Facebook Dillemas
Business Problem-Solving Case: Facebook’s Dilemma: Profits (Theirs) vs. Privacy (Yours) 1. Eight unique features of e-commerce technology are obviously illustrated in this case: ubiquity, global reach, universal standards, richness, interactivity, information density, personalization/customization, and social technology (Table 10-2) The following elements of Table 10-1, The Growth of E-commerce, also are illustrated: breadth of e-commerce offerings continue to grow; small businesses and entrepreneurs continue to flood the e-commerce marketplace; wireless Internet connections grow rapidly; powerful handheld mobile devices support a variety of Internet activities; the Internet broadband foundation becomes stronger; RSS grows; and more than half the Internet user population join an online social network. 2. Facebook offers various ways for its users to interact. Facebook is a social network service that allows its users to create a profile and join various types of self-contained networks such as colleges and universities. Facebook is an internet born company that uses web 2.0 technologies. This report outlines the communication concept used by Facebook. It also states how e-commerce and web 2.0 technologies made Facebook popular by allowing advertisers to target their audiences through Facebook. 3. Facebook's policies are not weak, but they have made weak decisions that have damaged their security credibility. Their weakness stems from the introduction of Beacon, the mishandling of News Feed, and the inefficient methods of deleting an account. Beacon was program that shared users' purchase information with their friends automatically because it was initially an opt-out program. News Feed is a program that was abruptly introduced to the Facebook users that shares actions with everyone on the Facebook Web. Finally, it was next to impossible to delete an account that a user no longer wanted to use. All three areas that involved personal information and