FACEBOOK

After reading the first few chapters of David Kirkpatrick’s book the Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World, defining Faebook as the social network makes sense. Today the Facebook phenomenon connects peoples from all parts of the world on a single space, making it a social network. The origins of Facebook also play into this title, Facebook is the child of social networks. Putting aside the lawsuit between the Winkelzoss twins and Divya Narendra, it is hard to say exactly where the concept or idea of Facebook originated. Sites such as Friendster, Paxo and MySpace and the numerous others Kirkpatrick mentions in his work, all existed before Mark Zuckerberg created his site. These preexisting sites provided necessary information on how to properly run and expand the Facebook idea. From looking at these past projects Facebook could determine what ideas or products would help the site survive or fail. For instance, from watching the problems facing Friendster, Mark and his team knew they had to carefully monitor new member use or the site would become slower and less enticing. One of Facebooks biggest and earliest competitors, MySpace allowed anyone to be anybody when creating a page. Doing so made “it difficult to limit your connections to genuine friends.” (75), Facebook took a more restrictive approach. The insured user validity limited whose profiles could be viewed by whom, making the experience about connecting with people. Additionally, the creators relied on real world networking to make Facebook happen.
Facebook heavily depended on Sean Parker’s previous experience dealing with investors and online companies . Parker’s connections lead the Facebook team to their first major investor Thiel. Parker’s previous experiences made him taught him how to protect the autonomy of the site, and to abandon the Wirehog project, both valuable pieces of information. Networking with Sean Parker contributed to the success of Facebook. Facebook has become a revelation, its success in part dependent on personal social networks and already existing networking sites.