It came up conversationally, but I believe I'm the only individual at my business to have firsthand expertise as an user of Facebook.com. It was type of funny to have all these on-line advertising specialists asking me all about the website everyone used in college. Didn't they get the memo? I'm new. I need to be asking the questions around here. The subject of Facebook.com is an interesting one that's worth a closer look.
With out question 2005 was the year of MySpace. Prior to Rupert Murdoch's $580 million social networking venture took the interactive world by storm, it is challenging to think that even essentially the most optimistic of the billionaire's lackeys would have predicted that new acquisition would far more than quadruple its reach within a matter of months. With 23.5 billion page views by February, MySpace became the second most trafficked website on the net.
Murdoch's success naturally generated acquiring interest in anything deemed online social networking. One proposed deal in March 2006, was Viacom's unsuccessful $750 million bid for Facebook.com, the phenomenon started by wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg. Right after Facebook.com declined the give, its founders pegged Facebook.com's worth at two billion dollars. Perhaps the brilliant sparks from MySpace's success has blinded Facebook.com to the flipside reality of Friendster's paradise lost. There's an actual chance Facebook won't see an offer this generous once again.
Facebook.com is basically an on-line medium of communication for college students and high schoolers. For its valued reach Zuckerberg and his crew of Harvard dropouts (taking their cue from Bill Gates, no doubt) need to be trying to find Google-sized compensation, but the two billion dollar figure is arbitrary and tough to justify. Maybe Facebook is emboldened by their own wise decision in not selling to Yahoo for $15 million in 2004.
Zuckerberg was likely trying to establish a market value for his creation, not an unwise move on the face of points. However, Viacom's offer was not by any stretch of the imagination pocket change as well as the number of entities that may and will double the bid Facebook already got is finite.
Facebook's traffic numbers, as referenced on Alexa.com, in the course of the last three months are not encouraging; which is, if the goal is to fish for far more and greater buyout bids. The numbers really have trended downward because March, anathema for enticing hyper bidding growth. These diminishing statistics might be at the very least partially attributed to the cyclical nature of the school year because Facebook, right after all, is geared towards the college student. It doesn't matter how fantastic the product is, it won't maintain students from doing their own thing throughout summer vacation and this yearly dip is potentially damaging.
Seeing as how fast on the internet fads can expand and contract in social networking as we've seen in its short time span, what if the numbers do not come back? What if something new pops up in two months that steals Facebook's thunder? (And, once more, MySpace's success serves as great reason why this thunder is worth stealing.)
Facebook.com's success has also been marred with some controversy that could taint its popularity with students. At Syracuse University a flap over freedom of expression ensued when a Facebook.com group went overboard in critiquing a student teacher and ended up with expulsions from the class and social suspension just before 3 students transferred. After Penn State's football team beat Ohio State this year students rushed the field and produced a ruckus. Overwhelmed police made only two arrests that day, but later inside the week they logged onto Facebook.com and, like Canadian Mounties who constantly get their man, got plenty of names and faces and photos from the information posted by students about their on-field shenanigans. Kids talk and these stories spread like wildfire, which could affect Facebook.com negatively - they can't control misuse of their item and also the negative repercussions that come from it.
The future is promising for the social networking organization space and I don't think Facebook.com is doomed. Still, given the nature of short-lived and over-hyped dotcoms, Facebook may have reached their growth climax this school year, with possibility for expansion and success only contingent on acquisition. Time may not be on their side simply because as the pages of the calendar turn there will doubtlessly be new fads and trends that will threaten to create some thing else the "Next Massive Thing" at Facebook.com's expense. The clock is ticking.
Author Resource:
Cameron Beck is a professional product reviewer. He's currently working on a Fast Fan Pages Review site where he reviews Paul Teague's Fast Fan Page product.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")