In this third and final blog of Kirkpatrick's book, The Facebook Effect, he continues to discuss the rising value of Facebook. Also, he writes about Zuckerberg’s announcement to development platforms for programmers to create social applications within Facebook. Within a matter of weeks, many applications had been built and some already had millions of users. Zuckerberg explained, “We want to make Facebook into something of an operating system, so you can run full applications.” (pg. 217) I think Zuckerberg wanted to have Facebook be like Microsoft, where it is very much like a monopoly on the social network. Microsoft wiped out all the other competition and Zuckerberg wants Facebook to dominate the social network.
What I found interesting was Kirkpatrick’s comment about Facebook taking the burden off itself to built better applications. In becoming a platform, Facebook did not have to keep building better applications; it can now rely on others to do it for them. Yet, with this simple plan Facebook can reap the benefit and share these applications with the whole world. (pg. 218)
When it came time for Facebook to make money, Zuckerberg’s personality showed itself. To him, everything was about the “long-term” plan. Zuckerberg believed, “Long-term financial success depended on continued growth, he believed, and even his grand declaration at the Facebook Ads launch just meant the company would start seeking new approaches.” (pg. 259) Zuckerberg could not see anything but, “...growth and continued improvement in the customer experience...” (pg. 258) it is fascinating to read about a young man not dazzled by all those billions!
In chapter fifteen, Kirkpatrick writes about Zuckerberg’s concept of “gift economy”. He believes that, “The whole culture works on this framework of mutual giving. The thing that binds those communities together and makes the potlatch work is the fact that the community is small enough that people can see each other’s contributions.” (pg. 287) When Zuckerberg talks about a community is small enough, he means since Facebook has made the world smaller and closer. Zuckerberg goes on to say, “When there’s more openness, with everyone being able to express their opinion very quickly...” (pg. 287) He felt companies would become “more good, and trustworthy”. Maybe I am more jaded, but I found this ideology idealistic, but it can also be his youth. That said, Facebook has come a long way in a short time and it has shown it resilience. Facebook keeps on improving itself, maybe it can improve the way the world works.
No comments:
Post a Comment