Here we are talking about a company which has more than 400 million users, supporting more than 70 languages, has more than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries ,with more than 3.5 million events created each month and has more than 5.3 million fans. Yes you guessed it right we are talking about Facebook. It is the company which challenged the might of Google in the internet industry. Orkut traffic reduced by 7.7% last year while facebook traffic increased by 69.5%.
Here I would like to discuss a few initiatives which Facebook has taken to improve its customer satisfaction.
Firstly Facebook has inked the deal with Paypal this year. The basic objective behind this deal is to increase credit reliability. The new partnership actually encompasses a few areas of Facebook’s payments. Along with Facebook Credits, you’ll be able to use PayPal to purchase Facebook Ads. This is big news for both companies. PayPal has been trying to establish a greater presence in micropayments and on Facebook itself. And Face-book will now make it easier for PayPal’s 81 million users to quickly stock up on ads and buy its credits, which are only going to become more important on the site going forward. Other payment options for Facebook include standard credit cards and mobile phones (using Zong).
One other reason why this is interesting: given Facebook’s interest in extending itself beyond Facebook.com through services like Facebook Connect, it wouldn’t be surprising if it started prompting people to start “Paying with Facebook” on external sites, which would make it competitive with PayPal. Given how nascent Facebook payments are this would likely be a long ways off (if it’s even coming).
Secondly Facebook recently acquired a firm in Malaysia named Octazen. They are claiming that this is a talent acquisition. Octazen has a slightly different story on their home page, saying Facebook acquired “most of the company’s assets and to employ those assets in a different direction.”Either way, it’s leaving people scratching their heads. What exactly has Octazen been up to?
The company is mostly about above-board contact importing from one service to another – signing in to Gmail from Facebook, for example, to import your contacts there and add them as Facebook friends. Much of this is done via OAuth and APIs, but Octazen is known to dive much deeper for data. One example – Octazen will sometimes collects and store user credentials directly, and sign into large social networks and other sites as if they were the user, say multiple sources. Then they’ll download the address book and social graph. A percentage of your friends on that service might be users of the service (now Facebook) paying Octazen, and you’ll be asked to friend them. But there’s a big question about what happens to the rest of the data as well, and if Octazen is storing a shadow social network in violation of terms of service to recommend user connections down the road. And they may look deeper at data than they should – at email header information, for example, to get a better understanding of who you communicate with the most. Thirdly Last month, Facebook announced a conversion tracker tool to help marketers determine the value of their efforts on the world’s most popular social network. The tool would help marketers track conversions (obviously) and deter-mine the value of brand fans.
At the end, I would like to discuss about a decision which Facebook took and it is affecting our environment. Facebook recently announced a plan to build a massive data center in Prineville, Oregon. Unfortunately, while Facebook plans to build a highly energy-efficient data center, which saves it money in lower energy costs, the company has taken the cheap and easy -- not to mention dirty -- way out in choosing coal as the source of electricity that will power your Facebook profile. Yes, coal -- that 19th century technology, which happens to be the dirtiest source of energy and biggest contributor to global warming -- will be burned in ever greater amounts with each photo shared and status update posted, unless Facebook changes its plans. It doesn't have to be this way. Yahoo, for instance, built a date center near Buffalo, New York, that is powered by hydroelectric power, decreasing the data center's carbon foot-print. Unfortunately, Facebook has chosen instead to go with PacifiCorp, a power company that generates the majority of its electricity from coal-fired power stations. May better sense prevail on the company which claims to make friends with people.
Ankit is a tech whiz by heart and takes a keen interest in articles related to IT/technical developments in and around the world. That can be the reason/cause of his doing a B. Tech (IT) from JIIT Noida. He has no prior work ex though he was selected in 4 companies during his placements. That just goes to show how technically sound this person is. He is currently doing MBA from IIFT.
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