Facebook Considers nonEnglish Sites

1
Facebook Considers non-English Sites

• Published September 30, 2007 in the Financial
  Times, by Kevin Allison Aline van Duyn

• Presented by Michele Motley, Alan Friedlander,
  Brant Lang

2
History of Facebook

• Started by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg.
• Began as a hobby to connect with students
  throughout the dorms.
• Launched nation wide in February of 2004.
• Second largest online social network following
  MySpace.
• Primary focus of high school and college
  students.
• Unlike its competitors it is not available to
  everyone only students.
• Recognizes students from over 30,000 institutions
  all over the world.
• 7th most trafficked site in the US.

3
Uses of Facebook

• People can stay in touch with friends at other
  universities
• Send photos
• Lets people know about events taking place
• Able to join groups to find people with your same
  interests

4
How Does Facebook Make Money?

• Low operating expenses
• selling ads through a small sales force
• Their traffic and demographic allows them to sell
  their inventory easily because high school and
  college students represent a highly sought
  demographic.

5
History of MySpace

• Started in 2003 by eUniverses Chris DeWolfe and
  Tom Anderson
• First MySpace members were eUniverse employees
• By December 2004 MySpace is the most visited
  online social network
• In July 2005 eUniverse and MySpace are purchased
  by News Corp. 580 million
• By 2007 MySpace reaches 200 million accounts
• Currently used in over 60 countries and available
  in 7 languages

6
How does MySpace make money?

• Banner ads
• Sponsored searches
• Entertainment promotion
• In 2006 Google signed a 900 deal to provide
  search and advertising features on MySpace

7
Article Summary

• Facebook is preparing for an ambitious overseas
  expansion due to its explosive growth in the past
  year.
• Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks founder and chief
  executive is attempting to broaden the sites
  reach beyond its core audience of US users.
• International growth is one of a few things that
  we are very focused on right now
• Currently Facebook has overtaken MySpace as the
  most popular social networking site in other
  English-speaking countries, including Canada and
  the UK.
• MySpace has already introduced non-English
  language sites, and has introduced local features
  for MySpace in many non-US markets.

8
Marketing Implications

• Facebook can use a global marketing strategy of
  localization.
• This would adapt the website according to country
  or region by changing the language, features,
  etc.
• When creating non-English speaking sites,
  Facebook will expand their advertising market.
• Example Companies in Japan , who had no need to
  advertise on Facebook before, will be more
  willing to buy ad space for their products
  because it will now reach Japanese consumers.
• Companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Viacom
  have all made large offers to buy out Facebook,
  which if bought, would bring the website to
  another level.

9
Implications Continued

• Facebook creator Marc Zuckerberg has stated his
  desire to keep the site independent, but with a
  powerful company behind the helm, Facebook would
  have a better chance of surviving the global
  market.
• Zuckerberg has explained that Facebook has to go
  beyond internationalization and figure out the
  cultural implications of moving into markets like
  Europe, China, Japan
• In other words, how would a Facebook website
  affect another countries culture?
• It could do the same as it does in the US, which
  brings people together from all over the nation
  that share common interests, and activities.
• Would they have to adapt features to each
  country? Such as poking another Facebook
  member. This could be interpreted wrong in
  different countries.

10
Questions Anyone?