The two faces of facebook

The two faces of Facebook and  the global monoculture  Diﬀerences and similari9es in social  networks around the world  Tony Eﬃk, Digital Strategist, NYC 3rd of November 

Facebook doesn’t win everywhere, there are excep9ons.  Diﬀerent cultures and sub‐cultures s9ll thrive 

However, we now live on Planet Facebook  1bn Members*  500m Members  Now  2012  *Tony guestimate

Increasingly, not having a Facebook  account is like not having a telephone  Metcalfe’s Law kicks in. The more people connected to a network, the more useful and valuable it becomes. Two telephones can make only one connection, five can make 10 connections, and twelve can make 66 connections.

Facebook can strangle older networks   Facebook’s growth is supported by Metcalfe’s Law, most other networks are not (unfortunately for them).

Surviving Facebook  Strong and Weak 9es  Absent 9es 

Asia is the new baSleground. Facebook  is winning the war, but not all baSles 

In China, preSy much all western  social networks are banned 

Choose Your Colors: The Battle in India is between Orkut and Facebook

Class divides Brazil. Orkut formerly dominated, but the  educated and wealthy are moving to Facebook 

In Iran, the government was almost toppled by the power of Twitter, and YouTube. It keeps a close eye on Cloob, its major social network. Hoping to flush out dissidents.

Russia has World’s Most Engaged Social Networking Audience*  and Vkontakte.ru is Russia’s Largest Social Networking Site  * As measured by hours spent per month 6.6 Comscore

Loca9on‐based services are changing the  landscape. Four Square is king for now. 

The world is becoming a smaller  place… except in one key way 

Conversa9on is mostly local 

Which means the conversa9ons we have here… 

Or the conversa9ons we have here… 

…are the same ones we have here 

Facebook is the technical pla+orm, but the real social pla+orm comes  from our local rela9onships and social structures. 

Therefore, Facebook  has two contradictory  faces in global culture 

1. Driver of a global monoculture 

2. Pla[orm for ﬂowering of local culture 

•  Today, we call ourselves social media/digital strategists.  •  Tomorrow, a beSer descrip9on of our jobs going forward is  Digital Anthropologists 

http://socialgraph.blogspot.com	55
http://feeds.feedburner.com	4
http://learning101.posterous.com	2
http://www.blogger.com	1
http://posterous.com	1
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1
http://socialgraph.blogspot.in	1

The two faces of facebook

by aeffik on Nov 07, 2010

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