Reasons Behind Sixdegrees.com's Failure and Facebook's Success

This report provides a comparative analysis of Sixdegrees.com and Facebook, examining the factors that contributed to their differing levels of success. The analysis delves into the reasons behind Sixdegrees.com's failure, including limited utility, technological limitations, inability to accumulate users, and unfavorable political and economic conditions. In contrast, Facebook's success is attributed to its advanced features, strong technological infrastructure, and favorable market timing. The report also explores the advantages and disadvantages of collaborating with external partners, highlighting benefits such as resource sourcing, marketing opportunities, and strategy formulation, as well as drawbacks like increased risk and operational complexity. The case study of Dyesol's collaborations with Tata and Pilkington is used to illustrate these points, providing real-world examples of the impacts of partnerships on business development.

Questions

TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUESTIONS...................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Reasons for Sixdegrees.com failed whereas Facebook is more successful......................1
1.2 Advantages and disadvantages of collaborating with external partners...........................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

QUESTIONS
1.1 Reasons for Sixdegrees.com failed whereas Facebook is more successful
Increasing interactions have been the concern of people from the very long time. Since
the inception of increased relationship building and widening the domain of connectivity,
different ways of interactions have been adopted. To strengthen the relationships, a new method
is becoming popular at the present time that is social networking sites. It is the community based
websites that enables the user to create profiles and input details about them and enhances
connectivity. Earlier confined to the platform of making friends and interaction, social
networking sites are evolved to the great extent by inculcating different features such as for
entertainment, connectivity, business and many more.
Reasons of failure of Sixdegrees.com's failure and Facebook's success
Enabling instant communication between people across long distance, social networking
sites has been evolved by passing through various stages (Chu and Kim, 2011). In its primitive
time, domain of features and its utility was very narrow that has hindered its growth and affected
its popularity. Taking into account the comparison between the pioneer of social networking
Sixdegrees.com and Facebook's, defines the reasons that has led the success of latter and limited
the growth of former one. Major factors contribute for the following are:
Limited utility
Conceived by Andrew Weinrich in 1997 at the time of rising popularity of Internet and
its utility, Sixdegrees.com has catered to avail maximum benefits of people's willingness to
increase their stream of their relational construct dwindling the boundaries of distances. Instead
of gaining immense popularity and attracting three million users, it could not leverage the profit
to the maximum level due to its limited offerings. User’s expectations were far more than to just
make friends that was not fulfilled by the site (Dunne, Lawlor and Rowley, 2010). On the
contrary Facebook is the platform for the number of activities such as attractive interactive data
visualization, accessible user interface, posting content such as messages, attachments,
photographs and other related information. Along with this it provides platforms to post
advertisements, referral marketing, banner ads for commercial purposes which help in the
enhancing business of entities. One of the significant feature offered by Facebook that has
captured the attention of large number of user is its entertainment content that is gaming and
various applications related to it.
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Less advancement of technology
Technology plays a crucial role in escalating the extent and efficiency of communication
between people through this virtual platform. Accessing websites or any data requires the sound
and effective platform to run. At the time when Sixdegrees.com came into market, web
technology was developed to the great extent that could support the features provided by the
social networking site (Edosomwan and et.al, 2011). On the other hand, recent time recognized
as the era of information technology provided the strong base to the site Facebook's to install
features to its website and provide large number of services to the users with minimum amount
of failure or delay.
Failed to accumulate large number of users
One of the crucial component used to run any website is server. It acts as the base and
bridge between different computers which receive data and responds. Productivity and
smoothness of the website depends on the efficiency level of the server (Brandtzæg, 2012).
Being the primitive website launched in this area of field, it uses of technology was confined to
the conventional resources. It used less developed server to process the site and data inserted in
its software. Further, a pioneer in the field has captured the attention of large number of people
that has increased the number of users. Combination of two factors that large number of users
and less developed server makes site crash. Sixdegrees.com failed to accumulate the large
number of users and retain them due to crashing of its server. Whereas Facebook launched at the
time of fast pace growth of information technology has prepared the strong foundation for its
establishment and growth prospects. Initially launched with the high tech server with the
expectation of attracting wide stream of users and retaining them became the USP for the site.
With the continuous advancement in the technology, Facebook has also altered its servers and
other technical features. Such as in the recent time it has deployed Hiphop that is a code source
transformer has significantly reduced the burden of data experienced by Facebook with the
reduction in average CPU consumption on its server by half of its quantum (SixDegrees - Social
Networking in Its Infancy, 2016).
Political and economic factors
Timing of launching of any website plays a vital role in its success and development.
There is the contrasting relation between the situations at which both of these social networking
sites were launched. Macro environment is the vital determinant that decides the degree of its
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reach to the public. Macro environment inculcates into it all the factors such as political situation
prevailing in the country, economic situation, technological aspects, legal issues and social
factors. Comparing the situation of launching of two websites it can be inferred that Facebook
had edge of advantage over Sixdegrees.com in various aspects. For instance, when
sixdegrees.com was launched world was experiencing economic downturn as there was the
impact of post-April 2000 recession. Its impact was trickled down to organizations and
countrymen that hindered them to connect to the website and retain to it. It affected the
establishment of the website whereas Facebook experienced favorable conditions for further
proceedings (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Considering the political scenario, due to 9-11 nearly
at the time of launch of Sixdegrees.com, there was unrest in the world that has also affected its
growth on the other hand political support was compatible for the success of Facebook. Further
one of the crucial factor that has affected the popularity of Sixdegrees.com was that it has offered
limited features including less degree of security and privacy of data that threatens the user to
input their details and use it but Facebook by complying with the laws and regulations laid down
by Government and other legislative bodies have provided certain features such as locking
profiles and details along with customized settings as per the choice of customers.
1.2 Advantages and disadvantages of collaborating with external partners
In the recent times, globalization has decreased the boundaries and obstacles between
different entities. Increased connectivity leads to the unprecedented growth and development of
linked organizations. One of the crucial component of globalization is collaboration among
different segments. It refers to collaboration between both internal and external partners. It has
redefined the way of relational constructs and manner of conducting business. Considering
collaboration with external partners, it can be inferred that it has revolutionized the means of
operations and utilizing resources (Kietzmann and et.al, 2011). It provides an opportunity to
expand venture and business to the significant level by improvising the system and inculcating
better elements in organizations. Partnerships or collaborations have both advantages and
disadvantages to their extent which are dealt by the concerned parties.
Advantages
Sourcing of resources
Each organization starting with any business is endowed sufficient resources but it caters
to increase its comparative advantages and minimize comparative disadvantages with its
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competitive rivals. In that respect it gets merge with another organization to source resources that
minimize its cost or efforts and that can be utilized in other areas. In the given case study joint
venture of Dyesol with Tata has enabled to access the capital and financial resources. Along with
this it also enables to leverage manufacturing expertise from the organization. Availing the
benefits of joint venture it procures the required resources from Tata group. Further,
collaboration with multinational glass manufacturer Pilkington has enabled the manufacturing
solutions to Dyesol by providing high quality flat glass that increases the productivity of working
of the company (Lankes, 2011).
Marketing
Production or manufacturing of goods is not enough for any organization. It requires the
process to be adopted by the organization that enables to make product reach at right place.
Marketing provides the solution to the organization to showcase their offerings. Joint ventures or
collaboration with the external partners enable the organization to make it reach their products to
the large stream of people. For instance collaboration of Dyesol with Tata group has helped it
brings awareness among the people about the use of DSC (Dye-sensitized solar cell) and the
extent of its utility. Further, it helps in promoting the use of this technology in the multiple
international markets. Similar to the collaboration with Tata group, joint venture with Pilkington
has helped significantly in marketing increased efficiency level of cells with the use of
architectural glass to create photo-voltaic functionality makes the customers' belief in the product
stronger and rely on this new and advanced technology.
Strategy formulation
Pooling out varied opinions and knowledge for the single projects drives out many
lucrative solutions for both the concerned parties. It escalates both the revenue generation and
profitability of organization. Enter into the agreement results in gathering of many people. It
facilitates to enhance the efficiency of both the related parties in varied aspects through the
combination of resources (Roblyer and et.al, 2010). In the given case study in which Dyesol it
collaborating with the fifth largest steel maker running its ventures in different parts of the world.
It is endowed with the brains having intimate knowledge and technical details of the field that
helps in providing solutions to both the concerned parties benefiting either side. Further, in hopes
of accelerating the adoption of the technology it has collaborated with the industrial organization
Pilkington in key markets that enables organization Dyesol adopt effectual ways with respect to
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the adoption of technology. Such as raising awareness about the adoption of technology and
increase sustainability in the use.
Disadvantages
Increasing risk
When different organizations work together to attain certain goals and targets, there are
many disadvantages along with the benefits availed by the concerned parties. It affects the
credibility of the organization and also threatens the security and privacy. It affects the degree of
maintenance of privacy level that the organization holds for the company individually. But there
is any collaboration with the other organization there is the frequent and consistent transfer of
information in all the sectors in which organization is working along with the components it is
engaged with (Tokunaga, 2011). For instance as mentioned in the case study of Dyesol, it can be
inferred that their collaboration with the Tata group increases the level. Such as Dyesol is the
organization that acts as the supplier of the technology to the other organization with the aim to
establish it commercially to earn profits maintains its credibility. For the purpose it has patent the
technology used by it in the respect. It threats the loss of secret methods used by the organization
Dyesol along with the risk of creating competition in the future by reverting the technology used
by Dyesol.
Complexity of functions
Collaboration with the external partners leads to the complexity of the operations
undertaken by the organization itself or both the concerned parties. Smoothness of the supply
chain management get hinder as there is the transfer of work, people, capital and products from
one place to the other (Working with external partners, 2016). Dyesol is the manufacturing unit
owing certain required elements, further when there is the merger of collaboration with other
organization such as with Tata group of Pilkington, it affects the working as it requires compiling
the different elements.
Managing change
When there is the collaboration between two organizations as it requires bringing
connectivity between people with respect to customer needs, commercial interests and
perspectives, organizational culture and structure, corporate differences, micro management of
relationships and other aspects. It challenges the employees to deal with change in management
and other areas. Collaborations lead to complex management and commercial environment.
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Further, building relational constructs between the employees belonging to organization become
difficult on both the concerned parties.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brandtzæg, P. B., 2012. Social networking sites: Their users and social implications—A
longitudinal study. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication. 17(4). pp.467-488.
Chu, S. C. and Kim, Y., 2011. Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic word-of-
mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites. International journal of Advertising. 30(1).
pp.47-75.
Dunne, Á. Lawlor, M. A. and Rowley, J., 2010. Young people's use of online social networking
sites-a uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of Research in Interactive
Marketing. 4(1). pp.46-58.
Edosomwan, S. and et.al., 2011. The history of social media and its impact on business. Journal
of Applied Management and entrepreneurship. 16(3). p.79.
Kaplan, A.M. and Haenlein, M., 2010. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and
opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons. 53(1). pp.59-68.
Kietzmann, J.H. And et.al., 2011. Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional
building blocks of social media. Business horizons. 54(3). pp.241-251.
Lankes, R.D., 2011. The atlas of new librarianship. MIt Press.
Roblyer, M.D. And et.al., 2010. Findings on Facebook in higher education: A comparison of
college faculty and student uses and perceptions of social networking sites. The Internet
and higher education. 13(3). pp.134-140.
Tokunaga, R.S., 2011. Social networking site or social surveillance site? Understanding the use
of interpersonal electronic surveillance in romantic relationships. Computers in Human
Behavior. 27(2). pp.705-713.
Online
Working with external partners. 2016. [Online]. Available through:<http://www.global-
integration.com/working-with-external-partners/>. [Accessed on 5th February 2016].
SixDegrees - Social Networking In Its Infancy. 2016. [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.global-integration.com/working-with-external-partners/>.
[Accessed on 5th February 2016].
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