Facebook’s Challenge and Future

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, has talked for years about the notion of a “social graph” which connects people to their friends and all of the things they are interested in. By encouraging hundreds of millions of people to share their deeds and reveal their innermost thoughts, profane or profound, online, his company has in effect mapped a portion of this graph on its computers. These billions of electronic nodes and links will soon make a fortune for Zuckerberg, still only 27, who owns 28.4% of Facebook and will continue to control most of the voting rights. It will also enrich other shareholders, many of them employees.


The bigger risk to Facebook is that growing concern over online privacy translates into a wave of legislation around the world that makes it far harder for the company to exploit the mountains of data it is collecting. That would throw a spanner into the works of its money-spinning advertising machine. So far there has been little sign of such a  backlash, though governments are paying closer attention to privacy. America is thinking of creating a general consumer-privacy law and the European Union is updating its rules.


Facebook and Google are increasingly in each other's wheelhouse. Google's social network- Google+ looked and functioned much like Facebook -- enabling users to post status updates, share links and upload photos. Right out of the gate, Google+ gained a lot of attention and a quick  onrush of users.


The social network’s IPO will also set the stage for an epic battle between the titans of the tech industry. Analysts believe that Facebook was running on top of another operating system all along. Instead of revolutionizing our reality, by filing an IPO Mark Zuckerberg is finally getting with the program.