Facebook has announced recent changes to its algorithm, more prominently displaying and promoting real news articles posted by users by exposing more links to articles from media organizations. The move viewed as strategic for a number of reasons: 1) As a competitive response to Twitter and their value in providing a more powerful real-time news feed; 2) Increase in referral traffic to publishers from Facebook, increasing revenue created from these publishers and enticing publishers to post more content on Facebook; 3) Capitalize on commercial opportunities that exist instead of focusing on the individual users.
Implicit in this move is a much larger undertone, however... is it possible that user fatigue is setting in and traffic is no longer driven by personal stories? Facebook was initially set up to allow people to connect with friends and others in their social circles, knowing what they were up to or what they liked/disliked, etc. Users would come to Facebook simply to see the status updates of all of their friends appear in their feeds. Perhaps what Facebook is observing is a slow down in traffic due to the lack of attractive information appearing in news feeds. It may be that people no longer visit Facebook out of habit, as a destination site to fill time, because the constant updating of personal information/activities no longer drives traffic.
Even if the above paragraph is completely wrong, and traffic is still strong because of personal stories, this move still marks a shift away from the core product and value proposition that Facebook started with years ago. It might need to be careful going forward, being mindful not to forget what made it popular in the first place, even if this reason is not sustainable for the future of the business.
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