Facebook Will Die?

Let's look at the figures that tell us what does Facebook, as a corporate company, means to the business. 

According to Forbes, Facebook INC ranks at no. 63 with market capital of $512 billion. By 31 March 2019, it has 37,700 full time employees. The company falls under 'Computer Services' category that serves 1.56 billion daily active users while 2.38 monthly active users.  

Facebook & Google

Facebook is smaller than Google (Now Alphabet) in terms of market capital, as per the data on Forbes. Google has $863 billion market capital and it has 98,771 employees. Each second Google receives roughly 63,000 searches on any given day, according to a blog post. Another blog states, there are 3.5 billion searches on Google every day. 

Facebook and Google, both provide 'Computer Services'; however services of both the companies are not similar. Facebook's business primarily relied on interaction within the users while Google is largely relied on users’ requirement. Information requirement is another form of interaction. The statistic reflects that active users are more on Google for their information interaction than Facebook where they communicate or interacts within peers/friends. 

Now the question is whether interaction has an alternative or requirement for the information? 

Answer to this question may lead us to the titled question, Will Facebook Die.

Height Reached; Ceiling Now?

Examples from early internet days suggest that the form of interaction may change that may kill the product. Yahoo! chat groups died so as Orkut communities, because the form of interaction changed to Facebook. Very few may remember GoogleGroups and so as GTalk. Community-based social networking sites emerged and died and Facebook survived as it kept changing its format and platform orientation as well. It was desktop-friendly social media and becomes most sought after android-ios dominated mobile app. Consistent changes in the product made Facebook a fortress of unprecedented height. So, can we say that Facebook reached its height and die now? 

Lacking Innovation

Most probably. It may soon; not in 2019; but by 2020 or 2012 it may happen. Facebook will not die instantly. Eventually it will change and rejuvenate itself in the form of Instagram! Users searching for new platforms for interaction prefer whatever gives them new and whatever assures their privacy. On innovating the product, Facebook is growing very slowly as except Live no new innovation has touched the chords of billions of users in last three years. Rest of its products such as 360 degree view, co-branding, Instant Articles etc have not been as successful as Live. On privacy front, Facebook is under scanner from governments as well as privacy groups. 

Visual Dominance

One more reason why Facebook may eventually rejuvenate in the form of Instagram is that, internet becoming more visually oriented due to the massive enhancement in data transfer technologies that allowing users to see more and rescuing them from reading process. Seeing and understanding is a primitive nature of human. It doesn't have language barriers. Human nature tends to lean towards simplistic procedures than the complex one. Yahoo! started category search that diminished from the internet because Google came up with simplistic procedure to search on the internet. 

Future Is Where?

Today's Facebook is read-write dominated platform; though video has emerged as one of the largest engagement form. Facebook has competition from its own platform Instagram and newer platforms like TikTok etc etc for quality video content. 

A 2019 Social Media Marketing report produced by SocialMediaExaminer.com in May 2019 states: There's a clear indication that marketers are diversifying away from Facebook. For the first time in the last 5 years, Facebook lost share as the most important platform for marketers, dropping from 67% in 2018 to 61% in 2019. One in ten marketers indicated they'll be decreasing their organic marketing on Facebook. Only 51% of marketers plan on increasing their Facebook organic activities, down from 62% in 2018. The same report states that: Seventy-three percent of marketers are using Instagram, up from 66% in 2018. It's the second most important social platform for marketing (behind Facebook) and surpassed LinkedIn for the first time. A significant 69% of marketers plan on increasing their Instagram organic activities over the next 12 months. Instagram is the number-one platform marketers want to learn more about, surpassing Facebook for the first time.

Future Is Here

The report indicates the 'inevitable happening' is on the horizon. Products emerge and die; however makes an impact on businesses and the society. Facebook's impact on the society is irreversible. At the same time, its a listed company that ultimately looks for better products with better profit. When visually oriented platforms like Instagram will start giving handsome returns, Facebook INC doesn't require Facebook.com to earn and churn the money. And the day is just few hundred days away...