leaders like Esther and Nehemiah. I have developed materials for churches by extracting key business lessons from the bible.

Nehemiah teaches me more about planning and strategy than any living business leader.

When Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the Temple, circa 587 BC, during the siege of Jerusalem, it was unfortunate. Building the Temple, around 10^th century BC to Yahweh, had taken years.

Nehemiah grew up, and rose to become one of the key men in Persia (in modern Iran): a cup bearer to king Artaxerxes of Persia, and later, the king made him a governor of Persian Judea. Nehemiah needed to rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah demonstrated great vision when he sought from the king to approve to use timber from the king’s forest. In Persia, a law existed that no human can waste timber from the king’s forest: the king’s timber went with the king’s builders and security. Simply, if the king approves this timber supply, the wall will be rebuilt!

Yes, Nehemiah rebuilt the Jerusalem city wall circa 408 BC. Specifically, the wall was rebuilt within 52 days despite wars.  Later, Roman Generals Titus and Vespasian destroyed the Temple within the city during the siege of AD 67 – 70.

I hope to speak in your church.

The Timber from the King’s Forest

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The Holy Book has all the manuals, management and economic frameworks for anyone who knows how to interpret and apply knowledge differently, not just for heavenly candidates. If you understand the Book, you won’t have any reason not apply intelligence when dealing with men and women, rather than just waiting on artificial miracles.