What Makes Facebook Popular?

Recent reports suggest that Facebook has rapidly been gaining popularity to become the largest player on the global stage, and dominant in many countries. There has got to be something that it’s doing extremely well to have achieved such heights. So, let’s take a look at some of the areas where Facebook has gone “right”, and added to its rapid growth.

1. Clean design

Reports from Neilson Online tell us that most people find Facebook to be well organized, simple and easy-to use. I personally found Facebook really confusing at first, till I eventually got used to it. Although opinions might vary, Orkut, in my books, is a lot simpler with a much easy-to-use interface.

2. Privacy controls

Users have a much higher control over their content and account, and can manage who sees their content or not. Facebook has tailored its privacy controls based on 3 principles: Control, Simplicity and Connection.

3. Little advertising clutter

Reports indicate that Facebook appeals to a larger audience because of less advertising compared to many of its competitors.

4. Large demographic

Facebook has a broader appeal and is not limited to a particular demographic as such, like students or youth alone.

5. Multi-purpose networking activities

Facebook focuses not just on entertainment but also connecting. Facebook is an all-in-one – Reunion, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Personals, Flickr and Twitter all put together.

6. Creative architecture and features

Various applications, invites, requests and Facebook’s open architecture are some of the things that have led to a much higher visitor engagement.

7. Media buzz

Facebook took off well from minute go due to the large free media coverage it received and still is till date.

Local offerings keep Facebook at bay in some countries:

Facebook has majorly come into global prominence in the last two years. However, there are countries where Facebook is yet to catch up. For instance:

• In Germany, local player Wer-kennt-wen is twice as popular as Facebook.
• In Japan, Mixi is around 27 times more popular than Facebook.
• In Brazil, Orkut is 29 times more popular. Facebook barely exists in Brazil compared to Orkut – being visited by just over 2% of Brazilians online.
• In China, because of a different culture, language and the regulatory issues of doing business, the US social networks aren’t dominant there. By the time the US networks arrived, local players such as Xiaonei; the portal QQ and 51.com had achieved dominance in key demographic groups.
• In the US also, MySpace had established itself as an entertainment portal rather than just a pure social network. Although Facebook has taken over MySpace, but it still remains a huge player in the country.

Do you, as a Facebook user, agree with the statistics from the report mentioned above? Feel free to add more points to the list and share your thoughts on what you think.