The best
comment that was related to Facebook’s move to stock exchange today, was the
following one: “Why is Facebook going public? They couldn’t figure out their
privacy settings either!”
Yes, you
got that right. I found that comment on Facebook!
Does it
mean that Facebook has finally reached a respectable status like any other IT and
website brand on the market, just like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and
others? Does it mean that Facebook is turning into a profit running company
like any other grand company with stock options on sale? Does it mean that any
Facebook user will have to add “Facebook Stock options” as a friend in order to
buy stock options?
Mark
Zuckerberg’s move to Nasdaq was maybe a logical one, with Facebook’s success in
the social media market it has reached a level in which it cannot be longer
considered as a mere social media website, but as a vast global company. With
nearly 1 billion users worldwide it represents the most powerful network on the
planet. With today’s move, Facebook has reached a level where competitors like MySpace,
Friendster, or smaller locally based social media websites have failed to
achieve.
For sure,
hardly any normal Facebook user will buy stocks, since these are mostly
reserved for the big capital investors. But those who do can anticipate a boost
of the stocks’ value within the first days of trading, but only as long as the
hype for Facebook stocks are kept alive. It won’t take long until this hype
fades and Facebook will be just as vulnerable to rapidly changing exchange and
market fluctuations as any other company trading stocks worldwide.
The
question is: does it bother us at all?
Not really,
at least not as long as you don’t buy any stocks. Only the real enthusiast and
100% networked people using every single app that is linked with Facebook would
consider buying stocks. For all the other types of users there is simply no
need; at least not as long as they continue to behave on Facebook in their regular
ways, according to their type classification. In fact, the German daily
newspaper “Frankfurter Rundschau” has identified five of them:
Type 1: the
“Farmer-Mafia-Hitman: he posts around 150 status updates per hour, just to
inform us about his progress in Farmville or Mafia-Wars
Type 2: the
Network-Feeder: he is Mark Zuckerberg’s ideal user, sharing every single detail
of his life, which app he is using, where he has just checked in via
Foursquare, or which pictures he has just taken with Instagram. Of course, none
of his friends cares since they all unsubscribed from his news feed.
Type 3: the
Dual-Profile user: One profile he keeps to share “reasonable” information,
pictures, and status updates with his family, his boss, his wife/girlfriend; on
the other profile, each of his friends keeps wondering what that guy was doing
at last night’s party.
Type 4: the
Data-Protector: he persistently ignores all friend requests since he assumes a
potential threat to his fundamental right to protect his data, his identity,
and all of his personal information. Since he literally has no friends and no
one posts anything on his wall, he assumes that Facebook is totally overrated.
Type 5: the
Globetrotter: the most hated Facebook buddy you can imagine. He annoys his
friends with his extensive travelling diaries, posting every single stage of
his journey, just to show how dull and empty his friend’s lives are compared to
his. Status updates go like this – especially by using the IATA codes: “Going
from LAX to SIN via CDG….spontaneous stop-over in DBX and CPT“ (translated: “Going
from Los Angeles to Singapore via Paris… stop-over in Dubai and Cape Town”).
However, in
a certain way we can consider ourselves special: our lives - which we share
with everyone else on Facebook and with every company linked with it - is now being
traded.
Like or
dislike? Personally, I miss an additional Facebook-button: “I don’t care”
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