I’ve always liked this quote. I read it directly after looking at Facebook’s growth figures this morning and it was hard not to draw comparisons between Gandhi’s wisdom and Facebook’s development stages.
Co-incidence? Or am I just insanely bored as I’m lying in bed (a bit ill) and have nothing better to think about? Either way, it’s worth a moment to consider…
First They Ignore You - (2004-2006) I refused to join Facebook at first because my friends were throwing sheep at each other (remember that?) and constantly poking their friends. Growth was pretty slow and was mainly young girls.
Then They Laugh at You - (2006-2008) Facebook starts to become THE platform of choice for people to go to when the want to waste some time, have a laugh and see what their friends are up to. When people realised what an amazing platform it was for connecting everyone you knew, growth accelerated and even brands started taking it seriously.
Then They Fight You (2008-2010) : It’s easy to have a go at the popular kid and Facebook’s insane growth became impossible to ignore. Let the back-lash against this scary privacy-invading social monster begin. Brands worried about PR disasters becoming viral too quickly and large advertisers and agencies (threatened by a new way of doing marketing) started to claim that Facebook (and it’s advertising model) wasn’t sustainable.
Then You Win (2010+) IPO with $104 billion valuation. 1 billion users. 50% active. Most log-in daily (usually on a mobile device). Most popular website of all time. Constantly innovating. $1.6 billion in revenue in Q4 of 2012 - mainly due to the explosion of mobile advertising. Who’s ignoring them now…???
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