Facebook replacing real by the virtual

In today’s world people are getting busier and engaged in some or the other activities. Because of this the social activities and communication between people is reducing. Since the world is being ruled by internet the best way to socialize and remaining in contact with others is to use the social networking platform. It is as if the real is being replaced by the virtual, gradually.

A number of social networking websites are developing and coming into existence today so as to make communication possible in the virtual world. Despite all other social networking websites, Facebook has managed to make it to the top attracting the highest number of users. Millions of people all over the world use it. The website is continuously updated and interesting features are being added so that people do not find it getting monotonous. Besides providing a platform for socializing and communication, the company offers platform for business promotions too. On the financial and other relative grounds Facebook made quite good revenue in the year 2012, as is evident from the reports. The achievements made by Facebook in the year 2012 have been discussed below.

1. It has made revenue of 1.26 million dollars in Q3 and overcame the Wall Street expectations. The number of users of the networking site has reached 1.01 billion users on a monthly basis. This is a huge improvement and shows an increase of 26% over last year’s. The website has earned revenue of 1.09 billion from advertising as the report till the month of September in the year 2012 reveals. 86% of the total revenue comes from this which shows a 36% rise from that of the year 2011. The most important and noteworthy event to have taken place in its history is the shift of users to its mobile app. This shift has increased the number of users logging into the website per day and has simultaneously increased the number of users on the networking site too.

2. It has launched the new facility of Gifts, along with other advertising products such as Custom Audiences, Facebook Offers, and Facebook exchange. The first engineering office for Facebook has been opened in London. The IPO or the Initial Public Offer, being the largest in history and the largest in the history of Internet, for Facebook was held in 2012 on May 18.

3. The rate of search for one word terms on search engines has risen to 16% in the year 2012. Facebook still enjoys the topmost position in being the term most commonly searched for. It ranks the first among the one word search terms on the Internet.

4. Whatever is it we hear or know about the company has continually emphasized on shifting to mobile usage. Mark Zuckerberg struck a deal with Kevin Systrom, the cofounder of Instagram, for buying his start-up that was 2 years old, worth 1 billion dollars.

5. The year 2012 has been a witness to a record where the number of users has gone beyond the mark of one billion counted on the basis of the number of active users logging in to the site at least once in a month. It has also been first in the history of any social networking site and in the history of Internet itself. Zuckerberg along with his team expects the number of users to reach five billion per month by the next decade.