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The Perfect Startup Five Keys to Their Unprecedented Success LOGO the Perfect Startup Five keys to their unprecedented success LOGO . …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 1 ••• A quick word from Stéphane Distinguin ( CEO – faberNovel ) …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... It is not about the IPO the entire world is We all know Facebook. commenting on: an IPO is certainly not an We all know Mark Zuckerberg. end, but a point on a startup trajectory. These are the names. It’s all about perfection. Up to now, Facebook has been the perfect startup, not because it has We all know the figures, succeeded in everything, but because its has built they are mind-blowing: more than itself step by step, in a very pragmatic way. There is no miracle here: it is just a startup that has had an 900 million members for a current almost perfect stance towards every challenge it has valuation of over 100 billion dollars. faced to date, and has built the most fascinating innovation platform. At first sight, we all knew Facebook Perfection is rarely encountered and even harder to would be the biggest start up "after analyze… At faberNovel, as we do every year, and Google", Mark Zuckerberg, the Social after Google, Apple and Amazon, we wanted to Network hero, a juvenile CEO signing highlight what could be the formula behind Facebook's roaring success. Is there a formula for perfection? We autographs and striking the pose like would like to share our discoveries, our dissection of one of the biggest rock stars of his this marvel just to make it more useful for all of you. I generation. am not sure perfection will be achievable for all of us, but it certainly is our best source of inspiration. …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 2 ••• This work was made for you to share, reuse, remix, rework… …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... It is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license to allow for further contributions by experts and users in the coming months. You are free to share and remix/adapt the work. You must cite this document: faberNovel, Facebook: The Perfect Startup, May 2012. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. You may distribute a modified work under the same or similar license. Why do we release this kind of work for free? Our job is to help big organizations think and act like startups. And we believe that this cannot be achieved without causing people to want to innovate and explore new business models. Our ambition is to inspire you by giving you the keys to understand new markets like Russia or successful companies like Apple, Amazon… or Facebook. …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 3 ••• Facebook is quite a big 8 year old … …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... billion Likes & Comments per day million Photos uploaded per day million user accounts 12.8% global market share! Average Time spent by users in a month Source: Facebook S-1, May 2012 …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 4 ••• … with many characteristics of a giant . …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... Instagram Snaptu Friendfeed $1 billion $65 million $47.5million (2012) (2011) (2009) The largest tech IPO in history $16 billion raised on the day of the IPO Which ranks its CEO among the TOP10 World’s Billionaires Source: Based on information disclosed by Facebook, May 2012; Facebook’s IPO commented by Bloomberg …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 5 ••• Altough still a small company, relative to other tech giants …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... Facebook’s Page Views = 10x Youtube’s but… Facebook’s Revenues = 10% Google’s 1 trillion $37b 100 billion $3.7b 26 years ld average Facebook employee age Source: Facebook, Google, Adplanner June 2011 …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 6 ••• Its meteoric growth results in a remarkably high valuation per employee …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 3500 employees $30 million valuation per employee Obviously, they must be doing something right Estimates: Fabernovel, based on a $100b valuation; Number of employees: Facebook, May 2012 …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 7 We believe that Facebook’s amazing performance was driven by excellency in business management. Facebook is remarkable not so much in its product or usage, but in the way they built themselves as a company, from inception to maturity. What’s Facebook story? …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 8 ••• Facebook isn’t the first social network in history …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... • Created as an embryonic • Probably the first genuine • A reaction to Friendster social community. social network • Chose an absolute freedom • Bought by Yahoo in 1999 • Faced technical difficulties policy for $3.57 billion. from 2004 to 2006 • Huge success among artists • Yahoo turned the service • Lacked activity & content and celebrities into free web hosting in for the users • Too much freedom attempts to monetize it. • Chose a restrictive policy deteriorated the quality of • Having lost the social (e.g. no pseudonym) the website element, the service • Refused a $30 million • Lacked activity for the users closed in 2009. buyout offer from Google • Acquired by News Corp. for • Acquired in 2009 for $26 $580 million in 2005 million after its reboot • Sold for $35 million in 2011 to Specific Media These three social networks were short-lived leaders. Why would Facebook be different? …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 9 ••• Facebook managed to survive 3 classical challenges …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... Focus Technology Policy Facebook always kept the Facebook only experienced 3 Facebook has learned from the social feature at the center of severe outages: mistakes of its predecessors, the user-experience: • The most severe outage keeping a balance between “Facebook’s mission is to Facebook faced was in 2010 freedom and control: make the world more open for 2.5 hours • Allowing users to modify the and connected.” • They experienced a few content difficulties later in 2010, • Preventing users from Facebook stayed focused on unveiling new pages modifying the interface the “big idea”. • In early 2012, some • Allowing brands and artists Facebook’s European users to create special pages could not connect to the platform for a few hours …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 10 ••• It has done so with a perfect scaling strategy …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... Test Growth Consolidation College Networks Gradual opening to the world Self-sustaining community • Low-scale • Word-of-mouth extension (through • Improvement of existing features • High-density invitations) • New features to maintain engagement • High need to connect • New features that drive engagement Build the platform Scale the platform Maintain the platform 2004-2006 2007-2010 Nowadays Source: Quora, “What are some decisions taken by the Growth team at Facebook […]?”, answered by Andy Johns …………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. © faberNovel 2012 ••• 11 ••• 2006 breakthrough: The News Feed – Your friends ticker tape …………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... With the News Feed launched in 2006, Facebook managed to automate relevant content creation… from friends’ activity. The News Feed aggregates the user’s friends activity: status updates, photos uploads, comments… The more friends, the more content to explore. As every webmarketer knows: fresh content is key to generate stickiness. Facebook’s News Feed concept goes even further: providing user-centric content from his network, hence tastes and interests. News Feed gave
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