Is Facebook Creating its Monopoly?

Starting off as a medium of social interaction for the fellow college mates, Facebook Inc. has managed to obliterate a lot of its competitors that came along its way!

Back in 2004, when cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched popular social media website Facebook Inc., it followed a format similar to long-forgotten Orkut. At that time, critics were not confident about its success. Since then, the company has gone on to become the 10th largest company currently listed on the S&P 500 Index, thanks to its efficient corporate strategies. Who would have thought that the company which was valued at just $2 billion four years ago, would escalate to such a great height in a matter of only four years. With its impressive user growth, the social media behemoth has successfully created a monopoly of sorts, as rivals stand nowhere close.

According to Facebook’s annual report 2014, the company reported billion in revenues, reflecting an impressive 58% year-over-year (YoY) increase.  Most of these revenues came from advertising, which makes sense if we consider that the company increased its average price per user by 173% from the year-ago period.

For starts, Facebook has a very large user base. The sign-up process is fairly simple too, as users can join easily if they have a registered email address. Given that this process does not require any subscription fee, more and more users keep joining by the day. As of September 30, 2015, it had 1.55 billion monthly active users (MAUs). Keeping in view the diverse range of users around the world, Facebook is tailoring its site in such a way that once a user logs onto the site, they don’t close the tab.

When the company’s top rival Twitter Inc. introduced verified celebrity accounts, Facebook followed suit and lured the same audience, as its 63,206-character post limits effortlessly outclassed the $12 billion company’s 140-character tweet limits. When Apple Inc. introduced its iMessage feature, Android users were undeniably left out. However, Facebook solved their woes by launching the Facebook “Messenger” app on iOS, Android, as well as Blackberry and Windows phones, simultaneously.

Besides text messaging, Messenger has several other interesting features including audio messaging, audio as well as video calls. The app’s high definition (HD) video calls offer greater quality than Microsoft’s Skype calls, giving the latter a run for money. The company also keeps updating the app regularly to ensure consistent improvement and to add cool new features.

Facebook also tried to take on Google’s YouTube with its revamped approach towards videos. It’s relatively shorter clips have lured in large audiences. As of August 2014, Facebook videos had a billion more views than YouTube, as per comscore. Nowadays, many renowned corporations use Facebook for advertising.

All in all, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that once a user logs in on Facebook, every form of entertainment is just a click away. This is the reason why the company’s revenues are increasing significantly year by year.

Even though the company has a range of competitors including Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn, they stand nowhere close to the company’s user growth, wide range of apps, consistent updates, unique features, and creative ideas. Without a doubt, Facebook still stands many years ahead of them.

Facebook Collaborates With Uber For Ride Hailing

Facebook has partnered with Uber for ride hailing through Messenger

Facebook Inc. has transformed the Internet fraternity. According to a statement published by the company recently, the company is actually testing a service that will enable the users on its Messenger platform to hail the rides on Uber directly whilst using the app. So now you will not have to get disturbed during a conversation or will have to download another application to hail your ride.

Uber is the first company that has partnered with Messenger when it comes to transportation. This feature will be offered to a limited user base of the company in regions where the company is operating as mentioned by the social media giant in a blog post.

The service coined as Uber on Wednesday will be rolled out in the United States region on Wednesday as mentioned by the company in the blog post.

It has been also reported that Lyft, another ride hailing facility will also be catering to the transportation needs on Messenger from January, 2016. The news was revealed by a source close to the company.

Users can book their ride if they have the upgraded latest version of Messenger by clicking on “transportation” present in the menu. You can also click on the car icon that is added to a chat.

According to Thilo Koslowski, the Vice President and the leader for automotive practice at Gartner stated, “Facebook is looking at this as a way to make Messenger more attractive.” Thus, this platform will act as a big market to capitalize on for Uber.

Facebook has striving since a long span of time to boost the performance and consumer base of its Messenger service. The company has made it a compulsion to install a separate application to receive and send messages. From that time, the company has improved the features of its app where you can receive and send the money also through Messenger.

Despite all the efforts, Facrbook’s effort to bolster Messenger are not as unique as they seem since the company has been catching up with its Chinese rival Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat- messaging app. WeChat has been offering similar perks since a long span of time.

Facebook stocks have closed with a 2.1% surge at a price of $106.97. The company has been doing all it can to push its services to newer heights and lure as many users as possible. the idea they cater is to come up with a one stop solution for the masses.