Facebook faces up, for better or worse? Essay

Facebook started as a collegiate affectionate profit (Atal, 2007). In May 2007 it abandoned the college niche and opened its doors to everyone. ComScore noned that 71% of users are now remote the college age-bracket (Atal, 2007). Theres no doubt that the move signifi whoremongertly increased the membership in the network, only when is their decision to open to the public undisputedly for the better?Facebook made its mark by focusing on a college niche. Their decision to veer away from this commercialize could have serious consequences to the network.One trade withdraw is between size and significance. A niche encourages peculiar(prenominal), familiar and private network. Student-exclusive networks provide users with a sense of splendour Its easy to become a big fish in a small, students-only pond (Atal, 2007). It gives them the tint of belonging of being a part of a community they can call their own. It connects them to people they can relate to. While membership is limited to a specific class of people, size is compensated by closer and more meaningful interaction between the members.The downside is, applications are also restricted to the interests of the niche market. popular networks on the other hand can reach more people. A diverse crowd need varied things, thus they have bigger room for improvement and development. They are not limited to specific programs, interests or advertisements. By shifting to a public social network, Facebook got rid of its boundaries. It opened its doors to serve more people. It embraced an opportunity for growth.One of the issues raised is the reaction of the original members to the upgrade. Facebook has such a strong hold on the college social networking market (Atal, 2007). The change in focus market did not seem to affect the sponsor of students. Original members remained loyal to Facebook despite the change.Going from a niche to a public network is a new ballgame for Facebook. They are up against giant network s. They need to perform on a higher(prenominal) level. They have to create a niche amidst the league of giants in order to stay on top. leave their niche opened opportunities for new networks to step in. CollegeOTR.com, CollegeTonight.com, and CollegeWikis.com are three of the websites that are likely to benefit from this. Capitalizing on the niche left by Facebook, these network aim to create networks that are as specific as they could be (Atal, 2007).ConclusionFacebooks decision to abandon the college niche and upgrade to a public social network is beneficial to Facebook. It offered opportunity for growth without alienating the original members. While the focus expanded to imply everyone interested in joining the community, they can still serve the need for smaller communities by develop applications suited for this purpose.By upgrading to a public social network, Facebook put an end to the competition between Facebook and other college networks and paved the way for collaborati on. One example of this successful partnership as mentioned in the article is the SuperWall (Atal, 2007). CollegeWikis.com sponsored Superwall, a Facebook application where users post college-specific information that is instantly communicated to the virtual message walls of other registered users at their college (Atal, 2007). Collaborations like this not only promote cooperation among the networks but also present the best of both worlds to the users.Facebook gave up its niche market to give way to improved service, diverse membership and better partnership with other networks. The decision positioned the lodge to serve more people, produce more products and services well into the future.ReferenceAtal, Maja. (2007, August 8). Facebook Faces Up. Businessweek, 1-2.