DIGITAL PRESENTATION ONKEY FINDING OF REPORT

Tom Lowe (3030859) Communication Technology & Change (8131)

Technology: Facebook

Related social issue: Online privacy for website users

Policy concept in debate: Online privacy rights for individuals

Social/Cultural trend: Social networking

Key Findings of Report

This presentation will provide a detailed overview of popular social networking website, Facebook. It is a segment of information from the Major Research Project Report, based on Facebook in relation to privacy for it’s users.

Facebook at a glance Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment (Facebook 2010).

• The official launch of Facebook was in February of 2004

• Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg (born May 19, 1984 as pictured above) and later developed with eventual co-creators Dustin Moskovitz (born May 22, 1984) and Chris Hughes (born November 26 1983)

Facebook ConceptThe idea of Facebook originated from Zuckerberg wanting to bridge the gap between his peers through an online platform at the prestigious Harvard University, United States.

The concept expanded to include neighbouring universities and as momentum and interest in the website grew, Facebook became available to everyone- projecting it to a worldwide audience.This new communication technology attracted the attention of users and investors alike.

Facebook Users

More than 500 million active users and growing

50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day

The average user has over 130 ‘friends’

Worldwide, people spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Facebook Company Operations

Privately owned company (therefore profits are not publicly disclosed)

Recent statement from Facebook spokesperson confirmed that the company has no future plans for trading publicly (Reuters, 2010)

Employs 1700+ staff members (Facebook, 2010) Organisation headquarters are in Palo Alto, California

(Tech Crunch, 2009) with another 11 offices situated around the world (Facebook, 2010)

Facebook Competitive Environment

Facebook operates in a highly competitive environment

As the diagram shows, Facebook is clearly a market leader in the field of social networking websites

Currently, the main competitors of Facebook are Myspace and TwitterSource: http://www.penn-olson.com/2010/04/22/facebook-crushes-its-

competitors/

Facebook Competitive Environment (continued)

Facebook still continues to be market leaders in terms of popularity

Myspace's popularity continues to decline, with unique audience visit numbers dropping by more than 20 million in just two years

Twitter maintains strong growth yet still lags far behind Facebook in relation to comparative unique audience number figures

Source: Neilen Wire (2010)

Additional topics detailed in report Emergence of

social networking as a trend

Data mining Identity theft Advertising

concerns

Data storage issues Online privacy laws,

regulations and rules Facebook privacy

issues in the media Facebook privacy

redictions

References Facebook (2010). Press Room; Fact Sheet.

http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet

Facebook (2010). Press Room; Statistics. http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Reuters (2010). Online article; ‘Privately held Facebook in 5-for-1 stock split’. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6904J720101001

Tech Crunch (2009). Online article; ‘Behold! The New Facebook Headquarters’. http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/15/behold-the-new-facebook-headquaters/

Penn-Olsen (2010). Online article; ‘Facebook Crushes Its Competitors’. http://www.penn-olson.com/2010/04/22/facebook-crushes-its-competitors/

Neilsen Wire (2010). ‘Facebook and Twitter Post Large Year over Year Gains in Unique Users’. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/facebook-and-twitter-post-large-year-over-year-gains-in-unique-users/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NielsenWireOnlineMobile+(Nielsen+Wire+»+Online+%26+Mobile