A Detailed Description of the Facebook Network and What It Is Primarily Used For - Essay Example

Begin with a detailed of the network and what it is primarily used for.  Be sure to include some graphic elements. As the most used social networking site, Facebook is primarily used to reconnect and stay in touch with people; its “mission is to make the world more open and connected.”1 To join, users must first register, after which they can then create a personal profile that shares personal information, add other users as friends, post photos and videos, message and chat with other users, play games, use apps, and join countless groups, causes, and networks. A user’s Facebook page consists of several key features, including a user profile, privacy settings, news feed, messaging, video calling, the like button, and the follow button. Facebook users range from a typical individual living their everyday life to organizations, businesses, events, television shows, and celebrities. active professional careers for social interaction. primarily connects people with their friends, as well as those who work, study, and live around them. Users share information, post photos and videos, play games, and use apps through their online Facebook profile. a. history Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, along with co-founders Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, wrote Facemash, Facebook’s predecessor, which launched on October 28, 2003. Exclusively created for Harvard students, Facemash mirrored the popular website at the time, Hot or Not; utilizing ID photos from nine dorm houses, the site allowed users to compare two student photos placed next to each other by clicking on which was “hot” and which was “not”. Though Facemash was a raging success – 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online – Harvard executives shut down the site within a few days due to violating copyrights, violating of individual privacy, and breach of security. b. number of users, cost, countries in which it operates, web-based, mobile, or both The Facemash incident led Zuckerberg to begin writing code for a new website in January 2004. The site, originally thefacebook.com, was launched on February 4, 2004 with help of Facemash’s co-founders. At first, membership was exclusive to Harvard students; more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered users within the first month. In March of 2004, thefacebook began expanding to Stanford, Colombia, and Yale, followed by all Ivy League and Boston-area schools, and eventually to most universities in the United States and Canada. In 2005 the company purchased the domain name facebook.com, removing “the” from its name and had grown to include high school students and business professionals. Soon after, on September 26, 2006, Facebook opened to the general public of at least 13 years of age with a valid email address. As of October 2012, there are over 1 billion active users of this free social networking service and more than half use Facebook on a mobile device. It operates in six continents – Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Oceania – and 212 countries. The ten countries with the highest number of users include the United States, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, United Kingdom, Philippines, France, and Germany. f. The process of joining or establishing a network The process of joining a social network like Facebook is simple. The users should register their names with the help of an email address and password. Moreover, they should create a profile in which some of the personal details needed to be included. After the review of the application by Facebook managers, users will normally get access to their personal Facebook page. The success and failures of a social network depends on its ability to generate traffic. It should be noted that some of the established social networks like Orkut is currently in trouble because of the dominance of Facebook. Even Google plus is struggling to establish themselves because of the huge competition from Facebook. Facebook was successful in incorporating user friendly applications in their website so that people from different parts of the world found it’s very much attractive compared to other social networks. Moreover, advertisers started to place commercial ads in front of the Facebook users after seeing its huge popularity. g. Background of those people who are behind the venture.  “Former Harvard classmates Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social networking site whilst he was employed by them to assist with the sites development, the site in question being connectu.com”(Ryankette). Mark Zuckerberg, a former-Harvard student is considered as the founder of Facebook now, even though he was accused of stealing the idea of some his college roommates and fellow computer science students. The law suit filed by Zuckerberg’s colleagues was settled for $65m. This fact clearly suggests that the claims about the ownership of facebook by Zuckerberg’s colleagues were genuine. However, it is believed that in 2003 itself, Zuckerberg started developing the source code of Facebook even though its formal introduction took place only in 2004. h. For profit or non-profit Even though, Facebook was started for non-profit purposes, at present it is one of the most profitable companies in the world. Zuckerberg started Facebook to communicate with friends and other people all over the world. He had no commercial interests at the beginning. However, Facebook gained enormous popularity and advertisers and marketers started to place ads in front of the facebook users. It should be noted that facebook has currently more than one billion users. i. If for profit, how do they make money? “Between 2009 and 2010, the company's revenue nearly tripled. In the first quarter of this year, revenue climbed 44 percent. In the second quarter, Facebook Inc.'s revenue increased 32 percent to $1.18 billion from $895 million a year earlier” (Quarter earnings: Facebook stock crashes). The major revenue source of Facebook is the advertisements from prominent companies. 3.Identify who (consumers) might benefit from engaging this social network (think demographics, etc.).  Even though Zuckerberg targeted youth community at the time of introduction of facebook, at present it attracts people of different ages and cultures. While engaging in social networks, people get an opportunity to share their views freely. Moreover, consumers get valuable information about new products from facebook communities. 4. Consider what types of organizations—for profit/non-profit/both—do or could benefit from utilizing this social network.  Both profit and nonprofit organizations may benefit from the usage of facebook. It should be noted that the current revolutions taking place in Middle East (Egypt, Libya etc) are labeled as facebook revolutions. In other words, people in these countries get inspiration for a revolution from facebook communities. Profit organizations on the other hand can make use of Facebook as a meaningful platform to introduce their products in the market. 5.What other social networks complement this one or compete against this one and why? Google plus, Myspace, Linekdln, Skype, Orkut etc are some of the major competitors of facebook. It should be noted that Google has enormous capacities; however, their social network Google plus failed to make an impression in the market. 6.What is your personal experience with the network, if any, and your personal assessment of it regarding ease of use, ease of access(web/mobile), likability, etc. In my opinion, limited or controlled use of facebook may bring many advantages whereas uncontrolled use may bring lot of harm to a user. Facebook helps people to share their ideas and views and get ideas and opinion from others. At the same time, spending lengthy hours in front of facebook may cause problems to students in their studies and to professionals in their duties. In my opinion, usage of facebook on mobile platforms is better than that on computer platforms. Since most of the people carry mobile phones all the time, instant communication through facebook is possible only when it is used on mobile platforms. 7.Conclusions you draw from this review.  Facebook has opened a new channel of communication for people all over the world. It helps both profit and nonprofit organizations in many ways. However, uncontrolled use of facebook may bring more harm than good. 8.Recommendations you want to make. Facebook should be used judiciously. It should not cause any addiction in the minds of users. Users should make sure that they stay away from spreading gossips and offensive materials through facebook. Facebook should be used for mental relaxation purpose by the normal users. Works Cited Ryankette . “Who Is The Founder Of Facebook?”. 2011. Web. 06 February 2013. “Quarter Earning: Facebook Stock Crashes”. Indian Express. July 27, 2012. Print. Read More