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offer, user access and data. Clients might be interested by gathering even more data using this platform. It will not be easy to harmonize these conflicting interests. Due to the nature of the product Facebook sells as a social movement it already has some quite ambivalent members . Many observers, often from the older generations, are astonished how much information their children are willing to share on the internet and nearly everywhere in the world advocates of privacy complain about the way Facebook and Google collect data. The young may be more outgoing, however also a significant minority of the younger users worry about the collection and treatment of their data. To speak of a love hate relationship between developers and users may be overdone, but the mandatory timeline raised awareness of the vast amount of data collected. What started quite harmlessly ten years ago as targeted advertising based on anonymous isolated keywords has given way to elaborated profiling in which users are tracked close to continuously. Facebook users are only as anonymous as the company can and will protect them. The like button from Facebook was a major instrument not only to connect people but also to enable tracking over separate websites. With this background the relationship between individuals, businesses and the government or social institutions form no magic triangle but a stressed field. The better businesses can reach out to customers by using their data, the higher is the probability that customers will regard this relationship as a bit too close. Also governments do not embrace Facebook; on the contrary, several governmental institutions all over the world have independently voiced concerns, Zuckerberg writes a lot about great new services in general and an IPO file is certainly not the place for specific product announcements, but recent presentations did not convince everybody. As indicated, the timeline as a mandatory automatic history of posts and pictures was welcomed with skepticism. As handy as such a digital life history may be for some, it reminds the entire community of the cumulating amount and the nature of data kept. Independent of the data treatment problem is the international spread of the movement. Up to date Facebook has concentrated on the markets of the western hemisphere and been so successful that in its current form it could be close to the point of saturation. If the Asian and other unchartered markets will follow is an open question. Other social networks and internet companies had to note that regional competition can be tough and it needs more than enough funds for acquisitions to enter foreign cultures. Google had to learn in China that compromises may be necessary - and whenever there is a compromise there are people alienated by it. Mark Zuckerberg has to be seen as a controversial person. He is an object of envy demonstrating how far you can get with a good simple idea but also reminding most people that they obviously dont have it. Was Facebook just his lucky strike? The success of Facebook will depend on getting away from advertisements as the major source of revenue and becoming truly international. Zuckerberg stresses the need for great new services himself. Such services have the tendency to be paid for after some time and may be a less problematic operating base for the future.
Managing Essentials
International
Facebook's chief executive's letter to potential investors www.managing-essentials.com/2cu 60 percent of Facebook users mulling to quit (Tom S. Noda) www.managing-essentials.com/2cv