After Diaspora, Chime and Google+ got considerable acceptance from users who are annoyed by Facebook’s intrusiveness and privacy gaffes, another challenger, Unthink, was recently launched. Unthink promises that users will control their own information. However, the key to popularity is utility, swear users.
Facebook is all about utility. It is not a platform for socialising anymore. It has grown to be a multi-utility centre. So what makes Facebook a tough competition and what can its rivals do to stay in the race?
Karthik Naralasetty, founder Redcode says, “Facebook is at a point where there probably never will be a ‘Facebook killer’ like there was a ‘Myspace killer’. People cite privacy concerns when talking about why Facebook will eventually fall, but they’re ignoring the fact that the majority of Facebook users don’t really care. One should also remember that for a huge segment of Internet users, Facebook essentially is the Internet. They use Facebook for instant messaging, mailing, sharing pictures, links and almost everything. These people will never jump ship because if they do, they will lose a lot.”
When Facebook came into our lives, it focused on personal information and social connections forming a network starting with college communities. It had news feed and photo tagging, which were novel and people kept coming to the site.
At a time of crummy user interfaces (remember Orkut?), Facebook provided a refreshing change, says texpert Rachit Kinger, who has worked with a tech magazine. He says, “Facebook reinvented itself a lot. If you have a snapshot of the original Facebook versus what it is now, you will be surprised at how it has evolved, in fact your Facebook page from six months ago to what it is now is a lot different. That is constant innovation. Not just great stuff to keep people occupied, Facebook is a great user interface and a complete experience.”
Marketing executive Pawan Verma adds that Facebook will always keep itself ahead in the race not just because of the utility factor or the kind of services on offer. “Linkedin, Google+, Orkut and others tried to replicate the model, but failed to provide the experience of totality. Facebook provides everything under one roof. And as far as intrusiveness is concerned, it has enough applications to safeguard yours.”
Finally Karthik suggests that new entrants should focus on one feature and build a platform around it to stay afloat. “If you look at Twitter, it works around one thing — status updates. Maybe you could just work on the photo sharing like Flickr. These are all features of Facebook but presented in a different environment. You could build a system just around ‘events’ and make it social,” concludes Karthik.