Why Facebook is so successful?

We all know about how Facebook turned into the most significant online tycoon in the past few years. But did you think about what kind of innovations and value it brought to become the most successful web portal. Well, I did and let me share my reflections with you.

What is actually Facebook?

It really is a mix between dating portal + blog/tweet/forum platform + contact list/messaging platform. And Facebook just took the most valuable and simple functionalities from the other services. You easily search for people and add them to your contacts/friends list (like in a regular dating/contact list web site). You could post a note or article, message a friend, or even upload pictures and videos in a very friendly manner too. The Facebook maximized all the aspects of good web platform using the formula:

useful + entertaining = valuable

Facebook innovations

- Facebook Wall. 

The user’s wall is the heart of the Facebook platform. It is simple to post something there, and it is immediately shared into one “huge wall feed” where everybody could keep track of what the other contacts are doing. The wall is very easy to use – clean of any “advanced features” like text editor or smiles – yet it adds a great value to every Facebook user. The three actions allowed for every post are also selected very carefully. Everybody could just: like, share (repin on his/hers wall) and comment the posts. It is simple and effective.

- The applications development. 

Facebook did something never seen before. It allowed companies to develop their own applications and run them in Facebook environment. It also provides user information to be used by these applications and thus the social games were born, for example. Facebook uses a shared revenue model for all applications and combines it well with the advertisement business model.

- The “like” widget.

Facebook introduced a very small and easy to use piece of code that most of the webmasters incorporated on their websites. The visitors could just “like and share” every article/item on Facebook and thus create content for Facebook, while in the same time bring additional traffic to the websites. This way Facebook serves as a story sharing website similar to Digg for example.

Comparing Facebook to Forums

Before Facebook, the largest social online Medias were the forums. Well, the forums are still a great source of specific and detailed information but they could never reach the critical mass of users, Facebook accumulated. Some would argue that Facebook is full of just crappy content and that’s 90% true but also it is true that most people prefer to stay on Facebook than spend time on their favorite forums. The thing is that it is really time consuming to post a well written article on a forum, and in order to build reputation and to be respected there, a person really needs to be a great expert in particular forum topic and also be very dedicated to share the knowledge. Most people do not have the time, neither the expertise to participate actively on the forums. Well, they certainly have the time to post quick quotes on their Facebook wall, message a friend, upload pictures, comment over somebody else’s posts, play a game or simply look around what their friends are doing on Facebook.

Comparing Facebook to Blogs

Several years ago the blogs were the real trend. Everybody was talking about blogging, commenting and social Medias… And Facebook successfully killed a great portion of the blogs out there. The Facebook wall is actually a micro-blogging platform – easier to use and set up, compared to every blogging platform. And again, some might argue that blog content is more valuable and professional but a regular user also needs more time to read a huge well written blog post compared to a simple Facebook post.

Comparing Facebook to traditional Media

It is hard to compare Facebook to traditional online Media, because of the cost of the content. The cost of the content on Facebook is basically free, while the cost of the online media’s content is expensive as they need to pay journalists, editors, photographers, etc… And again the credibility and the value of the content are on a completely different level compared to Facebook. Also, specific media channels attract specific kind of audience that would not be involved in using Facebook a lot, like business people, financial persons, managers, etc…

So, what is going on Facebook?

It really seems the users are looking for 3 major values in a modern social media. The social media should be easy to use, not time consuming to post and definitely not time consuming to browse, regarding particular item. Twitter complies with the same basic principals. We all live in a time where we want things to be fast and easy. And again, Facebook might seem shallow but many people definitely love it and are addicted to using it.