IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM)

ISSN: 2278-487X. Volume 6, Issue 5 (Jan. - Feb. 2013), PP 15-28

www.iosrjournals.org

Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in

Business with Special Reference to Facebook
Dr. Shree Bhagwat1, Ankur Goutam2
1
(Asst. Prof. Dept. of Business Management, Dr. H.S. Gour Central University Sagar (M.P.), India)
2
(Faculty, Dept. of Business Management, Dr. H.S. Gour Central University Sagar (M.P.), India)

Abstract: The earth is huge in size whose area is 510100000 km2 which is divided into 243 countries
worldwide and those countries have about 3200 religion and 6912 languages which are spoken by 7 billion
people in world. These 7 billion people are using millions websites out of which some sites are social
networking sites , as per records of these sites about 5 billion people are using social networking sites to share
and transfer information and views etc. to each other also for business purposes. If we think according to the
above data. So communication is not possible physically in this huge world. Here only social networking sites
are making this possible. The facebook is a leading social networking site whose user are 1 billion. Facebook
has won this position of population inn very short time. These social networking sites have their historical
record of development and now they are facilitating various services to people and business worldwide. This
paper is trying to explain the concept of social networking sites and their role in business.
Key words: Facebook, Social network, Social networking, Social Networking Sites, Social ecosystem, Social
graph.
Jel Classification: M-31, M-37

I. Introduction
The dynamism of the market has been a major area of everyone‟s concern. The alarming shift from just
“selling the products” to “being into the customers” has given marketing a different phase from „push
marketing‟ to more of communicating with customers. Earlier the companies were connecting with the
customers through radio, television, print media, bill boards and other traditional advertising. Now with a
realization that the main conviction source are our colleagues , friends and our social network, where we lend
our ears and mind with a personal touch and usually get persuaded taking it as more true and honest.
At the same time, technology paved the way for new possibilities. TiVo & digital video recorders made
it easy for us to bypass & ignore commercials in live T.V. MPG players helped us listen to music & podcast on
demand, which similarly margin zed radio advertising, online retailer realized that they could increase dates by
allowing visitors to their site to offer personal recommendation about products they were selling and of course,
the social media industry was very successful.
It the rise of mainstream social media has proceeds one thing. It may be for providing oneself with
significant identification socially. But social media today captures a lot of unusual information about users.
Sometimes that mundane information can include on experience, point view or negative, with your brand or
with your Company. Today everyone can connect to their own little social circle of usually a few hundred
people.
People don't just hear about news, events, and so on from the local TV news broadcast and/or
newspapers. People here about things from blogs, Twitter, articles, casual conservation. The term social media
refers to the collection of technologies that capture communication, content, and so on across individuals, their
friends, and their social naturals. Examples of social media include social networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter, Blogging technologies like type pad and word press, crowed sourcing products like Wikipedia, Photo &
video sharing sites like Flicker & You tube, & others. These technologies help users easily create content on the
Internet and share it with others. Social media is the Infrastructures that helps user to become publishers of
content that is interesting to them & their friends. The study is organized into six sections. Section - I deals with
the concept, features, definition, types and classification of social network. Section - II has been devoted to a
discussion of evolution and growth of social networking sites & facebook. Section - III discusses the
development of facebook & its statistical information (data). Section - IV discusses Role of Social Networking
sites in Business, Section - V discusses the Statistical Analysis of Social Networking Sites and the last Section -
VI specifies summary and concluding remarks.

Section-I: Concepts
1. Social Network/Networking

www.iosrjournals.org 15 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

Social networks are groups of people, or communities, who share a common interest, perspective, or
background. The social graph is the broad collection of people, places & Interests that makes us individual.
„Nostaligia‟, one of the driving force and feeling which had given social networking sites a bigger bite of
everyday‟s meal. It keeps us connected with our friends and the memories. Many experts believe that Facebook
may emerge into a "next generation social operating system". Similar to windows and the cube hogging into
facebook & other social networks is the first thing a lot of people do every day, and it will only get more
important as it attracts more users.
Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities and
neighborhood subdivision. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace,
universities, colleges and high schools and it is most popular online.
This is because unlike most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of
individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences
about cooking, golfing, gardening, developing friendships professional alliances, finding employment, business-
to-business marketing and even groups sharing information about baking cookies to the Thrive Movement. The
topics and interests are as varied and rich as the story of our universe.
When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. These websites are known as
social sites. Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users. Depending on the
website in question, many of these online community members share common interests in hobbies, religion,
political, social and alternative lifestyles. Once you are granted access to a social networking website you can
begin to socialize. This socialization may include reading the profile pages of other members and possibly even
contacting them.
Another one of those benefits includes diversity because the internet gives individuals from all around
the world access to social networking sites. This means that although you are in the United States, you could
develop an online friendship with someone in Denmark or India. Not only will you make new friends, but you
just might learn a thing or two about new cultures or new languages and learning is always a good thing.
As mentioned, social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or organizations
together. While there are a number of social networking websites that focus on particular interests, there are
others that do not. The websites without a main focus are often referred to as "traditional" social networking
websites and usually have open memberships. This means that anyone can become a member, no matter what
their hobbies, beliefs, or views are. However, once you are inside this online community, you can begin to
create your own network of friends and eliminate members that do not share common interests or goals.

1.1 Types of Social Networks

There are three types of social media sites: the one size fits all the one-tricky pony and the hybrid.

1.1.1 One Size Fits All

The one-size-fits-all social network provides the user with one-stop shopping for all of their online
community, entertainment, communication, and social media needs.

1.1.2 The One-tricky Pony

These types of social media sites try to do one thing only & to do it well. They may focus on helping
you communicate to other people in a narrowly defined way. They might be widgets, or small applications, that
live on other websites. They perform a single task, such as telling you what movies are playing with a certain
zip code.

1.1.3 Hybrids
Hybrids social media websites tend to focus on one primary price of functionality but also wrap other
social networking features into the platform. In many cases, the site started off as a one-tri day pony & evolved
into a hybrid due to market preserves, well requests, or other forces.

1.2 Seven Truths of Social Networks

A social network is only a few years old, we already know a lot about how consumers use them.
Besides a few years is a generation in Internet Parlance anyway. There are seven truths of Social networks that
you can rely upon.
1. Social media is preferred way of people in younger demographics to communicate with each other.
2. Social media is based on the concept of friends, but that term today is very loosely applied. Similarly,
profiles are loosely defined & can be used in a variety of way by people, companies, brands & so on.

www.iosrjournals.org 16 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

3. The more active a consumer is on the Internet, the more likely they participate in multiple social networks.
Oftentimes, these people are influencers within a circle of friends have a tremendous impact on the opinions
of others.
4. Once Information is shared on a social network, it is out there & can't easily be contained. Everything is out
in the open & largely visible for other people to see.
5. When building a strategy, you must think comprehensively.
6. The rules are still being made. Social media "Etiquette" is still relatively immature. Tread carefully.
7. The factors that contribute to social media usage. Everyone on social networks is motivated by some
combination of the following human needs.

1.3 New Role of Customers: Social Interactions

The "Social" in "Social Web" implies more than technology, more then the networks where people post
photos and review books: It's less about the "what" and more about "How, Why, and among whom" that
distinguisher the social web from earlier, transactional online technologies. The term "Social" refers to the ways
in which people connect. Friends, requiring a two way acknowledgement of a relationship are different than
more casually associated followers. The term "Social" also provides insight into only they are connecting
perhaps to learn something, to share on experience, or to collaborate on a project.
It is the relationships and interaction between participants that connect community members and define
the social graph, a term of out that means simply who you are, who you are connected to and what you are
doing. The social graph is to building relationships what ordinary links between websites are to building an
information network: they define the social connections. Without the social graph without the profiles and
friends, followers, and similar relations that forms between them online social communities are reduced to task-
oriented, self-serve utilities much as a basic website or shopping catalog might present itself.

1.4 SOCIAL ECOSYSTEM

Three fundamental opportunities for understanding and leveraging the behaviours associated with
collaborative interaction. These opportunities the social graph social applications, and social platforms.

1.4.1 The Social Graph

The social graph is the collection of lines, relationships, interaction and other connections that comprise
a social network. Relationships and interactions are typically building around a set of primary participants‟
activities. This section course three of the primary actions: finding and following, reputation managements and
moderation along with the development of conduct and use policies that are essential to maintaining a healthy,
collaborative environment each of these plays a fundamental role in developing purpose driven communities-
think support sites, supplies networks, and employee knowledge sharing and therefore, in Implementing a
successful social business strategy.

1.4.2 Social Applications

"Social application: Software that co-ordinates group interaction that is important to running your
business or organization extension to the core capabilities of the social platforms & software services that
support social networks-provide the additional, specific functionality of facebook are examples of social
applications. Social applications enable the extension of relationship between a brand, product, service to the
individual level by providing very specific, member selected functionality, social applications are also important
is that they facilitate the overall growth of the network.

1.4.3 Social Platforms

Social communications and other social platforms-build around passions, life-styles, and causes or
similar higher callings-provide the gathering parts for individuals interested in socializing & collaboration in
pursuit of the specific activities they enjoy together. By building a community around a passion lifestyle, or
cause & then fostering and strengthening the relationships between the brand, product, or service and customers
and Influences, the progression to collaborative participation and higher-level engagement is enabled.
Importantly, these three-the social graph, social application, and social platform (community) drive each other.

1.5 Social Network/Networking Sites

We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or
semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection,
and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and
nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. When we use the term "social network site" to
describe this phenomenon, the term "social networking sites" also appears in public discourse, and the two terms

www.iosrjournals.org 17 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

are often used interchangeably. We chose not to employ the term "networking" for two reasons: emphasis and
scope. "Networking" emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. While network is possible on
these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them, nor is it what differentiates them from other forms of
computer-mediated communication. But there is a matter of long discussion. What makes social network sites
unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and
make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise
be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between "latent ties" who share some
offline connection. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet
new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended
social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we
label them "social network sites."

1.6 Features of Social Networking Sites

When SNSs have implemented a wide variety of technical features, their backbone consists of visible
profiles that display an articulated list of Friends. Who are also users of the system. Profiles are unique pages
where one can "type oneself into being. The profile includes descriptors such as age, location, interests, and an
"about me" section. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo. Some sites allow users to enhance
their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying their profile's look and feel. After joining a social
network site, users are prompted to identify others in the system with whom they have a relationship. The public
display of connections is a crucial component of SNSs. The Friends list contains links to each Friend's profile,
enabling viewers to traverse the network graph by clicking through the Friends lists. Most SNSs also provide a
mechanism for users to leave messages on their Friends' profiles Beyond profiles, Friends, comments, and
private messaging, SNSs vary greatly in their features and user base. Some have photo-sharing or video-sharing
capabilities; others have built-in blogging and instant messaging technology. While SNSs are often designed to
be widely accessible, many attract homogeneous populations initially.

1.7 Purposes of Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites play a big role among people to connect family and friends for various
purposes which are : General, Music, Research, Games, Hospitality, Talent search, Language-learning, Blogging,
Hobbies, Locating Friends, Student and Education, Social polling, photo/ video sharing, sports, movies and
series (TV), travel, book lovers and books, dating medical support, teaching and learning, mobile community. Apart
from these we have a long list of purposes of social networking sites. These purposes cannot be bind in list
because of these are connected with social needs and feelings which have no boundaries.

1.8 Advantages of Social Networking Sites

We all need a network to keep in touch with people and to get know more people well, but where is the
time for us to go personally and visit every one. Now it is all possible, just through these social networking sites.
On line networking websites provides an easy platform that lets you stay connected with the right people or
group to explore your choice of opportunities. Networking sites are great and affer huge benefits to individuals,
professionals and students, they are following:
1. Facilitates open communication, leading to enhanced information discovery and delivery.
2. Allows employees to discuss ideas, post views, ask questions and share links.
3. Provides an opportunity to widen business contacts.
4. Targets a wide audience, making it a useful and effective recruitment tool.
5. Improves business reputation and client base with minimal use of advertising.
6. Expands market research, implements marketing campaigns, delivers communications and directs
interested people to specific websites.
7. Social networking sites allow people to create new relationship and reconnect with friends and family.
8. Social networking sites allow for creative expression in a new medium.
9. Free messaging, blogging, photo storage, games, event invitation and many other services to any one are
possible on online.
10. Social networking sites bring people with common interest together.
11. Social media helps low income kids become more familiar with computer and related technology.
12. It is cheaper to use online social networking for both personal and business use because most of it is
usually free.
13. Definitely you can save the customers confidence.
14. Guaranteed meeting places.
15. Keep in touch with family as well as professional networking.
16. Staying informed about the world.

www.iosrjournals.org 18 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

17. Some social networking sites offer advertising to its subscribers.

18. Social networking sites offer campus surveys.
19. Practicing social skills and learning to use technology.
20. Developing independence and expressing personality.

1.9 Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites

Privacy and security issues are two problems that are often associated with being a member of a social
network. Privacy is a huge issue since most social networking sites require that the user provide personal
information. This information is on the internet and easy to access by everyone .Another issues associated with
social networking is cyber bullying. Another disadvantage of social networking is that although if it is easily
accessible this may be an issue especially for young teenagers and online predators that may abuse and misuse
these sites. Some other disadvantages of social networking are following:
1. Social networking is time intensive.
2. Lack of feedback control.
3. Social networking sites can sell your personal information.
4. Opens up the possibility for backers to commit fraud and launch spam and virus attacks.
5. Increases the risk of people falling prey to online scams that seem genuine, resulting in data or identify
theft.
6. Potentially results in lost productivity, especially if employees are busy updating profile etc.
7. Many result in negative comments from employees about the company or potential legal consequences if
employees use these sites.
8. To view objectionable, illicit or offensive material.
9. Second marketing seen as intrusive.
10. Mainly attracts current grand users.
11. Lack of anonymity.
12. Compromising with in appropriate pictures, statements or other information.
13. The sites offer many time wasting activities that supplied more productive activities.
14. Teens growing up with these sites may not be aware that the information they post is public and that photos
and text can be retrieved even after deletion.
15. The use of social networking sites can cause personality and brain disorders in children.
16. Cyber criminals can gather information from social networking sites.
17. Social networking sites were created to make many, not to improve people lives.
18. Sites accumulate dates about people for the purpose of selling advertising.
19. Face-to-face sacrificing has declined.
20. User of their sites frequently is proving to social isolation.

II. Section-II: Historical development

2.1. Historical development of social networking sites
According to the above definition of social network/networking, the first social network site launched
in 1995. This was classmates.com. The focus of this site was school, college, work and the military. The second
social network site launched in 1996 whose news was Bolt.com and focus of this site was general. In 1997, six
degrees.com and Asian Avenue social network sites launched and allowed were to create profiles, list their
friends and for community purposes. Care 2, open diary, gapyear.com and fatki care launched in 1998 as social
network sites. In early years friends were not visible to others on sites but classmates.com allowed people to
appreciate with their high school or college and sury the network for others who were also affiliated, but users
could not create profile or list friends until years later. Six degrees was the first to continue these features. From
1995 to 2001, a number of community tools began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly
articulated friends. After this many sites allowed users to create personal professional and dating profiles. After
this the sites allowed to contain friend‟s lists guest books diary pages and help people leveraging their business
networks. The table no.1 is showing a complete historical record of social network site.

Table -1: Timeline of Social network sites

S. No. Launch Years Names of Sites
1. 1995 Classmates.com
2. 1996 Bolt.com
3. 1997 Asianavenue,sixdegrees.com
4. 1998 care,opendiary,gapyear.com,fotki

www.iosrjournals.org 19 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

5. 1999 Advogato,cyworld,hr.com, kiwibox,vampire.freak.com, livejournal,makeout,

black planet
6. 2000 English, baby!, DXY.cn, friends Reunited, hobo, deviant ART,
writeAPrisoner.com, maxi
7. 2001 Thinks, cozy cot, fruhstuckstreff, party flock,
8. 2002 Film affinity, footslog, fraudster, Last.fm, travellerspoint,iWiW, hub culture

9. 2003 Couch surfing, hi5, pure volume, LinkedIn, WAYN, MySpace, delicious
10. 2004 Cob, Zoo.gr, Orkut, facebook, flicker, a small world, Hyves, tagged
11. 2005 43Things, Buzz net, douban, focus.com, Travbuddy.com, Ning, Biip.no,
Bebo, librarything, blogster, mocospace
12. 2006 anobii, crunchyroll, Patientslikeme, jaiku, Twitter, Vkontakte, GamerDNA,
shelfari, Cafemom, goodreads
13. 2007 Flixster, Quechup, Tylted, virb, Geni.com, Wiser.org, eToro, weRead, Elixio,
Fuelmyblog, Bigadda, Fubar, Dailystrength,
14. 2008 Cross.tv, yammer, fetlife, busuu, gays.com, academia.edu, get glue, the
sphere
15. 2009 Filmow, foursquare, skoob, dailybooth, fullcircle, sina weibo,
16. 2010 Audimated.com, blauk, jiepang, laibhaari, lagbook, millatfacebook, termwiki,
goodwizz, diaspora*, studentscirclenetwork,
17. 2011 Faces.com, pinterest, google+, wellwer, playlist.com,
Source: Compiled from Wikipedia website

2.2. Historical development of facebook

In terms of Facebook‟s evolution, Facebook for business was inexorable; Facebook's ever-increasing
popularity makes it an open bowl of honey to business types, who are always looking for better, easier ways to
build their networks and get the word out about their products and/or services. The following table is showing
its step-by-step development.

Table -2: Timeline of Facebook

S.No. Years Timeline : Major events/ Major decisions
1 October 28, 2003 Mark Zuckerberg releases Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook. It
was described as a Harvard University version of Hot or Not
2 January 2004 Zuckerberg begins writing Facebook
3. January 11, 2004 Zuckerberg registers thefacebook.com domain.
4. February 4, 2004 Zuckerberg launches Facebook
5. March 2004 Facebook expands to MIT, Boston University, Boston College,
Northeastern University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College,
Columbia University, and Yale University.
6. April 13, 2004 Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin form
Thefacebook.com LLC, a partnership.
7. June 2004 Facebook receives its first investment from Peter Thiel for
US$500,000
8. June 2004 Facebook incorporates into a new company, and Sean Parker (early
employee of Napster) becomes its president
9. June 2004 Facebook moves its base of operations to Palo Alto, California
10. August 2004 To compete with growing campus-only service i2hub, Zuckerberg
launches Wirehog. It is a precursor to Facebook Platform applications.
11. September 2004 ConnectU files a lawsuit against Zuckerberg and other Facebook
founders.
12. December Facebook achieves its one millionth registered user.
30,2004
13. May 26, 2005 Accel Partners invests $13 million into Facebook.
14. July 19, 2005 News Corp acquires MySpace, spurring rumors about the possible sale
of Facebook to a larger media company.
15. August 23, 2005 Facebook acquires Facebook.com domain for $200,000.

www.iosrjournals.org 20 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

16. September 2005 Added high school networks

17. October 2005 Added international school networks and added photos
18. 2006 A leaked cash flow statement shows that Facebook had a net loss of
$3.63 million for the 2005 fiscal year.
19. March 28, 2006 A potential acquisition of Facebook is reportedly under negotiations,
for $750 million first, then later $2 billion.
20. September 2006 Facebook discusses with Yahoo! about the latter possibly acquiring the
former, for $1 billion.
21. September 2006 Facebook launches a high school version of the website.
22. September Facebook is open to everyone aged 13 and over, and with a valid email
26,2006 address.
23. June 2008 Facebook settles both lawsuits, ConnectU vs. Facebook, Mark
Zuckerberg et al. and intellectual property theft, Wayne Chang et al.
over The Winklevoss Chang Group's Social Butterfly project. The
settlement effectively had Facebook acquiring ConnectU for $20
million in cash and over $1.2 million in shares, valued at $45 million
based on $15 billion company valuation.
24. August 2008 Employees reportedly privately sell their shares to venture capital
firms, at a company valuation of between $3.75 billion to $5 billion.
Facebook sets up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
25. August 2009 Facebook acquires FriendFeed.
26. September 2009 Facebook claims that it has turned cash flow positive for the first time.
27. February 2010 Facebook acquires Malaysian contact-importing startup Octazen
Solutions.
28. April 2, 2010 Facebook announces the acquisition of photo-sharing service called
Divvy-shot for an undisclosed amount.
29. April 19, 2010 Facebook introduces Community Pages, which are Pages that are
populated with articles from Wikipedia
30. April 21, 2010 Facebook introduces Instant Personalization, starting with Microsoft
Docs, Yelp, and Pandora.
31. June 2010 Facebook employees sell shares of the company on SecondMarket at a
company valuation of $11.5 billion.
32. October 1, 2010 The Social Network, a film about the beginnings of Facebook directed
by David Fincher is released. The film is met with widespread critical
acclaim as well as commercial success; however, Mark Zuckerberg
says that the film is a largely inaccurate account of what happened.
33. January 2011 $500 million is invested into Facebook for 1% of the company, placing
its worth at $50 billion.
34. February 2011 Facebook adds new "civil union" option for gay partnerships.
35. February 2011 Facebook application and content aggregator Pixable estimates that
Facebook will host 100 billion photos by summer 2011.
36. June 2011 Facebook partners with Skype to add video chat.
37. September 2011 Facebook partners with Heroku for Facebook application development
using the Facebook Platform.
38. September22,2011 Facebook launches new UI Timeline in F8 Convention.
39. October 10, 2011 Facebook launches iPad app.
40. December21,2011 Facebook log in page changes due to Facebook Timeline addition.
41. December22,2011 Facebook launches its new profile user interface, Facebook Timeline.

Source: Compile from facebook website

III. Section-III: The Facebook

The facebook is a social networking site. This site contains all features of a social networking site like
other social networking sites. Facebook has taken the facebook for business bull by the horns and welcomes

www.iosrjournals.org 21 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

facebook for business user to create Facebook pages, where business owners can "create a presence that looks
and behaves like user profiles to connect and engage with your customers and amplify your voice to their
friends" to create facebook ads to promote their pages.

3.1Introduction of Facebook
The web address of face book is facebook.com. This is a social networking service. The face book‟s
predecessor was opened on October 28, 2003. This was created by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduards Saverin, Andrew
McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and chats Hughes and launched in February 4, 2004. This is owned and operated
by face book. Inc. This is a site of multilingual. Upto October 2012, 1 billion users are recorded which is the
largest social network on the web. This organization has 4331 employees.

3.2 Latest statistics of Facebook

The face book is the fastest growing social networking site which pulls 1 billion people as registered
facebook users. As per table no.3.United states, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, UK, Turkey, Philippines and
France are the major user country of Facebook. In compare of past users only UK is showing decrease while
others Countries are showing growth in No .of users and table no: 4 is showing record of face book since last 9
years.

Table -3: Top 10 Users (country) of Facebook

S. No. Name of countries No. of past users (millions) No. of current users (millions)
1. united states 159.0 167.64
2. Brazil 54.8 60.74
3. India 51.8 60.62
4. Indonesia 41.0 50.53
5. Mexico 36.5 39.42
6. United Kingdom 37.6 33.23
7. Turkey 31.3 31.43
8. Philippines 28.9 29.87
9. France 24.3 25.32
10. Germany 23.9 24.99
11. Italy 19.8 22.84
Source: Compiled from facebook website.

Table – 4: Total user of facebook

S. No. Year No. of active users (In millions)
1. 2004 1 million
2. 2005 5.5 million
3. 2006 12 million
4. 2007 50 million
5. 2008 100 million
6. 2009 350 million
7. 2010 608 million
8. 2011 845 million
9. 2012 1000 million
Source: Compiled from facebook website.

3.3 Features of facebook

Facebook is a social networking website. In this case the features of software and technology used by
this social networking website will be features of this social networking website which separate this website
from other websites. We can say these are the facilities provided to users. These features may be classified in
following categories like: General features, possible additions, applications & removed features. These
categories contains the following features: Chat, credits, friend, listen with friends, facebook live, IPV6, like
Google plus, messages and inbox, "Networks, groups and like pages", News feed, Notifications, Phone, Poke,
Smartphone, features phones, status updates, Ticker, Timeline, URL shortener, usernames, wall, subscribe,
verified accounts, Eastes eggs, pay to promote, facebook gifts, events, marketplace, Notes, Places, Platform,
questions, photos, videos, security, FBML, Gifts (removed) life and deals.

www.iosrjournals.org 22 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

3.4 Technology used by facebook

Facebook is built in PHP. We can say that this is written in C++ and PHP. Facebook is developed as
one Neolithic application. The build and release process is zero downtime and new changes, to facebook are
rolled out daily. Facebook used a combination platform based on H base to stores data across distributed
machines. Facebook handles requests as AJAX behavior. Using a falling architecture, new events are stored in
log files and the logs are failed. Data is read from these log files using ptail, an internally built tool to aggregate
data from multiple scribe stores. Data is output in PHP format. The backend is written in Java and thript is used
as the messaging formal so PHP programme can query Java services. Row logs are removed after a period of
time.

3.5 Mergers and acquisitions by facebook

Facebook is social networking company. Each acquisition is for the respective company in its entirety,
unless otherwise, specified. Most of facebook's acquisitions have been talent acquisitions and acquired products
are often shutdown. Facebook has acquired 10 companies with its largest acquisition being the purchase of
Instagram. The majority of the companies acquired by facebook are based in United States or around the San
Francisco Bay Area. The facebook buy companies to get excellent people and acquire intellectual property. The
following is the detail of mergers & acquisitions in table No.5.

Table-5: List of mergers and acquisition by Facebook

S. Acquisition date Company Used as/ Talent acquired
No. Integrated with
1 August 23, 2005 facebook.com domain name change from
name The facebook.com
2 July 19, 2007 Parakey Facebook Mobile Blake ross, joe Hewitt
3 June 23, 2008 connect U Court settlement none
4 August 10, 2009 Friendfeed Paul buchheit, bret Taylor, Jim
norris, Sanjeev Singh, 8 others
5 February 19, 2010 Octazen friend finder 2 engineers (remote workers)
6 March 2, 2010 Divvy shot Facebook photos Sam Odio, Paul, Carduner
7 May 13, 2010 friendster patents None
8 May 26, 2010 Sharegrove Facebook Groups Kent Libbey, Adam Wolff
9 July 8, 2010 Nextstop Charles Lin, Cart Sjogreen, Adrian
Graham
10 August 15, 2010 chai labs Gokul Rajaram, Giri Rajaram,
others
11 August 20, 2010 hot potato Facebook places Saadiq Rodgers king, Justin Shaffer,
6 others
12 October 29, 2010 drop.io Sam Lessin
13 November 15, FB.com domain name
2010
14 January 25, 2011 rel8tion Peter Wilson
15 March 2, 2011 Beluga Face book Jonathan Per low, Lucy Zhang, Ben
messenger Davenport
16 March 20, 2011 Snaptu Mobile
17 March 24, 2011 Recrec
18 April 27, 2011 Day tum Nicholas Felton, Ryan Case
19 June 9, 2011 Sofa Koen Bok, Dirk Stoop, Jasper
Hauser, Hugo van Heuven, Jorn van
Dijk
20 June 9, 2011 Mailrank Bryan O‟Sullivan and Bethanye Mc
Kinney Blount
21 August 2, 2011 push pop press Co-founder Mike Matas and Kimon
Tsinseris
22 October 10, 2011 friend.ly
23 November 8, 2011 Strobe Mobile engineering Founder and CEO Charles Jolley,
team other Strobe employees
24 December 2, 2011 Gowalla
25 April 9, 2012 Instagram
26 April 13, 2012 Tagtile Tag tile‟s founders
27 May 5, 2012 Glance Three co-founders
28 May 15, 2012 Lightbox
29 May 21, 2012 Karma

www.iosrjournals.org 23 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

30 June 18, 2012 face.com

31 July 14, 2012 Spool Mobile engineering Avichal Garg, Curtis Spencer, Six
team employees
32 July 20, 2012 acrylic software Facebook‟s design Two employees
team
33 August 24, 2012 Threadsy
Source: Compiled from facebook website.

3.6 Criticism of Facebook

Facebook has met criticism on online privacy, child safety, hate speech and the inability to terminate
accounts without first manually deleting the content. The changes made by Facebook have been criticized. The
electronic frontiers foundation has identified two personal information aggregation techniques called
“connections” and “instead personalization” that assure anyone has access even to personal information you
may not have intended to be public launching of Beacon is criticized. Other issues of criticism are: fake
accounting, click fraud, environmental group, security, Better business Bureau review, interoperability and data
portability, terms of use controversy, young vs facebook Inc. Paul Ceglra, Aaron Greenspum and house system,
connect U. Com law suit, class action lawsuit, closed social networks, schools blocking access, organizations
blocking access, Government sensorhip, students privacy concerns, effect on higher education, effect on college
students grades, news feed and minifeed, corporation with Govt. search requests, complaining from CZPPIC,
Duter mining, inability to voluntarily terminate A/C, memorials, customization and security, Quit facebook day,
photo recognition and face lagging, investigation by the Irish data protection commissioner 2011-12, changes,
Breach of privacy extended to non-members of facebook, divorce, envy. Stress, misleading campaigns,
intellection property infringement, privacy infrigement, identity theft, defamation, auroxia and bulimia,
advantises concerns, holoconst donial, face book hale group, promotion groups case, trolling, rape pages,
disability of user A/c, enabling of harassment, lack of customer support, docontins and outages, upgrades,
tracking cookies, time line, search function, breastfeeding photos, cersorston is of editorial contend and
accusation of practically biased granting of group upgrades.

3.7 The Future of Facebook

Facebook will continue to aggressively crude in the future. So we can give some s opinion on the future
of the facebook. Facebook will continue to grow its user base rapidly as it approaches 1 billion users worldwide
& realizes it‟s potential as the gateway to the social, mobile, Interconnected Internet. The three key over where
Facebook will grow is in the platform; Mobile, connect & International. In the future of FB there will be several
more companies conducting business. Facebook over the next three to four years will attempt to become the first
& last place people go when online (A partial Strategy), act as the profile "System of record" for the web, &
establish itself as on advertising Powerhouse. Mark Zuckerberg has realized that data was the king earlier then
all of us. At the time he was creating FB. He knew that just how good his company would become at collecting
data. Every time someone signs up for FB, they are prompted to enter almost every detail of their lives into this
one website, from sex, age, occupation and relationship status to fen write movies, books & quotes- Facebook
arks users for all of the information. FB connects, brands are now able to go from being "fishers to formers"
taking the Interactions they have with their customers to their website or truth. The present era is a era of online
life due to which uses are increasing so that safety features will be big question due to this legal framework will
improves strictly also cyber laws will be improve in future.

IV. Section-IV: Role of Social Networking sites in Business

The explosion of social networking sites have profoundly trans formed the way people interact socially.
Not surprisingly, the popularity of these sites has now made them affective to business and brands. While the
lines are blurring, there are two main categories of such networking sites. The first comprises essentially "Social
sites" where people collect friends, share views, post photos, update their status etc. The second category covers
strictly business sites where the people join mainly to make professional contacts. Sites in the first category have
struggled to build a solid business made that can monetize, make profit from their membership. One of the main
reasons for this is the sites basically social architecture. Ironically, some big corporations and governments are
still disciplining or dismissing employees for using social networking sites at the office- usually citing time
wasting. But as companies realize that social media tools can boost productively and increase profits, values and
attitudes about web platforms are changing. Members are the commodity for some revenues by selling
information about its members to companies is possible by social networking began as the province of
individuals, businesses are now trying to capitalize on this trend as they search for specific strategies and tactics
to derive value from it. Social networking sites can enable marketing professionals, sales people and customer
service agents to develop meaningful relationship with customer in new way. But the true value from social
networking cannot be achieved in isolation. Rather, organizations need to take stock of their core business
www.iosrjournals.org 24 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

process and customer management initiatives and identity how social networking can further enhance and
extend those initiatives on the basis of the post experiences the power of this new media to accelerate the
business can be counted as the benefits to the business.

4.1 Benefits of Social Networking Sites to Business:

1. Increased awareness of the organization.
2. Increased traffic to website.
3. Greater favorable perceptions of the brand.
4. Able to monitor conversations about the organization.
5. Able to develop targeted marketing activities.
6. Better understanding of customer‟s perceptions of their brand.
7. Improved insights about their target markets.
8. Identification of positive and negative comments.
9. Increase in new business.
10. Identification of new product or service opportunities.
11. Ability to measure the frequency of the discussion about brand.
12. Early warning of potential product or service issues.
13. Reduce cost to reach customers.
14. Online brand and strong trust bulling.
15. Have a curreed ineg of the company.
16. Open channels with customers.
17. Contributes to a good ranking in search origins.
18. It is relatively cheap.
19. To search customers.
20. Branding & Networking opportunities.
21. Interaction with public & attracting traffic.
22. Increase access to customer services and feedback.
23. Facilitate in expansion of your business network.
24. Build up your online reputation & Link popularity.

V. Section-V: Statistical Analysis of Social Networking Sites.

Alexa. Com is the web information company. As per its statistics 500 web sites are recorded as top
most websites. As per this record 200 websites are identified as social networking sites about 5 billion people
are using these sites while the total population of world is 7 billion. This is a big portion of Total population of
the world.
Table No.1 of this paper is showing the timeline of social networking site. According to this table first
social networking site was launched in 1995 and today we have thousand and thousand sites. The facebook is a
leading website. This site was launched in 2003, at present 1 billion users are registered with this sites other
relevant feature about facebook is timeline and is given in table No.2. Top 10 countries, who is using facebook
is given in Table No.3 and Table No.4 is showing the increase at facebook users since last 9 years. Table No.5 is
explaining the detail of merger and acquisition by facebook.
The Table No.6 is showing the Top 10 social networking sites of world where as table No.7 showing
top 10 countries who are mostly engaged on social is networking sites. The record of top 50 countries of world
is given in table No.8 who are using facebook. Table No.9 is showing the detail No of facebook users in Indian
city (major) and Table No 10 is showing some important information about facebook site.

Table – 6: Top10 social networking sites of world

S. No. Name of Site Registered users
1. Facebook 1000
2. Twitter 517
3. Qzone 480
4. Google+ 400
5. Sina weibo 300
6. Habbo 268
7. Renren 160
8. Linkedin 160
9. Vkontakte 123
10. Bebo 117
Source: Compiled from silverpop.com
www.iosrjournals.org 25 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

Table- 7: Top 10 most engaged countries for social networking:

S. No. Name of Country Average hours per month
1 Israel 11.1
2 Argentina 10.7
3 Russia 10.4
4 Turkey 10.2
5 Chile 9.8
6 The Philippines 8.7
7 Colombia 8.5
8 Peru 8.3
9 Venezuela 7.9
10 Canada 7.7
11 United States 7.6
Source: Compiled from statisticbrain.com

Table-8: Top 50 countries on facebook (country wise users of facebook in world)

S. Name of Number of S. No. Name of country Number of
No. country users(millions) users(millions)
1. United states 167.64 26. Vietnam 9.43
2. Brazil 60.74 27. South Korea 9.37
3. India 60.62 28. Pakistan 7.49
4. Indonesia 50.53 29. Netherland 7.34
5. Mexico 39.42 30. Russia 7.15
6. United 33.23 31. Nigeria 6.71
Kingdom
7. Turkey 31.43 32. South Africa 6.55
8. Philippines 29.87 33. Saudi Arabia 5.86
9. France 25.32 34. Romania 5.10
10. Germany 24.99 35. Ecuador 5.08
11. Italy 22.84 36. Morocco 4.92
12. Argentina 20.43 37. Sweden 4.90
13. Canada 18.59 38. Belgium 4.87
14. Colombia 17.48 39. Portugal 4.62
15. Thailand 17.47 40. Hungary 4.22
16. Spain 17.34 41. Hong Kong 4.06
17. Japan 16.36 42. Greece 3.88
18. Malaysia 13.22 43. Algeria 3.86
19. Taiwan 13.06 44. Czech Republic 3.79
20. Australia 11.72 45. Israel 3.78
21. Egypt 11.63 46. Serbia 3.35
22. Venezuela 10.00 47. United Arab 3.30
Emirates
23. Chile 9.75 48. Bangladesh 3.29
24. Peru 9.58 49. Tunisia 3.25
25. Poland 9.44 50. Swaziland 3.02
Source: Compiled from socialbakers.com

Table- 9: City wise (major) users of facebook in India

No. of % share in India % share in India
Name of major City in
S. No. users (60.62 million) 1 billion
India
1 Delhi 5,123,180 8.45 0.51
2 Mumbai 4,372,360 7.21 0.43
3 Bangalore 3,076,260 5.07 0.30
4 Hyderabad 2,284,340 3.76 0.22
5 Chennai 2,195,760 3.62 0.21
www.iosrjournals.org 26 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

6 Pune 1,913,640 3.15 0.19

7 Kolkata 1,591,120 2.62 0.15
8 Ahmadabad 8,92,560 1.47 0.89
9 Jaipur 752,260 1.24 0.075
10 Chandigarh 670,500 1.10 0.067
11 Lucknow 608,120 1.00 0.060
12 Surat 508,360 0.83 0.050
13 Indore 503,020 0.82 0.0503
14 Nagpur 423,080 0.69 0.042
15 Bhopal 423,000 0.69 0.0423
16 Ludhiana 411,820 0.67 0.0411
17 Coimbatore 390,460 0.64 0.039
18 Vadodara 351,260 0.57 0.035
19 Jalandhar 309,160 0.51 0.0309
20 Kanpur 307,160 0.50 0.0307
21 Patna 292,900 0.48 0.029
22 Thiruvananthapuram 288,160 0.47 0.028
23 Kochi 266,620 0.43 0.026
24 Guwahati 248,860 0.41 0.024
25 Rajkot 241,500 0.39 0.0241
26 Dehradun 237,760 0.39 0.023
27 Amritsar 234,840 0.38 0.0234
28 Nasik 232,660 0.38 0.0232
29 Noida 217,360 0.35 0.0217
30 Srinagar 214,640 0.35 0.0214
31 Ghaziabad 213,680 0.35 0.021
32 Allahabad 206,100 0.33 0.020
33 Ranchi 190,980 0.31 0.019
34 Bhubaneswar 190,500 0.31 0.0190
35 Varanasi 189,260 0.31 0.018
36 Jammu 187,600 0.30 0.0187
37 Agra 181,340 0.29 0.0181
38 Visakhapatnam 177,140 0.29 0.0177
39 Faridabad 173,280 0.28 0.0173
40 Aurangabad 172,040 0.28 0.0172
41 Meerut 162,380 0.26 0.0162
42 Mangalore 155,360 0.25 0.0155
43 Jabalpur 151,160 0.24 0.0151
44 Raipur 150,220 0.24 0.0150
45 Vijayawada 144,860 0.23 0.0144
46 Gwalior 143,780 0.23 0.0143
47 Kota 142,000 0.23 0.0142
48 Mysore 131,800 0.21 0.0131
49 Madurai 130,760 0.21 0.0130
50 Udaipur 125,520 0.20 0.0125
51 Jodhpur 91,060 0.15 0.009
52 Bareilly 89,940 0.14 0.0089
53 Siliguri 82,740 0.13 0.0082
54 Aligarh 82,120 0.13 0.00821
55 Cuttack 78,940 0.13 0.0078
56 Shillong 70,740 0.11 0.0070
57 Moradabad 70,480 0.11 0.0070
58 Solapur 65,120 0.10 0.0065
59 Bilaspur 61,120 0.10 0.0061
Source: Compiled from statisticbrain.com

www.iosrjournals.org 27 | Page
 Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to

Table-10: Recent Statistics of facebook

S. No. Particulars Data
1 Total number of facebook users worldwide 1 billion
2 Total percentage of 18-24 year olds who already use social media 98%
3 Total percentage of people on Earth who use facebook 11%
4 Total amount of minutes people spend on facebook every month 700 billion
5 Average amount of time a person uses facebook per month 15 hours 33 minutes
6 Total amount of people who access facebook with phone 250 million
7 Total amount of websites that have integrated with facebook 2.5 million
8 Total pieces of content shared on facebook each month 70 billion
9 percent of teenagers who log on to facebook over 10 times per day 22%
10 percent of facebook users under the age of 10 25%
Source: compiled from statisticbrain.com

VI. Section-VI: Conclusions

The Social technology connects people in ways that facilitate sharing information and other things to
each other. In very short time. The social sites dramatically levels the playing field by making information
plentiful, just as it also levels business and organizations that operate on the principles as making information
scarce. Today every marketer throws they need to be on social network site to gave advantages. Over the past 8
years, the social media business has grown from a sleepy, sophomoric way for people to communicate to
perhaps the future of how they will share information and bring their of line lives online. It is truly been
amazing to see how much the internet business has evolved as result of social media technologies. Due to this
social relationship were becoming more and more transparent and they were moving online. Here computer
usage is a pervasive part of our lives. It is hard to olive that was not just a little more than a generation ago. The
social media is the latest big thing in marketing. The data have show in Table No.-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9&10 of this
paper are showing how this social networking sites are developing and providing facilities to the people and
business organizations. Their popularity in short time is representing their need in society for communication as
well as for business.

References
Journal Papers:
[1] Dr. Biswajit Das, Jyoti Shankar Sahoo, Social Networking Sites – A Critical Analysis of Its Impact on Personal and Social Life,
International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 14
[2] P. Sri Jothi, M. Neelamalar and R. Shakthi Prasad, Analysis of social networking sites: A study on effective communication strategy
in developing brand communication, Journal of Media and Communication Studies Vol. 3(7), pp. 234-242, July 2011
[3] Vivek bajpai, Dr. Sanjay Pandey, Viral Marketing Through Social Networking Sites With Special Reference of facebook, IRJC
International Journal of Marketing, Financial Services & Management Research Vol.1 Issue 7, July 2012, ISSN 2277
Books:
[4] Chaffey D, Internet Marketing, Strategy, Implementation and Practice (Pearson Education Limited, 2003)
[5] Donath J, Boyd D, Public displays of connection (BT Technol. J., 2004)
[6] Scott DM, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2009)
[7] Shih C, The Facebook Era. Tapping online social networks to build better products, reach new audiences and selling more stuff
(Prentice Hall Publication, 2009)
[8] Weber L, Marketing to the Social Web. Second Edition (John Wiley and Sons, 2009)
[9] Dave Evans with Jake McKee, Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement (John Wiley and Sons, 2011)
[10] Chris Treadaway & Mari Smith, Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day, (John Wiley and Sons, 2011)
Websites:
[11] “List of Social network sites” www.wikipedia.com (accessed on Nov. 25,2012)
[12] “Timeline of Facebook”, “Top 10 Users (country) of Facebook”, “Total user of facebook”, “List of mergers and acquisition by
Facebook”, www.facebook.com (accessed on Nov. 25,2012)
[13] Top10 social networking sites of world” www.silverpop.com (accessed on Nov. 26,2012)
[14] “Top 10 most engaged countries for social networking”, ”City wise (major) users of facebook in India”, “Recent Statistics of
facebook” www.statisticbrain.com (accessed on Nov. 26,2012)
[15] “Top 50 countries on facebook (country wise users of facebook in world)” www.socialbakers.com (accessed on Nov. 28,2012)

www.iosrjournals.org 28 | Page