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Summary
Facebook revolutionized the way people socialize and brought the computer right bang into the middle of human lives, socializing and living almost making real living and socializing defunct! Will this last? Is this forever? Since its inception in the year 2004, the company has grown steadily and has transformed into a social media behemoth with more than 20% of the global population being on Facebook. It is the most sought after social networking websites and also a preferred internet advertising company. The company offers a wide range of benefits for its employees that make it the most exciting place to work and it also on the constant look out for new talent, and this is an interesting aspect for graduates as there are a number of opportunities that the company offers. Besides, the company also offers internship opportunities for graduates and post-graduates.
Company History
Facebook, Inc. (Facebook) was incorporated in the year 2004 and the company deals with creation of products that help in the creation of utility for a plethora of stakeholders namely the users, developers, and advertisers, among others. Facebook is the most popular social media application that helps people stay connected with their loved ones, friends and other acquaintances; to learn the happenings around the world; and to share and express various things and matters of their life to their loved ones.
The Facebook platform helps developers to build various applications and Website, which integrate with Facebook in order to reach its worldwide network of users as well as to create products that are both personalized and social. It offers advertisers a blend of spread, significance, social setting, applicability and engagement.
Effective from March, 2013, Facebook Inc. apparently had acquired Mixtent Inc. Parse Inc. in May 2013, Mobile Technologies in September 2013. Mobile Technologies is a company which is into the development of online applications. Mail.Ru Group Limited sold its residual shares in Facebook Inc. Various other companies that Facebook acquired between 2013 and 2014 are Onavo Inc., Little Eye Software Labs Pvt Ltd., Branch Media Inc., ProtoGeo Oy, Oculus VR Inc., among others. WhatsApp Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.
General Analysis
Facebook may not have impacted economies of countries at large. However it is imperative to mention that presence on Facebook has become one of the key parameters for brands today. Marketers make it a point to be felt and seen around in the Facebook world. It is even reported that the activity on Facebook impacts the employability factor. This kind of publicity makes it amply clear that presence on social media and especially FB has impact going beyond personal lives of people and will influence even the economic position of people.
The kind of commerce Facebook today promotes by means of targeted advertising, its applications in branding, promotion of products and services has made its deep impact on economics too. This kind of activity commercially has already revolutionized permanently the way products and services are branded, marketed and sold.
This made its impact on many areas of marketing management and commerce and has actually thrown out the earlier book of rules and has created new methods and rules by itself. Today branding and promotions on Facebook has created new careers for people hence leaving very positive disposition on the Economic angle too.
Facebook has become so much part of people’s lives today that it is accessed not only from personal computers but also from all kinds of mobility devices like tablets and hand phones. Technology is constantly evolving to ensure that people are always Facebook connected.
Facebook has really changed the way people live their lives and it is not really extreme to be saying that Facebook has become the “real life” of people! Let us face the facts Facebook has become the face of people and their lives. Politically this has become accepted in almost all the economies of the world.
There are a few governments like in China who have expressed concern over the impact of Facebook on social lives but nowhere it as created antagonism to an extent that people are crying for a ban on Facebook. Another important aspect of Facebook is that initially its usage was banned during office hours from office computers. However off late using Facebook is being accepted even in offices albeit the restriction being that it be used only during the off time or break times. Politically Facebook is favorably disposed.
Despite all the hue and cry that Facebook has made people lazy and is negatively impacting real meeting of people Facebook has actually and definitely changed the way people socialize and meet as well as share their personal space. Many features of Facebook that constantly keep evolving, thanks to the research team of the Facebook has given people the kind of comfort to actually speak what is on their mind through status updates.
People now are more comfortable socializing on Facebook and find themselves tongue-tied when meeting in reality! This has created own set of advantages and disadvantages and so far has left positive impacts on lives of people. It is not out of place to acknowledge some of the negative impacts like growing obesity etc. on human lives but it is still in the evolving phase.
The above presented analysis on Facebook looks fairly optimistic in all angles and remains positive certainly in the present situation, and also in the near future. This would continue to be same until there is an intense change that happens and impacts Facebook negatively.
Facebook Leadership
Mark Zuckerberg is the person who founded Facebook and he is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company. Zuckerberg is the person responsible for setting the complete direction and strategy for Facebook. He also handles the design of the services and development of the company’s core technology and structure. Mark is computer science graduate from the Harvard University before he moved Facebook to its current location in Palo Alto, California.
Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of the company, managing the company’s business operations. Before joining Facebook, “Sheryl was the vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Clinton, a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and an economist with the World Bank.”
Sheryl has also authored a book named Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead that is a bestseller title and has founded an organization named LeanIn.Org. This is a global community that supports women who lean in to their desires and goals. Sheryl is also part of the boards of various other organizations like “the Walt Disney Company, Women for Women International, ONE, V-Day, and the Center for Global Development apart from Facebook.”
The Chief Financial Officer of Facebook is David Wehner, who heads the finance wing of the company while also facilitating the IT teams of the company. Prior to becoming Facebook’s CFO in June 2014, Dave had been the Vice President, Corporate Finance and Business Planning of Facebook, since the time he joined the company in 2012. Before joining Facebook, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Zynga Inc., and prior to this Dave was the Managing Director of Allen & Company, an investment bank dedicated to media and technology. Dave joined Allen & Company in 2001.
Mike Schroepfer is the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President Engineering of Facebook. Mike is in charge of harnessing the Facebook’s culture of rapidity, inventiveness and exploration to create products, services as well as infrastructure that supports the more than 1 billion global Facebook users. Before getting associated with Facebook, Mike was the Vice President of Engineering at Mozilla Corporation, where he headed the international, joint, open and participatory product development process of the company’s popular software, like Firefox web browser, among others. The Chief Product Office of Facebook is Chris Cox, who leads the Product management, design, and marketing of Facebook products globally. He is in charge of the core products and features of Facebook, which shape the social experience of all the global Facebook users. It was in 2005 that Chris joined Facebook as a software engineer. Chris is the one who has the credit of developing the first version of the key features of Facebook, after which he went on to become the Director of the Human Resources wing of Facebook. As the Director – HR, Chris set the tone for the organization’s culture and was the key person to have driven the mission, values, and HR strategy of Facebook. “Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems with a concentration in artificial intelligence from Stanford University.”
Market Share
Facebook the leading social networking giant, whose market share stood a little over $3 billion in 2013, is seeing an incessant growth and is anticipated to surpass the technology giant Google's share, according to eMarketer, a research comapny.
Another survey that was conducted by Sarah Schultz, it was revealed that people spend almost half of their time on Facebook, resulting in Facebook ads getting increased impressions from its users.
Competitors
Google is the biggest competitor of Facebook as both these companies compete in the same source of revenue, which is internet advertising. Any company that may want to advertise on the internet would mostly choose either Facebook or Google or even both at times, and this has an impact on the income of either of the companies or both.
Stock Performance
Facebook has experienced a steady growth since its inception in the year 2004 and has become the social media behemoth. This is being said so because, market reports indicate that 20% of the total global population are on Facebook. The chart given below presents the stock performance of Facebook for the past ten years, since its inception.
Job Opportunities at Facebook
Facebook constantly looks for intelligent undergraduates, graduates and PhD students from all over world to join its growing team. Facebook also offers internships to graduates from all parts of the world in the fields like Engineering, Infrastructure, Oculus, Systems Security, among others.
Company perks/benefits to its employers
It is largely believed that no company encourages innovation and autonomy like Facebook does, and this is not all that is encouraged at the company. Facebook offers four months of paternal leave for its employees, along with reimbursement for the daycare expenses and adoption fees, and this does not end here. The new baby is also offers $4000 as ‘baby cash.’
There are also exciting perks for employees who are not parents of would be parents. All Facebook employees are offered free meals, access to kitchen that is stocked with loads of snacks. Employees also have the choice of requesting specific dishes, along with leaving compliments. The Culinary Team at Facebook lets the employees know about the items on the menu.
Locations
Facebook, headquartered in California, also has offices in ten other places within the United States with also having offices in various parts of the world, precisely 15 nations globally.
Interesting news about Facebook
A couple of days back, the founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg had hosted an in-person public Q & A session at the company headquarters. This Q & A, which was the first ever such initiative at the company included close to 200 people from around San Francisco. Zuckerberg answered a wide range of questions. As an answer to one of the questions, he said that he has no intention to make Facebook a cool site, and neither is he a cool person. He also expressed his wish of a diverse team working for him. This is because; he feels that diverse teams are highly successful.
On a question asking why he chooses to wear the same grey T-shirt every day, he said that he takes as minimal decisions as possible in life so that he has more time to focus on the community rather than other things that are really not a priority. He laughed and said that he has many similar such T-shirts.
For another question that was asked about what can be done to increase the role of women in the field of technology, Zuckerberg answered that it is everyone’s responsibility to encourage and support women in in every field of study and not just technology alone. He said that it is important to start motivating girls from a very young age so that they progress in their careers and life as well. It was also stated that the reason for the limited participation of women in the field of technology is because of the lack of a role model for women and this he says eventually results in a cyclical problem.
The second interesting news about Facebook is its effort towards the fight Ebola. The company has started a couple of initiatives that hopefully would help in the fight against Ebola. Health education, easy way to donate, and emergency voice and data services, are the few such endeavors of Facebook against Ebola.
References
Facebook. (2014, November 06). Coming Together to Fight Ebola. Retrieved from Facebook Newsroom: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/11/coming-together-to-fight-ebola/
Facebook. (2014). Company Info - Leadership. Retrieved from Facebook: http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
Facebook Newsroom. (2014, November 06). Highlights From Q&A with Mark. Retrieved from Facebook Newsroom: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/11/highlights-from-qa-with-mark/
FPJ Bureau. (2013, April 8). Your FB popularity may get you a job. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://freepressjournal.in/your-fb-popularity-may-get-you-a-job/
Jeyasingam, N. (2014, January 12). Who are facebook's biggest competitors and why? Retrieved from Quora: http://www.quora.com/Who-are-facebooks-biggest-competitors-and-why
Messieh, N. (2012, April 09). 12 tech companies that offer their employees the coolest perks. Retrieved from TNW: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/04/09/12-startups-that-offer-their-employees-the-coolest-perks/
Nasdaq. (2014, October 28). Facebook Beats Earnings, But FB Stock Dives 10% After-Hours - Stocks in the News. Retrieved from Nasdaq: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/facebook-beats-earnings-but-fb-stock-dives-10-after-hours-stocks-in-the-news-cm407454
Reuters. (2013). Facebook Inc (FB.O). Retrieved from Reuters: http://in.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=FB.O
Scultz, S. (2012, June 01). A Millenial's Daily Hangout. Retrieved from Business2Community: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/a-millennials-daily-hangout-0187582
Swallo, E. (2010, August 16). The Future of PR and Social Media. (Mashable) Retrieved November 10, 2014, from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/08/16/pr-social-media-future/
The Economic Times. (2014, March 24). Facebook eating into Google's mobile ad market share: eMarketer. Retrieved from The Economic Times: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-03-24/news/48523877_1_ad-spending-emarketer-google
