As Facebook celebrates its 10th anniversary, the world’s biggest social network is finding its path as a maturing company, adapting to an aging user base.
The company created in a Harvard dorm room in 2004 has established itself as a phenomenon, securing its place in the world of the technology giants.
“Facebook has made the world much smaller, much more interactive,” Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said. “Facebook started the social revolution, but it may not be able to control it.”
In its short history, Facebook has become a part of daily life for more than 1 billion people around the globe.
Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg described the mission as “making the world more open and connected,” and some say he has accomplished just that.
“More than 20 percent of all time spent on the Internet is spent on Facebook,” Social Internet Fund founder Lou Kerner said.
Yet in some ways, Facebook could be the victim of its own success.
Its initial core base of teens and university students has expanded, and Facebook is now widely used by people in all age groups.
Facebook says it has a global total of 1.23 billion monthly active users, including 945 million who use the social network on a mobile device.
However, some analysts say that Facebook has to shift strategy for an aging user base.
An iStrategyLabs study of US Facebook users found a 25 percent drop in the number of users in the 13 to 17 age group, along with an 80 percent jump in the number of users over 55.
“People joke that for the teen, Facebook isn’t cool when your mom is on it,” Kerner said. “I think it’s not even your mom anymore, now it’s also your grandmother.”
The research firm Social Bakers says its data shows teens are a big and still-growing part of Facebook.
“The 18-to-24-year-old age group is still the largest,” Social Bakers’ Ben Harper said. “Our data shows the growth of audience and interactions on Facebook, and while teens are undoubtedly using multiple platforms, they are also sticking with Facebook.”
In the US, Facebook is used by 71 percent of all adults who are on the Internet, or 57 percent of the adult population, according to the Pew Research Center.
Pew found that while Facebook is used by 89 percent of online adults in the 18 to 29 age group, it is also used by 60 percent in the 50 to 64 age category and 45 percent of those over 65.
Facebook is maturing as a company as well. It had a calamitous initial public offering in May 2012 plagued by technical glitches, and saw its share price slump by half, but has been on a roll for the past year, with its stock hitting record highs.
Facebook has reassured its investors it can generate advertising revenue, particularly in the mobile segment used by an increasing number of members.
Facebook reported its profit for the whole of last year jumped to US$1.5 billion from just US$53 million in 2012, and revenues increased to US$7.87 billion from US$5.1 billion.
According to the research firm eMarketer, Facebook has become the second-largest recipient of digital advertising spending behind Google, and is particularly strong in mobile ads.
“Facebook appears the best way to play the social Internet,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note to clients, preferring Facebook to the up-and-coming network Twitter.
Some analysts say that Facebook’s appeal to grownups is a big part of maturation, and represents the key to generating revenue and profit.
“Advertisers place promotional content on Facebook for one reason only — to generate sales,” analysts at the research firm Trefis said.
“The vast majority of purchases made online come from users of ages 25 and above. One study suggests it is as high as 85 percent. With these figures in mind, the decline in users ages 13 to 24 becomes almost irrelevant,” Trefis added.
Kerner said that being “cool” is not necessarily Facebook’s long-term goal.
“You can’t be the cool place forever,” he said. “One of two things happen to companies when they’re done being cool. They either go away, or they transition to becoming more of a utility. And Facebook is very successfully doing the latter.”
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure