Facebook Rebound!!

Facebook is one of the largest social networking website with more than 800 million users worldwide. It was founded
in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerbergand his roommates. The idea behind Facebook is a limited network between college class mates than expanded
to other colleges gradually growing to become the most used social networking service. The way Facebook grown dramatically fast brings the question, how will Mark Zuckerberg carry on his success?

Last class we learnt about the product life cycle and the 4 stages of it (introduction, growth, maturity,
decline). It was interesting to apply that on one of my favorite websites and see where it stands. From the history of Facebook, it’s obvious that the introduction phase was so difficult for such a young and talented group of Harvard students. The product life cycle was never planned or imagined to reach what they achieved today. Facebook moved smoothly to the growing phase, they concentrated on competitive services with a lot of improvements and options especially with more competitors introduced in the market. Users increased rapidly during the period from 2008 to 2012; however this fact made the debate if Facebook reached their peak and how far the maturity phase is.  Facebook appears to begin maturity phase of product life cycle. growth started to stall in some regions losing more than 7 million active users in US and Canada.

In your opinion, where do you see Facebook after 5 years??

18 thoughts on “Facebook Rebound!!

  1. Where will Facebook be is really debatable given the concerns about how their IPO did go so well a while ago. I was keeping up with the news and it was the only thing I could read in the media but things did not go as planned and the media moved towards debating if the initial public offering of Facebook was just hyped. To me as an investor I would have real concerns if the stock I just bough had a problem keeping its price above the set price in the first day of trading.
    Here is an article I found in the forbs shading some light on this issue: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/05/20/the-failure-of-facebooks-ipo/

    Honestly speaking, Facebook could be one of those companies which do well after having some problems with their IPO but I highly doubt that given the fact that social networks have the tendency of diminishing after a while and people just go for the next new thing.

  2. In my opinion, if Facebook does not change their strategy and introduce new ideas to their existing platform, then for sure it will decline rapidly and will disappear with in the next five years just like the previous social connecting networks, hi-5, my space and pal talk etc., they will end up being an advertisement website because people have deserted them. Facebook is at the end phase of its maturity stage and should introduce new ideas to get back to the growth stage and compete with the upcoming new social websites.

  3. A great article ! You should also watch a movie called “Social Network” its about how Facebook was created. I think Facebook is facing a tough competition from Twitter. Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that allows the users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters known as tweets. Twitter currenlty has around 200 million users worldwide. In my opinion, one of the main reasons for Facebook’s decline is the popularity of Twitter. For example, me and most of my friends use Twitter more often than Facebook. Twitter is more interactive in which you can share and exchange knowledge and information and latest updates with everyone around the world in just seconds.

    I personally feel that Facebook will decline in the coming years and everyone will forget about it just like hi5 and Windows Messenger and it will be one of those sites that in 10 years everyone will say..do you remember Facebook ? yeah i remember those were nice days.

  4. Facebook must introduce newer application, another thing some companies think that technology is the solution always, well it’s not. One of Facebook’s mistakes is the new upgraded sight and view, many people – including me – prefer the older version of Facebook which was easier to use and easier for the eyes. Facebook should use technology to become better they shouldn’t use it because they have to.

  5. I think we are living in the age of the Facebook bubble. With Facebook offering its shares as an IPO, it has become evident that its highly volatile stock reflects uncertainty for the company as an investment. While some big banks were trying to keep the prices artificially high at $38, the stock price fell by 30% in 3 days. This only reflects that uncertainty for its future is definitely imminent. While I think that Facebook offers a unique social networking experience, many people are moving onto new social network platforms, such as twitter, where privacy concerns are not as large. Until Facebook changes its strategy and transforms its product to adapt to changing market tastes, I think that the product will soon see the decline stage of its life cycle before it experiences maturity!

  6. Honestly, I think Facebook is already on its way to the declining phase. When talking about social networking it is such a fast paced phenomenon that keeps changing every few years. Remember myspace? It used to be THE website to be part of and communicate with people. Who uses myspace now, I do not think people even remember it. While Facebook proved to be such a success since its launch and remained so for years, people now are slowly getting bored and starting to wonder about an alternative.

  7. Facebook has been the most controversial issue in the news, especially during and after their IPO issuance. Facebook reported that they were developing their own Social Smartphone in order to find new ways to generate revenues. The most recent statistics showed that out of the 901 million facebook users, 488 million of those logs into the social network using a mobile device. While this explain why facebook considering building their own smartphone, some says that facebook will fail, and they should concentrate on developing software rather than hardware. I think this is only the beginning of what facebook would offer in the future, and whether their hardware project is going to success or not? We might see facebook offering more than just a social networking!

  8. I think there will be a decline in the Facebook users after five years.If they are not finding a solution to enhance their application by providing new social network that adapts with users need and to be easier not complicated. Facebook needs to improve security features, which are a common problem nowadays because most of the users left Facebook due to privacy preach.

  9. It is hard to say where facebook will be in five years but if I had to guess I think it might be is a decline by then. The reason I say that is that there is always a new and better application/technology people fall in love with and want to use. Five years ago who would of thought that facebook would dominate myspace like it does.

  10. I’m inclined to agree with YousifK502 and Nathann599. I also believe Facebook will be in decline, judging from the IPO. Another Myspace, so to speak.

    In speaking about the IPO debacle, one simply had to think about the company itself to judge the stock viable or not. What does the company produce? Nothing. How does it generate revenue? It is a free service. Are FB Ads effective? A little bit of searching or perhaps from personal experience… not really. This goes along with Yousif’s estimation- change the strategy or die as the next-best-thing comes the way of the consumer public. Based on what we learned from our MBA, having put options on the stock during the IPO would have been fantastic, as some smart investors found out.

    I’ve seen some businesses use Facebook to great effect in promoting their business (through their own personal pages, no less). If Facebook could somehow capitalize on that, enhance and use their connections to provide cost-efficient solutions by connecting people with the products they want/talk about (without using crap-algorithms that take what you put in your posts- I say I saw a woman buy a very expensive purse does NOT equal me wanting a Gucci purse via side-advertisements. Thanks Facebook), again, a new strategy to capitalize on their strength aside from being a global friend-connector, then maybe I’d change my opinion.

  11. In five years, I would expect Facebook to diminish. It is not as popular as it used to be nor what it used to be when it came to its layout and features. I used to be a facebook user but I recently just deactivated mine. I was not pleased with the many spams I was getting, nor was I pleased with how it sold my information to other companies. I did not feel safe or private. The private features on facebook also began to change. As a whole I began to notice that my peers are also not pleased with Facebook and its many changes. There are many new apps out there on the market that are slowly surpassing Facebook.

  12. I personally believe that after five years Facebook will no longer be. I can see Facebook following the path that we all once saw MySpace go through. Facebook seems to have reached its peak and lately Facebook’s success is declining. In order for Facebook to beat its new found competitors, it will need to change its characteristics and even offer its users far more than it does now. It will be interesting to see where Facebook will end up and if its demise is in the near future.

  13. I have to agree with veronica301s12, I think they are on the decline and that is because of all the different things that they are doing. With everything that they are doing they think they are helping the people that are using it but it actually making things worse for Facebook. The reason that it was popular was because MySpace was going all out and introducing different things and people got bored and then they moved to Facebook and the same thing in happening now. The problem with those big companies is that they think that having a lot of different things on their site will help draw people in and keep them attached to that site. To me what make a site that make me come back is the simplicity of the website and overtime Facebook has changed, that has also shows in their recent stock prices. It is early to talk about the Facebook stocks but the stocks are as good as the companies, but it is too early to tell.

  14. I feel they would be on the slow decline just like myspace people would want something new but as it stands right now by then generations would change their perception. The internet would be different. The stock market entry did not look to great becuase it is a social network with huge compititors like twitter and youtube. Facebook would probably need something like google and youtube on their to become a huge compitor for years to come and compete with the everyone on a huge scale becuase now 0people dont need to go anywhere else.

  15. I think unless they keep on having updates and changing stuff with the website, in five years they would definitely be in a decline stage. People always get bored very easily, and in order to stay in a game, they have to do something to keep the attention of people. Over all I think that a decline stage for Facebook is inevitable, whether it s going to happen in 5 years or more.

  16. Social networking sites started to rapidly increase with each new one invented it would become a site upgraded with new features. There was Xanga, Myspace, sites that let you create your own sites etc, and now Facebook. Each one invented would decrease members of the other. So where does that leave Facebook now? I think Facebook has become more successful and last longer than the rest especially with twitter and tumbler being created. But, I do believe something new will come along and just like the rest members will follow the new thing (assuming that this new social network creates a Original feature that FB has yet taken). If Facebook does come up with new creative ideas I feel that members will be growing but not as much as it use to.

  17. I bought into Facebook at the high($42) when it went public and I am currently still holding. The company itself has a great model they collect on advertisements and have minimal expenses in my opinion. Where Facebook has hit a rough spot is with its contant updates, many will argue “Oh they need to have this, they need this” I would disagree. The best sites out right now, with the heaviest traffic, are all very, very simple. Facebook will only continue to grow as the start to acquire companies that will help aid in Facebook to expand into different markets. The reason for my hold is because you have to look at other similar companies that are publicly traded, such as LNKD. If LNKD is priced at over $100 p/s I am not worried one bit about my investment, the company entered into the market at a very unstable point. Once we have some new leadership this and other companies will skyrocket.

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