When asked to search for a company with a complex, rapidly changing environment, I immediately thought of Facebook. This is a company that I have been incredibly familiar with since I opened my account in 2007. I visit this site every single day and my continued support of this social media phenomenon could be viewed by some as “my little addition”.
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| http://www.funnystatus.com/articles/facebook-addiction/ |
Mark Zuckerberg is the face of Facebook. The company founder began this company in 2004 and hasn’t looked back since. This company provides a social interaction medium for its users. Once you have opened a free account, you are able to add friends, post messages on your wall and that of your friends, add pictures and videos to your personal area, as well as play games, and navigate other interesting applications. It is estimated that there are 900+ million monthly users to this website and roughly 80% of those users are residing in countries outside of Canada and the USA. The company has approximately 3500+ employees and on May 17, 2012 it became a publicly traded company.(http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=674637) Please click here for the corporate information page of Facebook.
Some opportunities and threats for Facebook as influenced by varying environmental factors:
Opportunities:
Opportunity with technology- Every day it seems that there are more and more handheld devices being introduced i.e- Iphones, blackberries, IPads, and other tablets. Facebook is becoming more and more accessible to people all over the world.
Facebook is responding to these new opportunities by designing new applications that can be used on a universal level by all devices.
Opportunity with up and coming generations-Just the other day on the radio, I heard that Facebook is going to open its doors to children under the age of 13. Apparently the new accounts will be attached to the guardian/parent's account so that they are able to fully monitor what their children are viewing, who their friends are, what messages they are sending to other, what groups they are members of, etc. I look at this as being one of the largest opportunities for Facebook. The younger generations want to feel as if they are apart of things and this new direction for the website will allow children <13 to get a piece of the hype!
-Threat of technology-I found an interesting article regarding a technology based threat for Facebook. With the rising numbers of people accessing the site and creating accounts, how is Facebook going to be able to keep up with the demand of space for new members? Maybe the company will face limits to how much space the company can take up on the Internet and people will be forced to join other social media site.
I couldn't actually locate any direct information from Facebook in regards to the issue of space. I have found various articles on the internet warning internet users that the time is quickly approaching that websites like Facebook and Twitter are closing in on their maximum IP address allotments. It will be interesting to see what the future brings for Facebook and their continued presence on the internet.
-Threat of Internet scams and phishing schemes. There have been instances where emails have been sent out, being represented as coming from the Facebook company. Account holders are unknowingly giving their personal and financial information away to internet hackers. This can greatly effect privacy regulations for the site and allow fraudulent activity to take place.
I couldn't actually locate any direct information from Facebook in regards to the issue of space. I have found various articles on the internet warning internet users that the time is quickly approaching that websites like Facebook and Twitter are closing in on their maximum IP address allotments. It will be interesting to see what the future brings for Facebook and their continued presence on the internet.
-Threat of Internet scams and phishing schemes. There have been instances where emails have been sent out, being represented as coming from the Facebook company. Account holders are unknowingly giving their personal and financial information away to internet hackers. This can greatly effect privacy regulations for the site and allow fraudulent activity to take place.
Facebook is actively responding to all threats against its internet site. As described by Alok Menghrajani, Facebook employee "we take your security very seriously and have dedicated teams across the company that focus specifically on protecting people's accounts and fighting cybercrime. At the same time, our security team is working with law enforcement and collaborating with email providers and other industry experts to identify and catch the criminals responsible. Western Union also is working closely with law enforcement on scams such as this one." (http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=142604447130)
-Threat of the expanding economy-Imagine getting an email from Facebook (a legitimate email). The correspondence states that Facebook account holders would be obligated to pay a monthly service fee. Since its conception, Facebook has been offered as a free service. Given the statistics listed in the corporate info sheet noted above, how much longer can Facebook offer a no obligation account to its members? The economy is ever changing, services are getting more expensive, as is the cost of hiring a group of passionate employees to operate Facebook.
Facebook is constantly adding more and more advertisements to its site. These companies are obviously paying a fee to promote their business on the site. Between that, and the fact that the company is now selling shares to the public, I foresee Facebook remaining a free service. Amid rumours that Facebook would start charging a fee, company reps and the company founder were quick to dissolve the rumours. I guess we just have to wait and see!
Facebook is constantly adding more and more advertisements to its site. These companies are obviously paying a fee to promote their business on the site. Between that, and the fact that the company is now selling shares to the public, I foresee Facebook remaining a free service. Amid rumours that Facebook would start charging a fee, company reps and the company founder were quick to dissolve the rumours. I guess we just have to wait and see!
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