It is an undeniable fact that
#Facebook is the most popular social network in #Myanmar. Helped by such
popularity, Facebook currently has more than 2 billion monthly active users globally
(that’s one third of world’s population).
Some of you with financial
interests in Facebook may also be aware that its global revenue reached above $10 billion mark in any given quarter for the first time in 3rd
Quarter of 2017 (that’s above $40 billion of annualised revenue). With such
successful advertising revenue, Facebook company value (or market capitalisation)
has also climbed from $104 billion at May 2012 IPO all the way to $527 billion
at the time of this writing.
Along the way, #MarkZuckerberg, young
entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Facebook, has witnessed his personal net worth
rose from a few bucks in the pocket in Harvard dormitory room all the way to
above $73 billion at the time of this writing, regularly ranking him among the
top-five wealthiest person on this planet.
However, there are a few other
facts that some of us might have overlooked regarding how Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg
continue to stay focus on the long-term results through positive customer
experience at the expense of some short-term profits.
Financial Gain is Not the Only Motivation
It is a well-known fact that Mark
Zuckerberg never ever focuses on the profit numbers, valuation of the company,
IPO or other exit strategies of the company to cash out for himself. In 2006,
Facebook was offered $1 billion for acquisition by Yahoo. It was well
documented that some of the early investors and board members wanted to at
least seriously consider the offer. However, Mark Zuckerberg outright rejected the
offer. Instead, he continued to focus on making Facebook better and grow user
base.
He said, “We’re not really
looking to sell the company. We’re not looking to IPO anytime soon. It’s just
not the core focus of the company.”
Focus on User Experience, Even at the Expense of Financial Gains
On 11th January 2018,
Mark Zuckerberg surprised the investors and general financial market by announcing
the new direction for Facebook -- to stay focus on the original goal of
bringing users “closer together with the people that matter” because he felt
that Facebook News Feed had become too “crowded out” by posts from businesses,
brands and media. He wrote, “Since there’s more public content then posts from
your friends and family, the balance of what’s in News Feed has shifted away
from the most important thing Facebook can do – help us connect with each
other.”
It was a noble idea/act, indeed, to
do the right thing. Unfortunately, financial market, with its short-term nature
of focus, did not think that was the smart move financially. Facebook share
prices fell 4% within hours of the announcement, wiping out $23 billion of
Facebook’s market value. Mark Zuckerberg personally lost $3.3 billion from his
own net worth because of this decision.
As an extremely smart person with
a team of top advisors behind him, Mr. Zuckerberg definitely knew the potential
negative financial impact to the company and to his own pocket as the result of
his important decision. However, he was BRAVE
enough to remain focus on providing a better experience to the Facebook users and
build customer loyalty for the long-term, not just to make extra short-term
revenue by pushing more sponsored content for even higher advertising dollars.
Corporate Myanmar: Any Brave Leaders?
#MyanmarStrategy would love to
find out more about such BRAVE and ETHICAL corporate leaders in
#MyanmarMarket who are also ahead of the pack or ahead of the trend, similar to
Mark Zuckerberg. We would greatly
appreciate if readers of this Insight article could kindly share some stories
or examples of such ethical and inspirational Myanmar corporate leaders with us
in the comment section on Facebook and LinkedIn or through a direct email to us
at insights@myanmarstrategy.com
so that we can share such experience with all our esteemed readers through
#MyanmarStrategyInsight articles in near future.
Thank you and we look forward to
hearing from you soon.
Recently published Myanmar Strategy Insights:
>> 18th January 2018: Myanmar Skipped Steps on Development Ladder
>> 8th January 2018: Myanmar Good News: Inflation %
>> 4th January 2018: Myanmar Business Wish List for 2018
>> 2nd January 2018: Myanmar Business Trends: 2018
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