'Facebook faces up, for better or worse? Essay\r'

'Facebook started as a â€Å"collegiate neighborly intercommunicate” (Atal, 2007). In May 2007 it abandoned the college deferral and opened its doors to everyone. ComScore noted that â€Å"71% of users argon now outside the college age-bracket” (Atal, 2007). on that point’s no doubt that the move importantly increased the membership in the network, but is their finding to open to the public undis projectedly for the intermit?\r\nFacebook make its mark by focusing on a college deferral. Their decision to veer away from this food market could confine serious consequences to the network.\r\nOne trade off is amid size and significance. A turning point encourages particular, familiar and secluded network. â€Å"Student-exclusive networks provide users with a sense of importance: It’s easy to become a big tip in a small, students- yet pond” (Atal, 2007). It spends them the feeling of belong; of being a part of a federation they can call their own. It connects them to people they can unite to. While membership is limited to a specific class of people, size is compensated by impendent and more(prenominal) meaningful interaction between the members.\r\nThe downside is, occupations are also restricted to the interests of the niche market.\r\nPublic networks on the other hand can reach more people. A diverse crowd regards wide-ranging things, thus they view as bigger room for good and development. They are not limited to specific programs, interests or advertisements. By shifting to a public favorable network, Facebook got rid of its boundaries. It opened its doors to practice more people. It embraced an chance for growth.\r\nOne of the issues raised is the reaction of the first members to the upgrade. â€Å"Facebook has such(prenominal) a strong hold on the college social networking market” (Atal, 2007). The change in focus market did not seem to affect the support of students. sea captain members r emained loyal to Facebook despite the change.\r\nGoing from a niche to a public network is a unused ballgame for Facebook. They are up against giant networks. They need to perform on a higher level. They have to wee a niche amidst the league of giants in order to stay on top.\r\nLeaving their niche opened opportunities for new networks to step in. CollegeOTR.com, CollegeTonight.com, and CollegeWikis.com are third of the websites that are likely to benefit from this. Capitalizing on the niche left by Facebook, these network aim to create networks that are â€Å"as specific as they could be” (Atal, 2007).\r\nConclusion\r\nFacebook’s decision to abandon the college niche and upgrade to a public social network is beneficial to Facebook. It offered opportunity for growth without alienating the original members. While the focus expanded to include everyone provoke in joining the community, they can still practise the need for smaller communities by developing applicatio ns desirable for this purpose.\r\nBy upgrading to a public social network, Facebook put an end to the competition between Facebook and other college networks and pave the way for collaboration. One example of this successful partnership as mentioned in the article is the SuperWall (Atal, 2007). CollegeWikis.com sponsored Superwall, a Facebook â€Å"application where users post college-specific information that is instantly communicated to the virtual depicted object walls of other registered users at their college” (Atal, 2007). Collaborations like this not only promote cooperation among the networks but also present the silk hat of both worlds to the users.\r\nFacebook gave up its niche market to give way to improved service, diverse membership and better partnership with other networks. The decision positioned the company to serve more people, produce more products and services rise up into the future.\r\nReference\r\nAtal, Maja. (2007, August 8). Facebook Faces Up. Businessweek, 1-2.\r\n'