Facebook: User Retention, Global Impact, Critics, and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Facebook, examining its user retention strategies, global impact, and the criticisms it faces. The report begins with an introduction to Facebook, its founding, and its mission to connect people worldwide. It then delves into the platform's success in retaining and increasing its user base, supported by statistical data and the company's investments in research and development. The report also highlights how Facebook brings people together, facilitating communication and the formation of communities. However, it also acknowledges the criticisms leveled against Facebook, particularly concerning the spread of false information and the impact on societal relationships. The report concludes with recommendations for Facebook to address these issues, such as limiting the spread of misinformation and enhancing user data security, alongside a call to eliminate fake accounts. The report is supported by references to relevant sources.

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TABLE OF CONTENT
Content page
Cover page……………………………………………………………...…………………………1
Table of content…………………………………………………………………………………...2
Facebook introduction…………………………………………………………………………….3
Retaining and increasing the number of users………………………………………………….…4
Bringing together people around the world……………………………………………………….5
Critics on Face book……………………………………………………………………………....6
Conclusion and recommendation……………………………………………………………….…7
References……………………………………………………………………………………...…8
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Facebook introduction
Facebook is a social networking platform that gives people an opportunity to communicate with each other
and post pictures as well as commenting on the posted pictures. It was found in the year 2004 by Mark
Zuckerberg to gather with his friend by the name Edward Saverin, they were students at Harvard University
by then "Facebook goes the extra mile helping nonprofits fundraise" (2017). It started as a school based
network, spread to other colleges with time and in 2006, Facebook became an open forum to anyone above
thirteen years. So far Facebook has been able to gain a lot of popularity among many people in different
parts of the world. As company; the mission of FB is to help, give people the required energy so that they
can build the community and bring the whole world together. The company also has Instagram which
builds a community for sharing visual information through pictures and videos. Messenger is a massaging
application that helps people connect through written messages, watsapp is a simple and a fast application
that maintains the privacy of individual people and can be able to communicate across the world "Increase
Your Organization's Facebook Followers" (2017) . Facebook Company produces its report annually that
covers everything about them such as financial reports, future expectations and the goals the company
hopes to achieve. The latest report was the 2017Annual report that is last year Bidart & Kornig (2017).
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2.1 Retaining of users and increasing the number of users
According to statistics, Facebook is the is the platform that has recorded the highest number of active users
compared to other social networking sites , the number of users keeps increasing from time to time and it
has been confirmed that it is the most popular network in the world "How Powerful Is Your Annual
Report?" (2017). In one month, there are over two billion people logging into Facebook and more than one
billion daily active users of this site which happens to be the most visited .This popularity of Facebook
started from the time it was developed as a single university affair then expanded to universities in the
North and has continued growing, getting more users up to date. Most of the Facebook users are people at
the age of late twenties and early thirties although many teenagers are great users of Facebook .Statistics
show that out of ten people who have internet access, seven of them are on Facebook. It has been able not
only to capture the attention of people who use it for fun but also people who are there for commercial
purposes, education, political and religion. Many political campaigns have been carried out on Facebook by
politicians who feel that they can influence potential voters through social network. The reason for this
excellence in retaining their users and attracting new ones according to the annual report is because of the
company keeps on improving products and bringing in new features that make the users enjoy it more and
access better services "Save Money on Your Annual Report" (2017). Facebook invests so much on
improving their technology to give people more chances of interacting through social platforms owned by
Facebook. Reports reveal that the expenses on research and development are as follows; in 2017, Facebook
spent 7.75 billion dollars, in 2016 it was 5.92 billion dollars while back in 2015, the company used around
4.85 billion dollars. the expenses has kept on increasing for the three reviewed years continuously and this
explain the reason why Facebook platform and other applications owned by Facebook keep developing
from time to time which is why they attract a big number of customers Bidart & Kornig (2017). The
illustration below shows the progress Facebook has been making over the past years to date
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"Facebook tools" (2017).
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Bringing together people around the world
True to their mission of bringing people together by helping them build the society, Facebook
has been able to make the world a simple and little global village. The social platform has been
able to bring together many people in all parts of the world "UK Renal Registry 19th Annual
Report: Appendix I Acronyms and Abbreviations used in the Annual Report", (2017). Since
Facebook is public platform where anyone can access a friend as long as they know his or her
username, people have been able to get back together even if they are not in the same
demographic area. Due to the use of photographs, people can recognize each other, send a friend
request and the conversation keeps going. Many have been able to get new friends through
Facebook and some have even ended up getting so close to a point of marrying each other.
Through groups, both private and public, people can interact, share ideas and information
through them. As a matter of fact, many media houses have pages and groups where they get to
post news. One does not need to have access to have television on a radio to get information
because these broadcasting agencies even stream live on Facebook, share videos, pictures and
audio clips concerning news items. Apart from Facebook platform itself, the company has come
up with other applications such as instagram, messenger and watsapp that all aim at making
communication easier, faster and much enjoyable "Customize Annual Endowment Reports"
(2017).
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2.3 Critics on Facebook
However, Facebook has been termed as a societal breaking platform. It has torn societies apart because
people with bad intentions use it to spread false information about others and even if it could be true, such
things make people hate each other Bidart & Kornig (2017) .There are users that use fake accounts jus for
their own good and tarnish other people’s name, utter tribal or racial statements that at the end of the day,
people will have created enemies that would not have been there if not for Facebook. Even in the 2017
Facebook annual report, it is stated that there are categories of users one of which is fake users accounts
that are set up in order to violate the Facebook terms of operation "Executive summary of 2017 annual
report" (2017). This clearly indicates that real users are at risk of such fake accounts which are purposely
on Facebook to destroy the well-being and the relationship of people in one way or another. Facebook
acknowledges in their latest annual report that they have experienced people who try to use fake user
accounts, purchase ads and other uses of the platform to spread undesirable and false information, although
the company has developed systems and processes desired to prevent such actions, they have not been
successful due to software bugs as well as other technical malfunctions. Therefore, Facebook does not
assure anyone total protection from such issues which have become a big threat to its users who have ended
up criticizing this company for not putting so much effort on the issue Bidart & Kornig (2017).
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3. Conclusion and recommendation
In conclusion, Facebook is the most popular social platform with the highest number of user in the world
and the scale keeps growing Venzin (2017). This could be because of the features of Facebook that has
attracted so many users .It is recommended that Facebook develops a way of limiting the kind of
information people post to avoid creating hatred among people and breaking the society. Fake usernames
should be kept out of Facebook because this is how people with social malice get to spread information
which ends up being poisonous "Facebook tools" (2017). Facebook is prone to hackers and other cyber-
attacks. This reason makes people insecure on the privacy of their data and personal information, therefore,
Facebook should be able to protect people from exposure to such risk , this will help them get more users
than the current number hence get more profits Bidart & Kornig (2017).
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References
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Facebook goes the extra mile helping nonprofits fundraise. (2017). Corporate Philanthropy
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Facebook tools. (2017). Dental Abstracts, 62(1), 10-12. Doi: 10.1016/j.denabs.2016.09.013
How Powerful Is Your Annual Report?. (2017). Nonprofit Communications Report, 15(12), 4-4.
Doi: 10.1002/npcr.30821
Increase Your Organization's Facebook Followers. (2017). The Membership Management
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Save Money On Your Annual Report. (2017). Nonprofit Communications Report, 15(3), 4-4.
Doi: 10.1002/npcr.30628
UK Renal Registry 19th Annual Report: Appendix I Acronyms and Abbreviations used in the
Annual Report. (2017). Nephron, 137(1), 399-402. Doi: 10.1159/000481386
Venzin, M. (2017). Four Ways to Improve Your Annual Membership Awards Event. The
Membership Management Report, 13(5), 8-8. Doi: 10.1002/mmr.30699
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