Write the answers to the questions for discussion given in the company case.

Company Case Facebook: Making the World More Open and Connected The world has rapidly gone online, social, and mobile. And no company is more online, social, and mobile than Facebook. In other website. Together, the Facebook community uploads 350 spite of the growing number of social media options, Facebook million photos, "Likes" 4.5 billion items, and shares 4.75 billion pieces of content daily. continues to dominate. In little more than a decade, it has accu- mulated more than 1.6 billion active monthly users-more than Having achieved such phenomenal impact in such a short period of time, Facebook's success can be attributed to tena- 20 percent of the world's total population-and some 1.5 bil- cious focus on its mission-"to give people the power to share lion people now access the network on a mobile device. More than a billion Facebook members already log on daily, and five and make the world more open and connected." It's a place where friends and family meet, share their stories, display their new Facebook profiles are created every second. In the United photos, pass along information, and chronicle their lives. Hordes States, more collective time is spent on Facebook than on any of people have made Facebook their digital home 24/7. CHAPTER 2 | Company and Marketing Strategy 63 observers scratching their heads. For example, a few years ago, From Simple Things Initially, carrying out this mission was relatively simple. When CEO the social media giant paid $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR, the Mark Zuckerberg and friends launched "thefacebook.com" in virtual reality start-up. In the past year, Facebook has also de- 2004, it was for Harvard students only. Still, with its clean design veloped its own 360-degree stereoscopic 3D video camera with ("No Disneyland, no 'Live nude girls.""), the fledgling site attracted 17 lenses-a device it calls Facebook Surround360. Why these a lot of attention when it racked up more than 1,200 registered acquisitions and developments? According to Zuckerberg, it has users by the end of the first day. Within the first month, more than to do with "first steps." half of Harvard's undergraduate student body had joined. The When Zuckerberg took his first steps, his parents noted the massive response demonstrated tremendous untapped demand. event in his baby book. When one of his cousins first walked some At first, the social network grew one university campus at a time. time later, Mom and Dad captured the moment with a photo. But it wasn't long before Facebook was open to the public and When his niece learned to walk, the video camera was rolling. But people everywhere were registering by the millions. for his own daughter, Zuckerberg wanted to take it to the next As it grew, Facebook's interface was a work in progress. level. "When Max takes her first step, we'll be able to capture the Features were added and modified in order to appeal to everyone. whole scene, not just write down the date or take a photo or take The network's growth and development also gave it the ability to a little 2D video," Zuckerber says. "The people we want to share target specific kinds of content to well-defined user segments. this with.. . can go there. They can experience that moment." However, Facebook's "all things to all people" approach left many Zuckerberg's wanting to broadcast his daughter's first steps users, especially younger ones, visiting Facebook less and shift- as though others were there is just one more example of how ing time to more specialized competing social networks. To meet Facebook constantly focuses on its central mission-to connect that growing threat, Facebook shifted gears from a "one site for the world. "Over time, people get richer and richer tools to com- all" approach to a multi-app strategy of providing "something for municate and express what they care about," says Zuckerberg. any and every individual." According to Zuckerberg, "Our vision for Facebook anticipates that this kind of video could lead to an Facebook is to create a set of products that help you share any entirely new mode of communication, one that could extend to kind of content you want with any audience you want." Facebook's own Oculus virtual reality headset. As the first move under its multi-app strategy, Facebook paid As much as 3D virtual reality video sounds like a long shot, it's a then-stunning $1 billion to acquire Instagram, the surging photo- easy pickings compared to Facebook's biggest current initiative. sharing app. Although Facebook already had its own photo- Zuckerberg has been spanning the globe, addressing everyone sharing features, the Instagram acquisition brought a younger, from global leaders to fellow entrepreneurs and making a case 27-million-strong user base into the Facebook fold. And rather for what he sees as the most critical social endeavor of our than incorporating Instagram as just another Facebook feature, time- making the internet a basic human right, like health care Facebook maintained Instagram as an independent brand with or clean water. As he tells it, lack of free and open access to its own personality and user base. Instagram and Facebook information is the greatest barrier to prosperity for the world's im- customers can choose their desired level of integration, including poverished. Yet almost 5 billion people are not yet connected to Instagram membership without a Facebook account. "The fact the internet. Zuckerberg and the Facebook team aim to eliminate that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is that barrier by making the internet accessible to all. an important part of the experience," says Zuckerberg. To this end, Facebook has created its own innovation think Not long after the Instagram acquisition, in its quest to add tank called the Connectivity Lab. This group will have a satellite unique new products and user segments, Facebook announced orbiting above sub-Saharan Africa within a year. But satellites are the creation of Creative Labs, a Facebook division charged with expensive, so the group is also working on other options. The developing single-purpose mobile apps. It also unveiled the new most promising option is known internally as Aquila-a sleek, division's first product-Paper, a mobile app that provides easy boomerang-shaped drone that has the wingspan of a Boeing and personalized access to Facebook's News Feed. Although the 737, weighs less than 1,000 pounds, and can to stay aloft at core Facebook mobile app already provided access to this con- 65,000 feet for months at a time. Soon to be tested, Aquila will tent, Paper let users organize the feed by themes, interests, and receive radio signals from a ground station, relay those signals sources, serving it all up in a full-screen, distraction-free layout. via lasers to transponders on the ground, and convert the signals On the heels of Paper came another stunning Facebook to Wi-Fi or 4G networks. Facebook's vision is to eventually have mega-acquisition. Dwarfing its Instagram deal, Facebook paid a 10,000 Aquilas flying the friendly skies around planet earth. shocking $19 billion for standalone messaging app WhatsApp. Facebook's own Messenger had already grown quickly to 200 Giving It All Away million users. But similar to Instagram, WhatsApp immediately Although Facebook spent more than five years building its user gave Facebook something it could not easily build on its own- base and paying almost no attention to generating income, it is an independent brand with more than 450 million registered now making up for lost time. In the past five years, Facebook's nternational users, many of whom were not on Facebook. revenues have gone viral- from $2 billion to $18 billion, a ninefold By developing and acquiring such new products and apps, increase to its top line. With a 20 percent margin, its bottom line Facebook is doing what it does best-growing its membership isn't doing too badly either. And although Facebook has experi- and giving its diverse users more ways and reasons to connect and engage. Facebook's fuller portfolio lets users meet their indi- mented with various ways to generate income, the vast majority of its income comes via tried-and-true online advertising. vidual needs within the broadening Facebook family. With all the development of fancy technologies such as drones, asers, virtual reality, and 3D video, you might think that Facebook To the Stratosphere intends to diversify into new businesses that could generate cash As Facebook develops more reasons for more users to connect and profits. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, and engage, it also pursues technologies that might leave some as Facebook launches these and other technologies, it is giving 64 PART 1 |Defining Marketing and the Marketing Process away the designs for free. Years ago when Facebook built its own For years, a popular saying around Facebook has been "We are servers and data centers, it promptly open-sourced the designs one percent done with our mission." These days, those who man- and let the world have them for nothing. It did the same with big age Facebook might concede that they've made progress-say, data analytics tools such as Cassandra and Hadoop. Although to maybe 2 percent. For skeptics, consider how Facebook got that might seem like throwing away money, it's right in line with started : Facebook's mission. Whereas most companies define them- It was a few nights after [Zuckerberg] launched the website. He selves by a craft, such as making the best consumer electronic and his computer science buddy were getting pizza and talking. gadgets or solving companies' efficiency problems, Facebook Zuckerberg told his friend that someone was going to build a so- has been built around a single-minded goal of connecting every- cial network, because it was too important not to exist. But he one in the world and giving them the tools they need "to share didn't guess, back then, that he'd be the guy to do it. There were anything and everything in a natural way." older people and bigger companies. So why, then, was Zucker- For that reason, Facebook focuses on what it does best- berg the one to build Facebook? "I think it's because we cared. being the best social network. Rather than becoming distracted A lot of times, caring about something and believing in it trumps," by developing multiple business units and trying to make money he says. "I couldn't connect the dots going forward on Facebook through diversified means, it remains focused on building its from the beginning. To me, that's a lot of the story of [Facebook's future] too." user base and treating its core social media products as works in process. To those who view the projects coming out of the Connectivity Lab as unrelated, Zuckerberg points out, "They're Questions for Discussion actually incredibly focused in terms of the mission. The real goal 2-12 Is Facebook's mission statement market oriented? is to build the community. A lot of times, the best way to advance Explain. the technology is to work on it as a community." With many companies already working on the very tech- 2-13 How is Facebook's strategy driven by its mission? nologies that Facebook is trying to advance, it might seem that 2-14 Is it wise for Facebook to give away it technologies for Facebook isn't adding much. But Zuckerberg is impatient, and free? Why or why not? he feels that the tech world is providing too little, too late. For ex- 2-15 As it moves forward in fulfilling its mission, what chal- ample, Facebook's laser drones will be able to shower entire rural enges does Facebook face in the future? areas, villages, and cities with extremely high bandwidth at higher speeds with more economical costs than the systems currently Sources: Based on information from Cade Metz, "How Will Zuckerberg being employed and developed by telecom companies. "We Rule the World? By Giving Facebook's Tech Away," Wired, April 12, 2016 need certain technologies to exist in the world, so we will build www.wired.com/2016/04/mark-zuckerberg-giving-away-facebooks-tech- those," says Zuckerberg. "We're not selling [servers] or cameras free/; Jessi Hempel, "Inside Facebook's Ambitious Plan to Connect or connectivity services. But if no one else is building them, we're the Whole World," Wired, January 19, 2016, www.wired.com/2016/01/ going to." acebook-zuckerberg-internet-org/; Sarah Kessler, "With Paper, Facebook Whatever its future, Facebook seems to have barely scratched Stops Trying to Be Everything for Everyone," Fast Company, January 30 the surface when it comes to fulfilling its mission. Its new multi- 2014, www.fastcompany.com/3025762/with-paper-facebook-stops-try- app, multi-segment strategy, combined with its massive, closely ing-to-be-everything-for-everyone; Josh Constine, "Zuck Says Ads Aren't knit social structure, gives Facebook staggering potential. And the Way to Monetize Messaging," Techcrunch, February 19, 2014, www. world toward internet access for all will help make techcrunch.com/2014/02/19/whatsapp-will-monetize-later/; and informa Facebook's portfolio of apps and products available to everyone. tion from www.facebook.com/facebook/info/?tab=page_info and www. zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/, accessed June 2016