Facebook as an Organization
What is Facebook?
Facebook is an online free social networking website. It allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and videos, and send messages. It is an easy way for people to connect and share with their families and friends online. The name Facebook derives from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year, by some American University administrators to help students get to know one another.
History of Facebook Facebook was founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes (Wikipedia, 2013). The founders had initially limited the website's membership to students of the University of Harvard, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before it opened to high-school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13 and over (Wikipedia, 2013).
Statistics
According to Facebook as of September 2013, the company’s active users are up to 1.19 billion and it has 6,419 employees. Five new profiles are created every second and 728 million people log onto Facebook daily. There are 874 million mobile active users, which is a 45 percent increase from 2012. As of May 2013, 4.5 billion likes generated daily, which is a 67 percent increase from August 2012. Facebook is ranked two by Alexa rank, in the United States and around the global (Wikipedia, 2013).
The Secrets behind Facebook’s Success
There are several factors that have made Facebook so unique and successful among many social media services (SNS). I will summarize some of the most important ones below. Time factor: Facebook was launched in the right place at the right time. The famous social network services that were out during the launch of Facebook were Friendster and MySpace. These social networks were mainly designed for an older demographic rather than the younger generation. Facebook however was designed first for college students by college students, and addressed people of almost any age, particularly the youth.
Technology and Research: Being an online company, Facebook definitely knows the importance of research and innovation. A research team by the name of Data Science Team, which consists of 12 researchers, is continuously trying to develop the website with new ideas, features, and innovations. They apply math, programming skills, and social sciences to search through the huge piles of customers’ personal data to get insight on their interests and needs. As Tom Simonite (2012) stated "Company's social scientists are hunting for insights about human behavior". An annual conference called Facebook F8 has been held since 2007 with the objective of encouraging developers and entrepreneurs who build products and services around the website, discuss new ideas, and introduce new features (Wikipedia, 2013).
Facebook follows up with technological improvements quite closely, and integrates some of them with its website based on customer needs. For instance; In August 2009, Facebook acquired social media real-time news aggregator FriendFeed. In February 2010, it got Malaysian contact-importing startup Octazen Solutions. In 2010 Divvyshot, and in 2012 Instagram photo sharing services were purchased and integrated into Facebook (Wikipedia, 2013).
Features and Applications: Facebook has introduced several features as well as some applications that were new to the SNS world. NewsFeed may be counted among one of the first ones. Before this feature, customers would view their personal profiles after the login process. Now, they come across with the most recent news about what their friends are up to. Being able to find and connect with real-world-friends via educational background, location, and occupation have helped