Hip hip hooray! Despite the naysayers, trouble causers, attempted hacks and many, many redesigns and structural overhauls, Facebook has made it 10 years - still at the top!
February 4, 2014, may in time be remembered for Facebook's 10th birthday. 2014 may, just as easily, one day be remembered as the year that everything went wrong for the social networking giant. However, the statistics say otherwise (read on for those) and let's not be nasty to Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder) and his invention - after all it is it's birthday!
The Facts & Figures
- Today, Facebook has over 1.2 billion monthly users - that's the same as the population of India at 1.239bn people (source)
- In the week beginning January 27, 2014, new figures revealed a profit of $7.87bn in 2013 - a 55% increase (source)
- In 2004, as the film The Social Network portrays, Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm, as a technological replacement for the old online college directories, message boards and sticky notes once left on dorm doors.
- At 29 today, Mark won't even by 40-years-old in 2024
- When he was 22, Mark cleverly - and perhaps, bravely - turned down $1bn from Yahoo! for Facebook (source)
- In 2005, Napster founder Sean Parker invests in Facebook, while encouraging Mark to change 'thefacebook.com' to 'facebook.com' - smart move! (source)
- Over $2.34bn was brought in through mobile advertising in 2013, that's over half of it's total revenue. (source)
- In 2006, Facebook becomes publically available to everybody (previously open to college students only)
- 2009 seen the birth of the infamous 'like' function
- 2012 was the year in Facebook floated on the stock market at $38 a share
- Facebook celebrated 2013 with 1bn users - a milestone for any social media network
"I don't like it, but I feel like I have to be on it."
Facebook has been battling rumours, surveys, research and figures suggesting it's time to say 'bye bye' for the last few years. On top of that, there is often the whisper (or shout) from sections of the public claiming "I don't like it", "I hate Facebook", "I'm leaving Facebook" and similar. Yet, we don't leave. Why?
Research suggests that it's down to pretty much being busybodies or gossips.
We've all discovered, learnt or shared something on Facebook - grief, love, new life chapters such as leaving university, becoming a parent etc. It is this reason that most people are so 'addicted' to logging in to Facebook, in a similar way to teenagers and celebrity fans are of Googling their idol's name - you "have" to find out the gossip first.
Facebook communication manager, Iain McKenzie told the BBC:
"Today people have shared the birth of their first child, wedding, hooked up, broke up, mourned, outed themselves, said something dumb, said something profound, confessed that life's got too hard for them, been brought back from the brink by a friend, or a stranger, found a job, posted something that lost them their job, learned a fact that will save their life one day, found their new favourite song, and hit 'like' on a cat picture - all on Facebook."
However, there is some evidence (although with a 55% rise in profits last year, Zuckerberg will still be pretty happy) to suggest that Facebook is still on the decline in the popularity game:
- According to Pew Internet Centre research there has been a 25% drop in younger users at the same time as an 80% increase in users aged 55+ (source)
- A recent Princeton University study predicted that Facebook could lose 80% of its users by 2017 (source)
- Further Pew research suggests that younger generations are turning to WhatsApp and Snapchat, over Facebook, for anonymous/private conversations (source)
- Global Social Media Impact Study - sponsored by the EU - revealed teenagers felt embarrassed to be associated with Facebook (source)
- Piper Jaffray reported in November that the % of teenagers using Twitter had overtaken Facebook for the first time (source)
Facebook at 20?
When Mark Zuckerberg hits 39, his college dorm invention will be 20-years-old - if it's still around.
Which shouldn't be a worry, according to a report from The Guardian, as Facebook has already made big plans for its future.
The future being Paper, a sleek, reduced version of Facebook where we "write, film and share our stories via our mobile phones".
This is perhaps a recognition of the success of news-sharing that goes on on Twitter (Facebook's main rival), as it calls for a more relevant way of communication between users, sharing relevant stories. There is even talk of Paper using real, human editors to "promote" such great stories.
- Did you know? Facebook Paper has already been released on the app market, but has come into trouble with a company of a similar name.
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