Facebook, eBay downplay Google threat

San Francisco - Silicon Valley star Sean Parker said on Monday that Facebook would have to blunder in a big way for Google's social network to steal its crown.

Parker co-founded controversial music-sharing service Napster in the 1990s and his role in Facebook's rise was woven into the hit Hollywood film The Social Network.

“It is tough to compete with network effects,” Parker said when asked his thoughts on the threat posed to Facebook by Google+.

“Sean is as a matter of fact one of the great prophets of our industry,” said Saleforce.com founder Marc Benioff, whose online business software startup has blossomed into a multi-billion-dollar poster child for cloud computing.

Online auction powerhouse eBay and its thriving financial transactions service PayPal as well see strong “network effects” providing defence from Google's growing commerce platform.

“I agree with Sean, network effects are powerful things,” eBay chief executive John Donahoe said while an on-stage interview at Web 2.0.

EBay last week launched PayPal Access online identity program and an open X.commerce platform for payments to let merchants large or small tap into Internet age cashless transactions.

Google said last week that its online social networking challenge to Facebook is growing fast and has topped 40 million users.

Google has as well been beefing up its e-commerce platform and letting people use some Android smartphones to find local bargains and pay by tapping handsets on sensor pads at checkout counters. - Sapa-AFP