Facebook Claims: Twitter is “in the rear-view mirror”

Posted 09/20/2009 at 9:20pm | by Justin Kerr

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If you’re a social networking news junky, you’ve likely been getting a kick out the ongoing battle between Facebook and Twitter. The two competing companies have been scrapping away for months now, but Facebook’s vice president of growth Chamath Palihapitiya is ready to call the war in favor Facebook claiming, “Twitter is in the rear-view mirror”. “To focus on a company with 40 million users that is not growing is not a good idea,” he said, citing Hitwise market share data as evidence of Twitter’s slowdown.

Based on the interview it appears Facebook still has a lot of respect for what Twitter has accomplished (imitation is the highest form of flattery after all), but clearly feels Google is the bigger competitor going forward. “Our task it to make sure we innovate and to make sure there’s no new upstart experience that could take users away.” If going after Google sounds like an unrealistic target, it’s worth noting that Facebook currently has over 300 million registered users, followed up by Yahoo at 600 million, and Google at a whopping 900 million.

Palihapitiya claims the future of Facebook lies in redefining the way people surf the web. He claims rather than simply turning to Google to find content, users will consume information largely based upon recommendations from friends. Can you see yourself setting Facebook to your homepage?