Why don't professional web designers create something like facebook?

[qwertyui23456]

Seriously, can't they use their knowledge to create a website like facebook and make billions?
something LIKE facebook...not facebook

[Apocaliptz]

Why reinvent the wheel?

[m173627]

Because facebook was already made...

Facebook was made by college students who are making billions now. I guess you'd call them professional now.

[Rom Cartridge]

Because the web is only the tip of the iceberg (a very thin tip indeed). Facebook is a collection of databases managed by a complicated software, and the web design is only the user interface.

Only the sofware to manage those distributed databases costs thousands of hundreds of dollars. Furthermore, many things on Facebook are patented, which means you cannot copy them without having problems with the law.

Even if someone surpassed all this obstacles, it's difficult for new Social Networks to gain users when all their friends are already using another one.

[Bruno]

Can they? Yes, they could, especially with the right team of developers around them. The reason Facebook is so big right now is that it came out as one of the first of its kind. Now there are the big 3: Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. So there's really no need to go and do this because there is already extremely stiff competition.

Basically it's more about when and what rather than why, can, or should. What matters is these social networking sites came out first (when) and became the innovators of social networking because they realized a need in people (what people need). Before then, there was no such idea. Most of the best inventions are common sense items, but once they're made, there's no reason to reinvent it as it's already been done and the originators have the rights to it.

Besides, why would we want another social networking site? The current 3 cover the primary needs for almost everyone. The only way a developer would want to come along and create a new social networking site is if they found a niche where other sites haven't yet (money making opportunities) or the big 3 start charging to use the sites (which will never happen).

[Aviel]

What would be the purpose?