Facebook It is one of the fastest growing technology companies of all time, largely due to the power of the network that it has managed to build.
When Facebook was first released, the tool had little individual use: it lacked «single player mode». The value appeared as the network grew. The more friends a user had in Facebook, the more value you could get from it.
In the beginning, this value was mainly limited to being able to read friends' answers to the questionnaire that the platform offered to new users, browse their personal walls of posts and easily send impressions (likes/dislikes, emoticons, notices, etc.). …).
However Facebook surpassed grew the value of this simple social record over time, and because it controlled all the data that the user voluntarily provided to enrich their relationships, the company gained control of a deep protective barrier built on top of network shocks individual users.
The first big feature Facebook added to its platform were “Photos”, which instantly became a powerful growth mechanism due to its tagging functionality. Every time a user uploaded a new photo and tagged their friends, those people were notified about it.
These notifications not only led users to Facebook to see photos; it also taught new users how to use the platform.
“Think about tagging photos on Facebook. When you get that notification, there's no way you can't review it, because it's a picture of you. In the meantime, getting that notification teaches you that it's possible to tag photos. instead of that Facebook explain to you that you should upload photos and tag people, they just show it to you.” Stan Chudnovsky, Messaging Product Manager at Facebook.
The later features you added Facebook, from "Groups" to "Messenger," created similar degrees of virality for their users. They created new triggers to attract new people to the Facebook ecosystem, such as receiving an invite to a private group or receiving a message request.
By becoming more and more involved in users' social activities, Facebook it also reduced the likelihood that its users might leave the platform after joining.
Today, this dedication to data has led to Facebook to acquire other properties, especially Instagram, which use the social space of Facebook to build the network of friends and followers of users.
Although the general use of the main product of Facebook may be declining, it's still America's largest social network for people 12 and older, giving the company a competitive advantage when it comes to launching new products.
Instead of having to build a new product from scratch, Facebook you can use your social platform to compete with virtually anyone, for example by immediately launching similar features like Instagram Stories to a larger user base than you previously had Snapchat.
