FACEBOOK NEWS FEED

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRESENTATION

ON

ABOUT FACEBOOK

Facebook is a social networking service launched in February 2004

As of September 2012, Facebook has over one billion active users

In April 2010 an estimated 41.6% (129.5 million) of the U.S. population had a Facebook account

Facebook generates an annual revenue of $1.5 billion

BACKGROUND

Facebook was a young company at that time Had not been launched to public Running in many universities and schools

Success of the photo applicationSearch for new idea

FACEBOOK POSITION BEFORE LAUNCH OF NEWS FEED

$800 million selling offer for such a young company as facebook

Offer expected to rise upto $1 billionOpen registration for publicInternal pressure for selling the companyFailure of news feed would shatter the

company

NEWSFEED –LAUNCH AND INITIAL REACTION

Announced on September 6, 2006Appears on every user's homepage and

highlights information - each item named “story”

Apparently Facebook’s users hated news feedToo easy for other people to track activities“Students Against Facebook News Feed”

anti-news feed groupPrimary objection: shared too much

information

IMMEDIATE COMPANY’S RESPONSE

Mark Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site's failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features within a few days

Open issue discussion-Free Flow of Information on the Internet

Launched new privacy settings on Sept. 8Never considered turning news feed off

PARAMETERS THAT DETERMINED PROJECT SUCCESS

The contribution of the innovators who envisioned the News Feed and the programmers who developed the evolutionary change in the facebook

Contribution of CEO and the executive managers

Internal criticismFaced the criticism but understood the irony

of the situationImmediate change in privacy settings

STEPS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN INITIALLY TAKEN…

Not sufficient consideration given in advance as to how this feature would impact user’s sense of privacy

Should have taken initial feedback for the idea

Privacy settings before launchBrief introduction in advance- as in graph

search

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE COMPANY

Guideline for the young CEOBuilt confidence in the company-rejected the

$1 billion dealPrivacy recognized as major factor by the

companyModified news feed still a part of

facebook.com

CONCLUSIONS

“News Feed truly launched a revolution that requires us to stand back to appreciate”

- Ben Parr, developer of the Students Against News Feed page

Set pathway for futureFacebook is one of the biggest social

networks – implemented innovation in best way