Facebook's Success and its Portfolio Strategy
What made Facebook stick Today, we shall take a look into Facebook – one of the world’s tech giants and most popular websites. Facebook started off as a literal “face book” – a school directory – but online. Word spread fast at Harvard and then onto other colleges in the area. From there, the founders added onto the platform until it was no longer just a “face book” for college students, but a social networking site for all. The core to Facebook’s success as a product is its social element. People are social beings. However, one may wonder why Facebook succeeded whereas others – even earlier entrants – did not. This, according to Forbes, was a matter of timing. [1] Facebook rose to popularity on the heels of growing dislike for competitors Friendster and MySpace – whether it be for clutter of content or of the technology itself. How, then, did Facebook sustain its leadership once the competition fell? This could be attributed to its approach to software development, de...