Facebook: The Journey Pt1
By: Nandhini Swaminathan
Tags: Startup Lessons, Silicon Valley, Strategy, Facebook, Analysis

Doug Chayka

By the 2000s, you could pretty much find anything using the internet, except what is important to people: other people.

The company has forced the digital and physical worlds closer together.

It hasn’t been all positive news for the company but I wanted to take a look at what led to their rise and now, what appears to be their downfall and what the future means for the organization.

So in this article, I’m going to explore a few ideas about why Facebook became famous and how has it been able to sustain its popularity in the past 16 years.

1. A Simple UI

Despite being like its rival Twitter in the sense of purpose, Facebook is much easier to use. That’s why older generations like our parents and grandparents are able to use it. Due to this ease of use, millions of people have embraced Facebook and have stuck with it.

Twitter, requires you to understand # and @ which makes it confusing but great for finding what’s trending and sharing information.

2. Only the Paranoid Survive

Today, we casually use our email-ids or Facebook account to login into websites, transporting our online identities from one website to another but this convenience (Facebook connect) didn’t exist until 2008. Like this, Facebook has come up with many features like the Messenger platform, Beacon, etc.

One such recent feature, the Developer Platform has enabled users to write applications using powerful tools that are utilized within the site. The application Graffiti for example, allows viewers to visit your profile and draw pictures. This has increased overall user engagement across the platform.

But not all of its innovative features are original, Facebook has copied off “cool features” from other platforms to keep it relevant and to make sure its users remain on the platform.

3. Engaging

A rabbit hole, the website alone offers a news feed, messaging, video calls, the ability to like, follow, subscribe, marketplace. These features combined with the infinite scroll is making sure you stay addicted.

4. Acquisitions

Facebook’s first acquisition in 2007 was of Parakey, a web operating system that makes image and video uploading easier. This is the first example of Facebook buying technology instead of figuring it out. Currently, Facebook has bought around 80 companies including potential competitors such as Instagram and Whatsapp.

If however, the company is unavailable for acquisition then the organization implements the social features that people seemed to enjoy in the app; Twitter’s follower mechanism, Vine’s short videos to name a few.

5. Going Public

Many were puzzled when the company went public but this step has enabled it to ward off against competitors like Microsoft and Google and has been instrumental in extending its reach globally.

6. Maintaining Control

Despite not owning the whole company, most of the company’s policies reflect Zuckerburg’s views. Key shareholders in the companies who share his long term views have helped in maintaining this hold over the company. Otherwise, the temptation to cut down on its humongous R&D costs might’ve set in and the company would not be where it is.

Focused on growing, the company’s executives have refused to acknowledge how Facebook’s power can be exploited. In the next post, I’ll be talking about this.