How Facebook gets you hooked
In a world that seems to be advancing ever faster with each app or social media platform that becomes available, it’s incredible that Facebook still finds ways to move forward 16 years after its launch in 2004.
With so many alternatives desperate to prise away its 2.6 billion monthly users, how does Facebook maintain its base? Social media has always preyed on the fact that we are pack animals. It has made ‘touching base’ with friends and family instantaneous and incessant.
It’s a plinth for exhibiting a perfect version of ourselves, a soapbox for ranting, and pretty much everyone’s digital photo album. Little wonder that social media thrives. But why does Facebook remain the top dog?
Facebook: More science than narcissism
Facebook is built with a very scientific thought in mind. It does not simply serve as a conduit for unadulterated narcissism, nor as an echo chamber. When you get a notification or someone ‘likes’ your selfie, dopamine courses through the synapses in your brain and you feel happy.
This feel-good factor is linked to all kinds of positive behavior and enjoyment, but also some negative ones, like drug-taking, alcohol addiction, and excessive gambling. But other social platforms allow users to like your posts. So it must be something else. Indeed so.
Facebook has always been very astute when it comes to anticipating trends in its users’ online behavior. The company twigged rapidly that photos were a massive reason as to why people used the platform.
So when rival photo and video sharing network Instagram was released in 2010, Facebook knew it needed to either beat it or join it. Hence, it acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion. An astute investment indeed: it is now worth $100 billion. And the funny thing is a lot of “Insta” fans probably have no idea that by using their favorite app they are now serving the big bosses at Facebook.
Why did Facebook buy WhatsApp?
Likewise, in 2009 when WhatsApp revolutionized group chat forever while simultaneously consigning paid text messaging to the vaults of history, Facebook was ready to pounce.
Sensing that people stay registered if they feel perpetually connected, WhatsApp was purchased for $19 billion in 2014 and all that dopamine was Facebook’s to dish out. Users weren’t going anywhere.
So, with giants like Instagram and WhatsApp in his pocket, where does Founder Mark Zuckerberg go now? If Gen Z favors Snapchat and TikTok, the key to maintaining growth in an ageing demographic of users is to find another core need within every person and sell it back to us — something universal, ancient, instilled.
What about love? ‘Facebook Dating’ was launched in the USA in 2019 and allows users to integrate their Instagram posts directly into their Facebook dating profile. The global online dating services market was valued at $6.4 billion in 2017, and this is projected to reach $9.2 billion by 2025, according to research.
Adapting to change is key to a long shelf life
Charles Darwin worked out it wasn’t the strongest species that survived, nor the most intelligent; it was the ones most adaptable to change who had the greatest staying power. Adapting to change is something Facebook has certainly done.
The team at SuperOne is launching a gaming platform with a superb track record of enhancing the digital experience for users of some of the world’s biggest brands. It calls SuperOne “a world-class gaming experience that will become not just the standard by which others are measured but the level which they dream to reach.”
SuperOne also intends to use its vast database of engaged gamers to connect with each other and thus it will have the potential to develop a social media platform of its own. Social media will never be the primary focus for SuperOne.
But it would be silly to look at the achievements of Facebook and decide they are irrelevant for a community-based app with scope for serious growth.