Facebook’s Innovation, Challenges and 10th Birthday Celebration

Facebook’s Innovation, Challenges and 10^th Birthday Celebration

Facebook, now a household name, still seems like a new technology, but is actually celebrating a very special milestone-it’s 10^th birthday. For the average person, the idea of something turning 10-years-old is hardly a significant factor. In the world of technology, reaching this milestone is a sign that the product or service has been around for awhile. According to many analysts, one year for a piece of technology probably has more value than a “dog” year.

Many may find it hard to believe that Facebook has been around for a decade. This is the case because of the company’s original marketing plan. When Facebook began, the platform wasn’t available to everyone on the internet. It started with a select few students at Harvard and then expanded to the entire college.

The Facebook founders expanded its user base from there. After the product had been available to the entire population at Harvard, it expanded to other Ivy League schools. Once it became popular with the entire collection of schools, the founders knew they were on to something. If it were possible for Facebook to gain traction with this demographic of students, it would be possible for it to become popular with all other demographics.

The company eventually reached a point where it had presences at nearly all colleges and universities in the United States and in many places around the world. The next logical marketing challenge would be to see if Facebook could reach and even larger audience without alienating its core user base.

Facebook has been successful in meeting this marketing challenge. The company successfully made its website available to high school students and then the general public. Facebook is now the premiere social network online because everyone on the planet either has an account on the website or knows someone who does. There has never been a piece of web technology, outside of a search engine like Google that could attract as many user accounts as Facebook.

Facebook has since made strong presences in technology in regards to incorporating apps, mobile and content in its news feed. However, there are two great challenges Facebook will continue to face into the future: competition with emerging online technologies, and growing its user base.

Two emerging online technologies have presented significant competition for Facebook-Instagram and Twitter. After an explosion of online popularity, Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 and has since grown its user base.

Twitter, on the other hand, has significantly grown its user base to rival Facebook’s, but comparing the two platforms is like comparing apples to oranges. Each provide significant value in its own way, but are simply of different flavors. If you want to share information with followers-you choose Twitter. If you want to connect with your family, friends, co-workers and other s, there isn’t a better place to do so than Facebook.

In the company’s ten-year history, it now has over 1 billion users worldwide. Many business analysts believe that growing its user base is Facebook’s greatest challenge. Since 1/6 of the world’s population has an account on Facebook, is it realistic to think that its user base can grow any larger than it is right now?

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, is responding to this challenge in a few ways. He isn’t subscribing to the idea that Facebook has reached its capacity to expand. The company is focusing on innovating technical aspects of Facebook to make the platform more efficient for every user. This will retain its current user base at higher levels (more daily sign-ins, visitors, shares, etc). Also the company is campaigning to bring internet to locations with poor or no service through Internet.org.

While looking at the sheer numbers, it would be easy for some analysts to conclude that Facebook is “too old” and “too big.” Here we have a 10-year-old piece of technology with over 1 billion user accounts, that couldn’t possibly get any bigger according to some. This perspective describes Facebook simply by numbers on a factsheet. If you take into account the company’s expansion in innovation and marketing, it is apparent that Facebook will meet these challenges, and continue to be the premiere online technology in the world.