3 Questions About Facebook For 13th Facebook Anniversary

Can you imagine that Facebook was launched 13 years ago? It is hard to believe that is only and already 13 years. 13 years that completely changed our lives.

During last 13 years from the birth of Facebook, many things changed. Did I say many? Well, everything has changed in fact. The way we communicate with friends and relatives, the way we communicate with clients, the meaning of privacy and the way we understand privacy, etc. It could be a really long countdown to show all things that have changed during this 13 years. When Facebook was launched in US George Bush was POTUS, today it is Donald Trump. I think no one beside Simpson’s creators believed in that J

During last 13 years, many local social media platforms became „victims” of Facebook growth. However, is this really only Facebook „fault”? First of all, I would not call these platforms as a Facebook’s victims. I would rather consider what the reasons that managers of platforms that suffered were not able to convince a user to stay with them were. You know, Facebook did not become giant overnight, it took some time, it was a process. During the period, when Facebook was growing, others were reaching a record number of users and generated revenues. This, however, is nothing neither strange nor surprising – it is common in business. Many people think that the Internet is not that case, that there is room for everyone, and it is not. I mean, there is actually quite a lot space, but users even they use multiple services select only those they deem best. Question what happened, they do not recognize other services as better than Facebook?

OK, let’s leave a history I think many people wrote tons of articles about it. Let’s focus on presence and future.

1. Is there anything or anyone who can treat to a dominant Facebook position in social media?

Moreover, the short answer is – not today. The Facebook position is unyielding today, and there should be a revolution to change it. Obviously, everything is possible in the future. However, today is extremely hard to imagine the world without Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s platform is not only the place where we talk with friends and relatives, but it’s also the place where you can quickly build the society to support the ideas or help people, last but not least it’s a platform for communication with clients and if you look at Facebooks’ revenue it seems that advertisers appreciate its effectiveness. I will not even mention about the number of external services we are login into via Facebook. If we add to this that in December 2016 MAU (Monthly Active Users) number was record 1.86 billion we have a full picture and the answer to the question about the condition and dominant Facebook position.

2. Does Facebook react appropriately on new trends in social media?

Facebook is a trend itself and apparently set another trend thanks to the position. The apparently social media world is not standing at the place and waiting for Facebooks moves, but Zuckerberg’s platform reacts quickly on whatever can treat his position. Sure, not for all with the same commitment, but it has justified the decision. The reason why Facebook focus so much on video is that everyone in Menlo Park is aware of the importance of video now and in the future. The introduction of Mid Roll to videos in Facebook can change the game. It will give publishers to earn a significant amount of money, and this can allow them to produce dedicated content only for Facebook. Lately, there appeared information that Facebook also plans to launch own application dedicated to TV decoders. All these activities show that Facebook not only wants to compete with YouTube but they want to take from video market as much as possible, no matter with whom Facebook will fight.

3. Is Facebook still attractive for young people?

Young users are looking for something regularly. For many teenagers, Facebook is the platform for older people, for their parents so often they are not so much interested in being active there. Some of them say openly that they cannot be themselves when they have parents and their parent’s friends as… well, “Friends.” So they choose the applications which their parents are not visiting very often like Snapchat or Musical.ly. The second app has already 150 million of registered users called “musers.” More and more popular app is also HouseParty, which after only a few months from launching reached one million of DAU (daily active users).  However, young people also use Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook Messenger. Besides all, they also use Facebook even if it is not their first choice. Zuckerberg is aware of users’ demography of Facebook and if he is not able to buy something (like Snpachat) than Facebook implement some features that may encourage younger users to use Facebook more often. Youth, however, fades away and there come the day when 10 or 15 seconds for communication is too little. They know about it on Facebook.