2. Facebook Largest Social Networking in the world. Counts with around 300 million worldwide users. Allows users to connect and interact with others trough messaging, groups, photo sharing and different applications, such as the famous Farmville amongst others. Its interface is simple and clean. Opportunity for companies to aim their advertisements at their preferred target segments. It provides users the option to profile and join various types of self-contained networks, including college-wide, workplace, and regional networks.
3. Business tools News Feeds Profiles Broadcast Messages Facebook Pages Promote their products Keep in touch with customers
4. Disadvantages Maintaining and transmitting vast amounts of data requires huge expenditures. Even though sales reached $265 million in 2008, it spends more money than it earns. Banner adds sell for a very small amount. (15 cents per 1000 clicks). Privacy and user controls are a large concern.
5. What concepts in this chapter are illustrated in this case? Facebook facilitates e-commerce by functioning as an advertising channel. It also has revolutionized marketing through helping companies learn from customers in order to improve better products offerings.
6. What is the role of e-commerce and Web 2.0 technologies in Facebook’s widespread popularity? The role of e-commerce and Web 2.0 is basically the service of social networking, online meeting places where people can meet their friends and their friends’ friends. Social networking sites links people through their mutual business or persona connections, enabling them to mine their friends for sales leads.
7. Describe the weakness of Facebook’s privacy policies and features. What people, organization, and technology factors have contributed to those weakness? Their weakness stems from the introduction of Beacon, the mishandling of News Feed, and the inefficient methods of deleting an account. Beacon was program that shared users' purchase information with their friends automatically because it was initially an opt-out program. News Feed is a program that was abruptly introduced to the Facebook users that shares actions with everyone on the Facebook Web. Finally, it was next to impossible to delete an account that a user no longer wanted to use. All three areas that involved personal information and privacy was met with resistance.
8. Does Facebook have a viable business model? Originally Facebook was not made as a business model. It does not posses a strong, fixed business model because it requires no-payment from their members It’s most viable way to create profit is through advertisements
9. If you were responsible for coordinating Facebook’s advertising, how would you balance the desire to become increasingly profitable with the need to protect the privacy of your users? I would simply advertise Facebook as a place in which you can interact with your friends and share as much information as you want to share. Leaving privacy up to the costumer.
